There is something quite satisfying about catching up with old friends on a road trip, which is exactly what I did last June on my drive from Chicago to Boston to Quebec City and back.
About two hours northwest of Beantown is the lovely New Hampshire hamlet of Plymouth, population 6,752 (2017). This quaint New England town, incorporated in 1763, is home to Plymouth State University, where my friends have a son on the football team. It’s also where they bought the Frontenac Ski Lodge, a former ski camp that dates back to about 1935.
There’s no skiing here anymore, but if you have a large group (up to 28) and don’t mind affordable “rustic” comfort (four doubles and nine singles in five bedrooms on the first floor; two dorm-style bunk rooms with nine singles, one double, on the second), then this is the perfect place for your weekend wedding, reunion, bachelor party or work retreat.
The best things about re-connecting with friends in unfamiliar places are: 1) It’s free; and, 2) They know stuff – really cool stuff. Like, in Plymouth, there was a sporting goods company called Draper & Maynard, which in the 1920s made baseball gloves, mits and bats for up to 90 percent of the pros, including Babe Ruth, who had visited the business in 1916 after helping the Boston Red Sox win the World Series. The Draper & Maynard collection, which includes a photo of The Babe stitching a baseball, is on display at Plymouth State University.
From Plymouth, the Lake Region Conservatory Trust manages miles of trails, many with waterfalls. You can also tube down the Pemi River. We opted for a drive past Holderness to hike from the Armstrong Natural Area to Rattlesnake Mountain and a scenic overlook of Squam Lake, where they filmed On Golden Pond. The scenery is totally New England summer camp, and I could imagine a Camp North Star (Meatballs) or Camp Crystal Lake (Friday the 13th) around every bend.
Did you know that New Hampshire has 48 peaks over 4,000 feet, while Vermont only has five? Hiking is so popular around here that the authorities have to rope off miles of highway shoulder in the summer when the trailhead parking lots overflow. Other fascinating facts near Plymouth include:
- Sugar Hill was the home to the first U.S. ski school (1929), which may have had an influence on world champion alpine ski racer Bode Miller, who grew up in nearby Easton and Franconia. Most importantly, Sugar Hill also is where we had brunch at Polly’s Pancake Parlor, which has been filling folk with calories since 1938.
- Franconia also is home to The Frost Place, a museum in the former homestead of poet Robert Frost, as well as the Garnett Hill mail order company. Franconia Notch was the location of the Old Man of the Mountain epic rock formation, which came crashing down in 2003.
- For a good little freak show for the kiddies, you also can stop by Lincoln, where Clark’s Bears have entertained (humanely, I’m sure) the masses since 1928. Hopefully, it’s not the same bear. Here, you also can hop aboard the White Mountain Central Railroad for a 2.5-mile, 25-minute ride, which culminates with a horrifying attack from “The Wolfman.”
Another fun fact about New Hampshire, according to local inhabitants, is that there are several towns with “foreign” names that are pronounced differently than their counterparts, due to the anti-German et al sentiment during the World Wars. So, Berlin becomes BURR-lin and Tripoli goes by Trip-o-LIE and Lebanon is pronounced LEB–uh-nin.
This all makes perfect sense in a place where the New England state demonyms include Massholes and Vermonsters, New Hampshits, Mainiacs and (gulp) Connecticunts.
It’s enough to make you want to drive to Quebec City! Which after a hug and a kiss, is exactly what I did.
