NH Covered Bridge Challenge............ Takes on New England!: The County

The County (#8)

We have tried to visit the County a few times. We have said, "If there's time, we'll go to the County"...more than once. Yesterday, it happened.

We decided that while were at the County we would also visit two New Hampshire attractions that peaked our interest on our last trip to the western part of the state. Ellen wanted to visit the Sheiling Forest. It is a 47 acre park with trails. It also has one of few yellow ladyslippers left in the area, but we didn't see any of those.

This is the entrance to the forest.

Doesn't this look like a trail that Goldilocks would take? Cute stairs into a dark woods....

There is also a tree farm with American Chesnuts.

Next stop was the MacDowell Colony!

This is an artist's colony in Peterborough, NH. I have always wanted to see where Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town.

It is really peaceful.

Bicycles for all the artists!

More information about the MacDowell can be found at their website.

After some further research I learned that there are some other writers who benefited from some time in New Hampshire: James Baldwin, Alice Sebold, Willa Cather, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Franzen, and Alice Walker.

“We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being." -Stage Manager, Our Town

The County (#8)

There is a fire alarm on this bridge--it is safe from arson!

The County is the first bridge with a platform on both sides.

So of course, Ellen had to climb on them!

I climbed up too and found that the County is a very dusty bridge. If you are going to climb on it, then wear your play clothes.

Ellen took one for the team and got very dusty for this behind-the-truss shot.

For the first time we also found a bridge that had a town line marked in the middle of the bridge. Having two towns share a bridge is common, but this is the first one with signs.