10/12–Waterville to Montreal

Up early, breakfast, then hiking. Hiking not so great, a little wet, trails were TRAILS – we only had sneakers and didn’t want to ford the great stream we found…

…so… we headed back to the hotel, parked the car, and just walked the “Pond loop” around the back of the hotel and to the Village Square. Nice little walk for the morning.

We decided we’d hike more in the afternoon as we drove up through the White Mountain National Forest and the Franconia Notch State Park.  Stopping again at Ike Godfrey’s store on the way out of town, we picked up cold cuts for our picnic and headed North.

First we were going to stop off in Lincoln for a craft festival we had read about.  Well, that was a no go!  Fortunately it was so crazy that cars were pulling off onto the shoulder to line up for the exit off the Interstate. When we figured that out, we said “nah”, let’s skip it!  And good thing – when we crossed over the local roads to Lincoln it was bumper to bumper as far as the eye could see.  No sense wasting on our time on that!

Little did we know…..as we headed into the National Forest - OMG – the people! Holiday weekend.  Leaf Peeping prime.  We never even thought about it, but not the right time to come up here for sure!  At the first visitor’s information area we couldn’t even find a parking space –and we’re talking thousands of cars/spaces! People were pulling onto the grass over the curb (or in one minivan’s case – trying to pull over the curb and getting stuck and then blocking the road).  We hightailed out of there!

We somehow lucked out at The Basin and actually found a parking spot. It was a nice little trail around some waterfalls and through the woods. 

20 minutes to stretch our legs and then proceed up the road. It’s still crazy out there!

Every place on this drive was packed, cars are just pulling off the highway and parking on the side of the road, zoo-review!  So we just kept heading north, figuring we’d find a place to picnic – and we finally did – out of that craziness!

We headed straight to Montreal!  Border crossing was a breeze, and a breeze getting into the city too. Great roads, easy to navigate!  We park outside the hotel – this time with a hotel loading zone thank you very much! – and troop up the stairs to reception where we meet Turgay, the owner of the Parc Suites Montreal. Great guy, great hotel.  I get settled in our cute little studio apartment right off the reception area while Turgay took Ed to park the car. Ed almost gives him a heart attack parking it, the way he just whips the car in and out of tight spaces!  20 years in the car business will do that for you!  We  then stowed our gear and hit the street to get our bearings.

We’re up in the Mont Royal area, near McGill college, which is north of the old port and historical part of the city.  So, we walked…all the way down to Notre Dame to explore said old part of the city.  Nice crisp walk to get the kinks out from the drive (yeah, well, it was only a few hours in the car, but still!).  Notre Dame is lovely and the surrounding areas nice as well.

We scoped out some restaurants we thought we’d try tomorrow or the next day, then headed back “up” town to our hotel, stopping on the way for grocery shopping.  We ended up finding some great looking sausages and some fresh veggies, so we figured we’d have those for dinner tonight and just relax a bit. And that is just what we did!  Showered, cooked, hung out and relaxed and got ready for our next day of biking!