Lincoln, New Hampshire – This year, for our annual weekend in the White Mountains, we landed near Lincoln for snowy hiking, downhill skiing and classic winter escapades. (Read about our previous winter getaways to the Lake Winnipesauke area, North Conway, and last year in Jackson and North Conway again.)
The twins and their friends have the Indie Ski Pass again this year, so we plan our trips around the independent ski resorts that are included in the pass. This year we planned to ski at Waterville Valley. Unfortunately, the twins’ friend broke her arm on their last outing at Pat’s Peak, so she was on the DL. We decided to wait until Sunday to ski, and find some other activities for Saturday that the injured friend could also participate in.
Franconia Flume Gorge
How about a winter hike? We had a great experience last year at Diana’s Baths, which was so beautiful in the ice and snow. Then, while planning for this weekend, I read this SightDoing blog post about winter hikes in Franconia Notch State Park, and I was sold. (Friend’s mom was not excited for her injured daughter to do this, but we prevailed.)
I admit that it was slippery in spots. Nobody in our party had any special winter hiking gear, aside from some good old-fashioned walking sticks that we picked up on the way. I had a few flashbacks to our aborted hike up Mount Watatic several years ago. Fortunately the trail to the Franconia Flume Gorge was mostly flat. And it was so beautiful, replete with frozen waterfalls and snow-covered paths and even a covered bridge. It turned out to be the perfect Saturday-afternoon outing for our winter weekend in the Whites.
Ice Castles
Saturday night we booked tickets to go to Ice Castles, a fairytale playground of ice slides, caverns, and crawl tunnels, plus snow tubing, sleigh rides, and more. It really is quite the magical winter wonderland, with so much potential fun for kids and adults alike.
However, the place is just too damn crowded. So much of the magic is lost when you’re sharing it with hundreds of your closest friends. There’s no sense of discovery (because everything has already been discovered). There’s no wonderment at the lights reflecting off the ice (because you can barely see it). There are no photographs of the ice sculptures or even sliding down the ice slides (because the lines are too long).
The kids, nonetheless, managed to play a giant game of Manhunt in the dark among the ice features. So they had a blast. (I don’t even want to think about how many small children they knocked over while trying to get away from each other.)
I, on the other hand, managed to lose my party – not only the kids but also the adults. So I was on my own. Ingeniously, I ended up in the Polar Pub with a soothing winter warmup. And that wasn’t so bad either.
