7 Days and 6 Nights Through New England

[malibubts]

Day 5 - Part 2

Alright, so as I mentioned for the second half of the day we were going to restock, grab some beer and then hit the Kanc. We were looking at spending a couple of days and nights here as it looked like there was a ton to do here.

Firs stop was the covered bridge over the Swift River that you pass pretty close to the start of the highway.


IMG_2573 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

Hanging out under the bridge.

IMG_2494 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

Over the Swift.

IMG_2526 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

The Swift through the bridge.

IMG_2567 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

After the bridge, we hopped back on the Kanc at stopped at Rocky Gorge.


IMG_2577 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2676 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2687 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

We also took the bridge across the Gorge and hiked around the Falls Pond Trail. Pretty simple trail and not too much to look at, but Maya had been in the car all day so far and we had to get her moving a bit.

We kept going and turned onto Bear Notch Road to get in a bit of a scenic drive. Towards the North End of the road is also the Bartlett Experimental Forest, which has a bunch of forest roads cutting through it. So as planned we turned off and took a look.


IMG_2697 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

After driving around a bit, we met back up with Bear Notch Road and headed back to the Kanc. From there we only went around a quarter mile down the road and we were at camp for the night.

We stayed at Jigger Johnson and overall it was a very nice campsite. One gripe though was that the area was entirely covered with pine trees; the needles were falling all over the place and we'd get hit with the occasional sap bomb. Not the worst things in the world, but definitely a bit annoying.

Camp.

IMG_2718 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

Wasn't going to put the Mt. Washington Sticker on the truck, so it had to go somewhere.

IMG_2787 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

And wrapping up the night with a Rockpile IPA, since we had seen it earlier in the day.

IMG_2781 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

That pretty much wraps up Day 5, the next day will be covering some more travels on the Kanc.

 

[Dalko43]

Dude, you forgot to visit Blue Mtn when you drove through the central Adirondacks! That's likely one of the best bang-for-your-buck views you can find in NY.

Kidding aside, nice trip report so far and nice vehicle. How has the 3.0l v6 ecodiesel been treating you?

Also, is your dog being trained for bird hunting? You mentioned field trials earlier in the thread.

 

[malibubts]

Dude, you forgot to visit Blue Mtn when you drove through the central Adirondacks! That's likely one of the best bang-for-your-buck views you can find in NY.

Kidding aside, nice trip report so far and nice vehicle. How has the 3.0l v6 ecodiesel been treating you?

Also, is your dog being trained for bird hunting? You mentioned field trials earlier in the thread.

Yeah we didn't end up having enough time to fit in Blue Mountain. The stop in NY was really more about not having to drive all the way through to the White Mountains. The Adirondacks are close enough for an extended weekend kind of trip and I definitely plan on making it back.

Love the EcoDiesel so far, I've had no issues and just rolled over 47,000 miles on the way home from work. Fuel economy is fantastic; Ive averaged 25 over the life of the truck, can do around 28 on an all highway tank, and came out at like 26 for this trip. My last truck was an '07 GMC 5.3L and I'd be lucky to get 18 on the highway with a tail wind. I'll probably drop a few MPGs when I level and replace the tires, but I also plan on tuning the engine so it may be close to a wash.

Yeah, I'm training her mostly for quail and pheasant, but I plan on mixing some grouse and chukar on occasion. She's just over a year old, so I had her out a bit last year. But those trips weren't much more than getting her out running the field and gun breaking. Don't remember mentioning anything about field trials, I never really got into that whole scene. But really hope to make some good progress this year and I'm pretty excited to see her start working the field.

 

[smlobx]

Nice TR!
Glad you got to drive the auto road to the top of Mt. Washington.
The weather station up there has a Facebook page. They are constantly posting about the wild weather up there...

 

[BigDaveZJ]

Looks like a great trip. My wife and I are looking to do a trip through New England at some point and are always up for ideas, especially when we can incorporate breweries. We did a trip through CA where we hit 18 breweries in 8 days, but it was strictly pavement in a rented motorhome, so not quite ExPo worthy.

Didn't know that OH does special plates for Eagle Scouts either, that's pretty cool.

 

[Dalko43]

Love the EcoDiesel so far, I've had no issues and just rolled over 47,000 miles on the way home from work. Fuel economy is fantastic; Ive averaged 25 over the life of the truck, can do around 28 on an all highway tank, and came out at like 26 for this trip. My last truck was an '07 GMC 5.3L and I'd be lucky to get 18 on the highway with a tail wind. I'll probably drop a few MPGs when I level and replace the tires, but I also plan on tuning the engine so it may be close to a wash.

Yeah, I'm training her mostly for quail and pheasant, but I plan on mixing some grouse and chukar on occasion. She's just over a year old, so I had her out a bit last year. But those trips weren't much more than getting her out running the field and gun breaking. Don't remember mentioning anything about field trials, I never really got into that whole scene. But really hope to make some good progress this year and I'm pretty excited to see her start working the field.

Glad to hear that the Ram ecodiesel has served you well. It's a truck/engine combination that I'm interested in. Those mpg results really speak to the truck's capabilities as an overlanding platform.

I must have misread an earlier comment you made about your dog. Anyways, I didn't mean to sidetrack. I am training up a tracking dog myself and I'm always interested to hear from other people who are training/employing hunting dogs. Good luck with the training.

 

[malibubts]

Glad to hear that the Ram ecodiesel has served you well. It's a truck/engine combination that I'm interested in. Those mpg results really speak to the truck's capabilities as an overlanding platform.

I must have misread an earlier comment you made about your dog. Anyways, I didn't mean to sidetrack. I am training up a tracking dog myself and I'm always interested to hear from other people who are training/employing hunting dogs. Good luck with the training.

Yeah I really have no complaints in the two and a half years I've owned it. If I had to complain about anything, maybe the maintenance. I DIY everything and it's super easy to change the oil, filter, and fuel filter. But the oil filter from the OEM is retail around $60, though you can find it around $30 online. Fuel filter is I think $40 retail and you can find it for like $20. You can use Rotella T6 now, but originally had to use a weird Euro Spec diesel oil. I've heard of folks who don't DIY it paying full retail on the filters and oil, plus labor at the stealership to the tune of $300 or so. You get 10k on the oil and 20k from a fuel filter, and it's a non-issue for me but really the only thing I can think of to complain about. Maybe slower warm up time than a gas engine, but not nearly as bad as a 2500 series diesel. I plug in in the winter and it has stock electric cab heaters so for a diesel it warms up pretty quick.

No worries on the sidetrack. Good luck to you as well! This is my first dog I'm personally training, but my family has done a few. For the most part it seems to come down to some basic obedience and a ton of instinct. Mind you these are honestly mostly family dogs that work the field a dozen or so times a year; I'm sure training a full time working dog is a much different experience. What kind of dog are you training?

 

[real3175]

Great trip report so far! I call the ADK home and truly love this area (not so much NYS politics, however) and VT/NH. I spent part of my teenage years living in Cleveland (attended Beachwood High School) and I am still, unfortunately, a Browns fan. A good weekend trip/hike to an ADK fire tower for you would be to Woodhull Mountain. Its directly north of Utica/Rome and the most western of all the ADK Fire towers. There are several DEC campgrounds relatively close and plenty of primitive spots. As an FYI, most of the ADK DEC campgrounds are still open to the public in the winter and it is free to camp there.

 

[Dalko43]

Yeah I really have no complaints in the two and a half years I've owned it. If I had to complain about anything, maybe the maintenance. I DIY everything and it's super easy to change the oil, filter, and fuel filter. But the oil filter from the OEM is retail around $60, though you can find it around $30 online. Fuel filter is I think $40 retail and you can find it for like $20. You can use Rotella T6 now, but originally had to use a weird Euro Spec diesel oil. I've heard of folks who don't DIY it paying full retail on the filters and oil, plus labor at the stealership to the tune of $300 or so. You get 10k on the oil and 20k from a fuel filter, and it's a non-issue for me but really the only thing I can think of to complain about. Maybe slower warm up time than a gas engine, but not nearly as bad as a 2500 series diesel. I plug in in the winter and it has stock electric cab heaters so for a diesel it warms up pretty quick.

You bring up a good point. I know that diesels might cost a bit more than a gasoline in terms of routine maintenance, but if you go to a dealership for those services, you risk getting overcharged. With some searching online and DIY elbow grease, it seems the maintenance costs for the ecodiesel aren't nearly as horrendous as some people make them out to be.

How has the SCR system been? I've heard that SCR's urea fluid has generally alleviated a lot of the issues that plagued the earlier emissions systems in the Ram trucks. Every now and then I hear someone complain online about how the SCR malfunctions in the cold (urea solution partially freezing) but it's hard to tell if it's really a widespread issue or just restricted to a few people. Cold weather reliability is the one thing that I absolutely need to have in a vehicle. Did a start up of my 4runner after it sat out in the ADK's in -35F weather one winter, unplugged...the engine didn't like it, but it started and got me home.

What kind of dog are you training?

I have a German Shepherd I'm training up for recovering wounded game (mostly deer, but possibly bear as well). There's a permit from the DEC to do this kind of tracking; I only found out about it a year ago. My dog and I are still in the learning phases of it.

 

[malibubts]

Great trip report so far! I call the ADK home and truly love this area (not so much NYS politics, however) and VT/NH. I spent part of my teenage years living in Cleveland (attended Beachwood High School) and I am still, unfortunately, a Browns fan. A good weekend trip/hike to an ADK fire tower for you would be to Woodhull Mountain. Its directly north of Utica/Rome and the most western of all the ADK Fire towers. There are several DEC campgrounds relatively close and plenty of primitive spots. As an FYI, most of the ADK DEC campgrounds are still open to the public in the winter and it is free to camp there.

Appreciate the recommendation, I'll have to put that on the list!

 

[malibubts]

You bring up a good point. I know that diesels might cost a bit more than a gasoline in terms of routine maintenance, but if you go to a dealership for those services, you risk getting overcharged. With some searching online and DIY elbow grease, it seems the maintenance costs for the ecodiesel aren't nearly as horrendous as some people make them out to be.

How has the SCR system been? I've heard that SCR's urea fluid has generally alleviated a lot of the issues that plagued the earlier emissions systems in the Ram trucks. Every now and then I hear someone complain online about how the SCR malfunctions in the cold (urea solution partially freezing) but it's hard to tell if it's really a widespread issue or just restricted to a few people. Cold weather reliability is the one thing that I absolutely need to have in a vehicle. Did a start up of my 4runner after it sat out in the ADK's in -35F weather one winter, unplugged...the engine didn't like it, but it started and got me home.




I have a German Shepherd I'm training up for recovering wounded game (mostly deer, but possibly bear as well). There's a permit from the DEC to do this kind of tracking; I only found out about it a year ago. My dog and I are still in the learning phases of it.

Yeah, for me it's not too much more outlay on the maintiance and worth it with the long intervals and better fuel economy.

I have not had a single issue with the SCR/DEF gear. I've filled the DEF up around every 10k at a truck stop, no biggie there. I do have an Edge Insight to keep an eye out on the regens, but it's not nessecary. I think early on in 14 there were some SCR issues but they were sorted out. Cold hasn't been much of an issue across the board, I plug in to make things easier on the engine but it's not recommended until somewhere in the negatives. Granted I'm going to tune at some point; that'll disable EGR, decrease DEF usage, and have the option for a DPF delete if I have issues down the line.

Good luck on the training! Sounds like you've got a good dog to work through it with.

 

[DetroitDarin]

Thank you so much for all the pics and the story!

 

[daleskill]

Superb Snaps!!

 

[Belltownbikes]

The Route

9_25_Route by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

My wife's family place is right on Brant Lake - on the "back side" from Rt 8. We spend a lot of time up there. Neat area. Incidentially, it was only about 10 years ago that that bridge over the Hudson was upgraded to 2 lanes.

 

[malibubts]

Day 6

We woke up a Jigger Johnson ready to drive around the rest of the Kanc and do some more hiking. Not included on the route below, but I saw some suggestions to check out Crawford Notch Road, which wasn't on the original plan. When I hopped in the truck my DPF was at 68% and the regens want to start up at 65%, so I figured vs starting and stopping for a while on the Kanc we would do a little driving to burn off the soot.

It was mostly just some senic driving, not quite as nice as the Kanc, but was worth the extra detour.

Crawford Notch

IMG_2799 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2973 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

Rest of the Route

9_28_route by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

First thing we did after the drive was hike the Champney Falls Loop trail, which was pretty close to our campground.

On the way up.

IMG_2824 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2842 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

At the Falls.

IMG_2913 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2933 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2904 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

This trail was pretty cool, overall it was a pretty easy hike but did get a little more challenging when you got closer to the falls up top. Definitely a good way to start the day.

We wanted to follow up this hike with doing the Church Ponds Loop real quick, but unfortunately when we got there there was no way to get across the Swift without getting soaked. It looked like someone had tried to make a rock walkway across, but the side close to shore was under about a foot of water. It looked like a decent hike, but not worth being soaked the whole time. So we kept driving along the Kanc and checked out some of the overlooks.

Views Along the Kanc

20170928_152441_HDR by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


20170928_152311 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr


IMG_2983 by ebeiersdorfer, on Flickr

We were originally planning on camping at the Hancock or Big Rock campgrounds, but reviewing some maps I found that there was the Russel Pond campground pretty close to the end of the Kanc that had showers. So that was a pretty easy decision to stay there for the night.

We finished up driving on the Kanc and came into Lincoln, NH with a little extra time in the day. We poked around town for a bit, and then tried to find somewhere interesting on the map to go. The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest seemed to fit the bill so we headed over that way. We only ended up on the roads for maybe 15-20 minutes before turning around and didn't really get any great photos. On the way we saw signs for a public beach there so we decided to head back that way. Unfortunately when we got there there wasn't much of a beach and really no where to just walk around, so we decided to just head to camp.

It was pretty late by time we ended up getting to camp and it was also a cold/damp day so the sun was going down fast. I'll follow-up more on the campground in the next post.