Honeymoon Part 7

Here is the final chapter of our Honeymoon.  Just looking back at our honeymoon pictures now I am already brought back to those two wonderful weeks of laughter, inside jokes, adventures and good food.  I know I can ultimately thank the man that I married for such a wonderful experience.  For I know without him, it wouldn't have been the same. 

Our final destination of the honeymoon was Doublehead Mountain in New Hampshire.  Back when we were planning our honeymoon, we decided we wanted to do some legit camping [aka not being in a hotel].  So I did some research and found this cabin through the National Parks on Doublehead Mountain.  I was under the impression that it was a normal cabin you can stay in at a campsite.  We got up early that morning with the intention of wanting to make it up to the cabin with plenty of sunlight and time to get things set out.  We had about a 5 hour drive from Quebec City to Doublehead Mountain.  We ate some crepes and then set off. 

Some of our events on the drive were: happy to be seeing English again, listening to this song over and over again [thank you Leslie and Josh] as we drove through the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. 

As it starts to get later in the afternoon, we stop at a sporting good store and a little roadside Mexican restaurant for some food.  We still felt good because we had at least two more hours of daylight ahead of us and didn't think we were too far away from the base of the mountain.  However, as we soon left for the mountain, we realized that we didn't have an actual address for the beginning of the trail to get us to the top of the mountain, all we had was a ranger station address.  So after showing up at the ranger station at 6 pm, we started to get worried because we were loosing daylight and kept on passing all of these campsites.  We stopped at a gas station and a friendly old man drew up a map and gave us directions to a place that was another 30 minute drive away.  We drove through another town and turned onto a dirt road that led us through the mountains.  At first, we went past the base of the mountain only to turn around and realize that this remote mountain in the middle of no where was where we were going to stay that night and that this wasn't a little campsite that we were expecting.   At this point it is starting to rain lightly and we have about 30 minutes of light left.  We drive a few miles to a little convenience store where we pick up some food and matches.  It is completely pitch black as we arrive to the base of the trail and it is full on pouring and thundering.  We quickly pack our packs in our car, put on our hiking boots and rain jackets and get ready for our hike up the mountain.  The first part of the hike isn't so bad because the elevation isn't very steep.  However, it picks up quickly and we find ourselves coming across rock formations and steep elevation.  To top it off, we are completely surrounded by woods, with no perspective of where we are on the mountain-- we can only see three feet in front of ourselves and are at complete mercy to the flashlights attached to our waists as we are climbing up this pitch black trail up this remote mountain.  We are both desperately jiggling our keys to warn off any bears or mountain cats that are living in the woods.  About half way up the mountain, I am getting very tired from carrying a 30 lb pack up such a steep trail.  Mike is telling me that we can't stop because we don't know what animals are in the woods.  Before we had left on the trail, Mike told me I went up a million points in my book for going through with this and not being a stereotypical girl and making us stay in a hotel instead.  So I was keeping this in the back of my mind as encouragement as in "my husband thinks I'm awesome, so don't prove him wrong" encouragement.  After about two hours of hiking, a bunch of "maybe we should turn backs" and countless slips, we finally see the cabin in a clearing.  The cabin is at least 80 years old and is raised off the ground.  We check out the cabin and get ready for bed- I lay out our mats and sleeping bags, Mike finds some wood to start a fire.  We finally lay down when we hear tons and tons of mice running right by our heads ever 2 minutes.  I am desperately clinging onto Mike and trying to keep paranoia out of my mind.  Every crack of a branch makes me think of a crazy old man or bear that is just waiting to get us. 

The inside of the cabin.

Our sleeping area.

We wake up the next morning, alive.  We go outside and realize holy crap--we are on TOP of the mountain, not on the side or in the middle- we are on the very top of this mountain.  [Which we later learn is the tallest mountain in the area].  Suddenly, our late night hike was put into perspective.  We found a map and realized we had also taken the longer route up as well.  We laugh to ourselves and say "this is going to be a great story for the kids one day"!

Our clothing line.

The front of the cabin.

The view from our cabin.

We spent the day whittling, taking pictures, drying out our clothes, talking to hikers, exploring, eating, reading, and hammocking.  At one point when I went down a part of the rock formation to try and get a better picture and was faced head on with a copperhead snake.  While we enjoy nature, that was the last straw of deciding whether or not to spend another night.  We ended up driving last into the night, talking, laughing, and enjoying our last hours of our journey.