Day 22, East Coast trip, Oct. 10, 2023 At Weare NH 

This was a day to explore the local area and see how New Hampshire takes care of their land, and they really do, as we found out. Many wildlife areas, and the National Wildlife Refuges are protected areas of local zoning, where only low activity is permitted,.IE: no motorized vehicles, no unauthorized building, and strict rules about hunting and fishing. We found this to be true in two of the areas that we visited today.

The the first target was Lovarens Mill Cedar Swamp.

Barrett's Pond NH

 

But before we start that let me explain a little bit about the history of Weare, NH, where we are situated as NH was settled in the early 1600’s, but only because the settlers we're interested in trading with the British in furs, lumber, and fish. Antagonism against the British gradually set in as they were treating the settlers as they had no rights. I think it would be best to remember that many of the communities in this area were founded before the Revolutionary war and were an integral part of that conflict. Weare is no exception. It is the site of what was called the “Pine Tree Riots” three years before the Revolution started. Many think that was a large contributing factor to the Boston tea party which followed a few years later. Briefly, the British had marked  every White Pine tree (broad axed) for shipment to England to use in shipbuilding, especially masts of ships. (England had cut all their prime trees.) White Pine is valuable in that regard. It seems the colonists did not want to give up those White Pine trees, and it came to a head when the British arrested three men who possessed those White Pine trees in their mill. A mob of about 20 to 30 people accosted one of the loyalists who promoted that policy, and beat him badly. Some of the men we're arrested, but only fined a few pounds because of the sympathy for the patriots. This unrest continued right up until the battles of Concord and Lexington, which involved the New Hampshire militia, who by that time had been very well organized. The road in front of our campground is named after Gen. Stark who commanded the troops at Bunker Hill in Boston. He was from Weare.

Galaria mushroom

Map of the Lovarens Mill and Swamp

A typical stone wall found throughout this area, (200 years old?)

 

Now back to the Mill at Cedar Swamp, as even in later years they were still milling timber in this area. The swamp is located on the North Branch of the Contoocook River and it is a large reservoir for water which flows down the river as seen in these photos. We thought the trail led to a boardwalk that went into the swamp. We walked for half a mile, up and down, on a very poor rocky trail, but never got to, or saw the boardwalk. There were mixed messages on the boards that told about the swamp. Ruth did get some good photos of the river along the way.

North Branch of the Contoocook R.

                                                                                        

The recognition of the stone arch bridges.

The double stone arched bridge. No Mortar!!! (Same  river)

 

The rest of the afternoon and we did what we call “explore” and merely drove until we found a road that led to back into the woods and perhaps to a pond. One road was actually named Pond Road and that led us very scenic road had a large pond (Barrett’s Pond) near the end of it, as it was dead end.

A church (1789) now used for community activities

One of Ruth's many barns she spotted

The trail walk meant walking on "nuts" all the way/

Fallen leaves on a rock by the swift flowing water

 

 

Quick Fire Hydrangea (not wild)

 (North Branch Contoocook River)

Two other stops along the way brought us to a double arch rock bridge that was built many years ago but intriguing because they used stones that were carved by hand and fit the bridge without any mortar. It is a beautiful work of art. (see photo) 

Along the way Ruth took photos of Barns, churches, and scenes that would tell about the habitat of this part of New Hampshire. 

We had an interesting incident yesterday as we dropped the chip from one camera as we were getting out of the car. We have looked two days for it and have not found it. We are down to one chip for three cameras!!!   (Buy one?)

That was it for the day except for supper in which Ruth put together that leftover Pasta with some chicken pieces and made a very nice chicken pasta supper.

 Tomorrow will be more exploring into some of the remote areas of Southern New Hampshire. We hope you can be with us again tomorrow.—Thanks for reading— Jim