Great Bear Cabin

Jeremy and I took our first ever overnight away from Ethan last week, in the short 3-day break between semesters for me. Nana and Ethan had a slumber party while Jeremy and I camped out in a rustic cabin owned by the Dartmouth Outing Club. I remember hearing about cabins and woods owned by Dartmouth during my medical school interview and thinking that I would love to explore these outdoorsy gems - but medical school and toddlerhood have taken up my time and then hasn't been much roughing it lately. Until now!

After a most tearful goodbye with Ethan at daycare (he clearly understood that we were going away and this was something very different than usual), we drove about an hour to a little trailhead along the Appalachian Trail at the base of Mount Moosilauke. We snowshoed to Great Bear Cabin, dropped our stuff, ditched the snowshoes because the trail was so well packed and hiked the mountain in the most incredible 50 degree February weather I could have wished for. Clear skies, snow covered trees, steep ascents, quiet. It was lovely.

We slid a fair amount of the way back down on our haunches, for fun and speed (how we wished for sleds!), got back to the cabin at dusk, built a fire, read books, chowed down a dinner that we cooked on the wood-stove, and relished the chance to go to bed whenever we wanted, with no kiddo to worry about. This freedom inspired us to stay up to the late hour of 9 PM! The cumulative fatigue of school and parenting and climbing a mountain clearly caught up with us.

The next morning we lazed, played scrabble, read, ate, and drove home to find a perfectly happy two year old napping peacefully. Happy Valentine's Day to us!