1. Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves
The older I get, the more I feel like Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing as he zooms into hyperspace. The world seems to be turning at warp speed: childhood ambles along, young adulthood moves into third gear, then middle age starts to zip by in a turbocharged frenzy.
So I’m trying to slow it down, especially when I’m with my kids.
Some parents rejoice when their children leave home - Yay! Freedom! - but not me. Maybe because I’m single, I feel the loss of my college kid’s presence pretty deeply, even as I’m thrilled with her independence and emerging adulthood. My high school daughter is hardly ever home, between school and dance, and I’m acutely aware that she’ll be leaving in less than three years. Tomorrow. A second. A nano-second …
All this to say that when she accompanied me on my first of sixty adventures, to Lost River Gorge in Woodstock, New Hampshire, spending time with her felt sweet.
We drove up from our home near Boston on a crisp, cool, October day. It took about two hours to get there, and we got to do some leaf-peeping along the way, although we missed peak foliage by a week.
Can you tell how awkward and uncomfortable I am in front of the camera?
Lost River Gorge offered a fun, relatively easy start to my sixty adventures. A mile-long boardwalk loops around the gorge, with about 1,100 steps down and up along the way. For those who prefer not to go into the caves, you can enjoy the scenery from the boardwalk.
Up for adventure, of course, we went into all the caves. They’re not real caves - more like baby caves, for novices, formed by boulders and sporting no stalactites and stalagmites. I was disappointed at first. You squeeze into one of these baby caves, take about five steps and come out the other side.
Further along, though, some present modest challenges, most notably “Lemon Squeezer.” Being petite definitely helped us with tight openings and passages, requiring us to turn sideways to get in and crawl to get through. We also had to climb down into the dark. Although we never gained any sense of being in a real cave, it was fun, but don’t do it if you suffer from claustrophobia!
The gorge is gorgeous, with waterfalls, trees whose exposed roots seemingly grow out of rocks, large potholes carved out of the rock face by water, and expansive views of the White Mountains.
Going in October was the right choice. While we had to wait for other people to get through the openings to the caves so we could have a turn, it wasn’t crowded. It feels like a place that would be overrun with tourists in the summer.
Yup, age caught up with me. My kid thought it was very funny that my knees and ribs ached a bit the next day when her teenaged dancer’s body felt nary a thing.
The verdict? Lost River Gorge is worth visiting if you’re in the area anyway, (Woodstock is a lovely town), but not worth a trip up there on its own.
The best part was doing it with my daughter, getting goofy, laughing, putting the X-wing into neutral for a hot second and savoring the moment.
Lost River Gorge www.lostrivergorge.com
Last day of operation is October 21; opens up again on May 11.
Cost: $21 per person (I got a Groupon, so it cost us $15 each); less for kids; discounts for military
Imitating my daughter shaking out her hair.
