Cruising with the Land Yacht: Finger Lakes, Vermont and New Hamphire

Day 20 7/10 The Finger Lakes are a beautiful area filled with big farms, vineyards, cherry orchards, and 100's of wineries. We drove to Taughannock Falls State Park and hiked the gorge and then rim trail. We were pleased to find out while you are camping in a NY State Park your admission to other NY State Parks is FREE ! It is the dry season so Taughannock Falls were not as impressive as they could be, but still pretty. We were able to walk down the river bed park of the way up the falls. We had a late lunch in Ithaca at Nikki Green's a great Vegan restaurant followed by grocery shopping.

Wayne walking the river bed

Us in front of the falls

Falls from the Rim overlook

Day 21 7/11 We drove over to Watkins Glenn and rode part of the Catherine Valley Trail on our mountain bikes. It was up hill most of the way out, I liked the ride back better. The trail goes through the town of Montour Falls. We missed seeing the falls on the way out but saw them on the way back...not sure how we missed them the first time through. It was a 16.5 mile ride, which on the mountain bikes was enough for me. On the way back to the RV we stopped at two wineries for tasting. The first was JR Dill. They buy local grapes. We bought two bottles of wine. The second was Silver Thread. They grow most of their own grapes but do buy a few from others. We chose to do their wine and chocolate pairing tasting. They were all great pairings but we both especially enjoyed the Curry White Chocolate with Pistachio and Ginger.

Note the falls behind the white house

Chocolate and wine pairings

Day 22 7/12 We again went to Watkins Glen to visit Watkins Glen State Park. We hiked the gorge trail and the south rim trail. Their sign said they had over 800 steps in the park. I think we climbed them all! On the way back to the RV we stopped to pick cherries. At only $2.50 a pound I wish we could have gotten more than two pounds, but we are going into Canada soon and need to eat up all of our fresh produce.

Wayne picking cherries

Day 23 7/13 Today was another travel day. We drove from Sampson State Park to Woodford, Vermont, where we camped at Greenwood Lodge and Campsites. The park is on 120 acres of land with ponds, trees and rolling hills. We took a hike around the park before supper and I took pictures of wildflowers. There was a woodchuck enjoying some grass outside our window while we were having dinner.

Day 24 7/14 Our drive today was from Vermont to White Birches Campground, in Gorham, New Hampshire in the White Mountains.

Day 25 7/15 We have a nice view of Mt Washington however there was so much cloud cover we decided not to go to the top. Today's first stop was the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Lodge at Pinkham Notch. We saw cars from all over the United States. The hikers were there to hike the local White Mountains or more adventurous hikers were doing the Appalachian Trail. Our first hike of the day was a little piece of the Appalachian Trail from AMC to the Lost Pond. The trail was pretty rugged and took much scrambling. I am not even sure that 40 years and 40 pounds ago I could have hiked much of the trail, those are some ambitious people that hike the whole trail. After a picnic lunch we saw the Honeymoon Covered Bridge in Jackson, NH. Our second hike of the day was to see the Glen Ellis Falls. This is a beautiful area in the summer. The lady at the information center said it gets as low as 40 below here in the winter...no thank you.