New Adventures Await Visitors to the NH Lakes Region

This summer, visitors to the White Mountains and Lakes Region of New Hampshire will have more fun things to do thanks to Gunstock Mountain Resort.  The multifaceted resort is building an adventure ropes course and a Segway™ tour route that will add to the many activities already offered at their recreation area in Gilford, NH.

The Aerial Treetops Adventure course is nearing completion at the new Gunstock Mountain Resort Adventure Park.  It will consist 91 games that include 41 course challenges covering over 1000 feet, 22 ladders, and 12 zip lines totaling almost 1,400 feet in length.  “The ATA course will be the largest high ropes, zip line and adventure course in New England,” says Bill Quigley, Director of Marketing and Sales at Gunstock.  “While many are building fun things to stop traffic, ours is unique as it has been custom designed and built within the natural setting at Gunstock, taking advantage of beauty and topography of the 9 acres it covers.”

The Adventure Park will open on Friday, May 27^th, just in time for Memorial Day weekend.  The demo course and the five levels of adult courses will be ready for the holiday.  The kids’ course is still under construction, and will be finished by mid-summer along with the zip line tours.  “We are all very excited about the work that has been done since March 29^th,” says General Manager Greg Goddard.  “We still have work to complete the entire project by our target of early July, but the Aerial Treetop Adventure course is ready and better than we imagined.”

Also new at Gunstock is a Segway™ tour course, which utilizes the new Segway X2, an off-road version of their personal transportation machines.  Gunstock now has the only authorized Segway off-road tour experience in New England.  The course features some of the resort’s 50 miles of beautiful alpine and cross-country terrain, and guides will offer nature and historical tours of the area in this innovative new adventure.

Get ready for some new excitement this summer, and sign up for a Segway tour or visit the new Aerial Treetops Adventure course.  These adventures are sure to become your next family vacation tradition!  For more information or reservations, call 603-737-4388.

Carrie Reed
The Mill Falls Blogging Team

photo courtesy of Gunstock Mountain Resort

Celebrate Maple Weekend in New Hampshire!

Collecting the sap

It’s spring and the sap is running!  Maple sugaring time in New Hampshire runs from mid-February to mid-April, and this weekend, March 27-28, marks the 15^th year of New Hampshire Maple Weekend.  On Saturday and Sunday, sugar houses across the state will welcome visitors to taste free samples, eat a pancake breakfast, take a horse-drawn ride, help with sap collecting, and enjoy all kinds of entertainment.

At Kulharic Farm in Meredith, NH, Camp Maple will be serving homemade French crepes drizzled with fresh syrup, as well as doughnuts and coffee.  If there is fresh snow, a special treat of maple sugar on snow will be offered.  In nearby Gilford, NH, Bolduc Sugar House and Smith Farm Stand will both be hosting tours of their sap houses with demonstrations and refreshments.

Here are some maple syrup facts:

• It takes 30-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.
• Maple syrup is boiled even further to produce maple cream, maple sugar, and maple candy.
• It takes one gallon of maple syrup to produce eight pounds of maple candy or sugar
• A gallon of maple syrup weighs 11 pounds.
• The sugar content of sap averages 2.5 percent; sugar content of maple syrup is at least 66 percent or more.
• Usually a maple tree is at least 30 years old and 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped.
• As the tree increases in diameter, more taps can be added – up to a maximum of four taps.
• Tapping does no permanent damage and only 10 percent of the sap is collected each year. Many maple trees have been tapped for 150 or more years.
• Each tap will yield an average of 10 gallons of sap per season, producing about one quart of syrup.
• The maple season may last eight to 10 weeks, but sap flow is heaviest for about 10-20 days in the early spring.

Celebrate this New Hampshire tradition by visiting a sugar house in your area, or head up to our neck of the woods for some local flavor!