Trip 6: Twin Mountain

Our friend Sue, and her boyfriend Geoff, own 100+ acres in Twin Mountain, NH.  On the side of their property they have awesome private campsite that abuts Little River. 

Every year we try to get up and camp here at least once or twice and the last few years we have been able to get this trip to coincide with camping with our friends Erin and Kevin, their four daughters, and their dog Ruby.  

For this trip we left home Friday evening, stopped in Nashua for dinner, and arrived in Twin Mountain just before 10pm.  This was our first truly off grid camping trip with the new van.  We were eager to see how our features held up.

The Battery

After a really hot and humid summer last year, we decided to go all in off grid AC.  This meant also tripling the battery capacity as well as adding a second inverter to charge it faster.  We were happy to see that after running the AC from 10pm to 7am, we only used about 20% of the battery.  Furthermore, running a lot of appliances over two days and the ceiling fan fairly often, we only used 38% total before heading home.

The Bug Net

When we asked Nat (7 at the time), what he wanted in a new van, he said "A way to keep the bugs out." We added a full length net that covers the main door and definitely got our use out of it this past weekend.  While we still got a lot of bug bites, it was great to be able to hang out (and sleep) in the van in peace.  

The Awning

One of the other big purchases with the new van was the motorized awning.  Talking with others, we
were told if you are going with an awning, go with a motorized version, otherwise you will never use it. After back to back trips in which it rained, we are definitely getting our money's worth out of the awning as well. 

The Trip

Saturday began early for myself, as I got up at 5am and summited North Twin.  Even with 10 miles and 3200' of climbing and I was able to still get back by 8am.  

After that we stopped by Sue's for fresh eggs, a bit of milk, and wild raspberries before heading to Yaya's to get a couple of things.  We had lunch at the Zealand picnic area before heading back to our campsite and where we waited for our friends. 

The original weather forecast for the trip was rain Saturday morning and clearing up by 4pm.  Unfortunately, the weather had different plans and it poured from roughly 4-8pm. 

Our friends arrived shortly after it started raining and we did our best to try to hide under the tents and awning. 

We had cool and beautiful weather Sunday morning and cooked breakfast right over the fire.  

Our dog Ray, and their dog Ruby, really hit it off and enjoyed some off leash time running up and down the campsite.  

All and all another fun trip and great to catch up with some old friends.