Ha! Well, if you are using Reddit from the app on your phone it’s just there on the righthand side of “add a comment” and once you start typing it’s an option directly below the text. No clue what it’s like on a computer browser.

Excellent job rolling out the whataboutism right on cue.

Lol the red jacket is the opposite place I’d suggest if you are looking for cozy & quiet down time. Kids up the wazoo.

I’d look at the Notchland Inn in Hart’s Location. From there you can go splurge on spa treatments (Debony Salon in Jackson, or there’s a foot soak place in North Conway). I’m sure Portsmouth would be lovely if you wanted something more walkable for amenities, though!

You sound like a douchebag.

You definitely don’t need a battery powered jacket, lol.

You do need decent tall boots (I like Bogs or Perfect Storm) and I’m also a huge fan of wool socks (darn tough or smartwool). Montbell makes some amazing down fill winter jackets and the Patagonia Das parka is a solid synthetic.

Blaze orange hat/headband/bandanna if you’re gonna walk in the woods in the fall.

Watch out for ticks in the woods/tall grass.

Mentally prepare yourself for black fly season to begin in the spring.

Get a nice extendable snow scraper to keep your car roof clear.

We don’t “all carry” here to be “safe and free”. That’s ridiculous (and I say that as a person living in a home w/multiple guns). Some of us own guns bc we like to shoot. Some of us own guns bc we like to hunt. Not everyone here is a rabid gun owner who thinks that you need to constantly carry a weapon to be safe.

The only thing NH needs for you to keep it great is to not be a Free Stater. 🙂

My friend was an EMT up near Pittsburg & he said it was bleak, but he was responding to drug overdoses/driving morbidly obese people to Dartmouth. Beautiful hiking/mountains. Great fishing.

I think they were putting in (or already did?) fiber internet in Colebrook. So you could work from home around there, if that was the case (speculation based on vague recollection; you’ll want to do some fact-checking!)

There is a hospital located in Lancaster that provides some job opportunities and I think it’s the second largest town in the county? A lot of the people I knew who worked there commuted from the Milan area. It’s also not a bad commute from Lancaster to Littleton or St. Johnsbury VT. Littleton is great: nice coop grocery, coffee shop, bakery, brewery, all the standard amenities. There is also a branch of an Old Testament cult (Twelve Tribes) and an annual Free State Project festival in Lancaster. Make of that what you will…

I lived in Gorham and felt like I met a lot of friendly people who recognized me as a regular/local. Grocery store is a Walmart but that was fine. We’d go to Bethel, ME for movies & skiing. Paddled the river a lot. There’s a new brewery in Gorham. For jobs, there is also a hospital in that vicinity, hotels around Mt. Washington, the Appalachian Mt Club (mostly lower paying/unsalaried since their home office is Boston), a prison, a community college branch, a few state parks & some ATV & snowmobile businesses. A lot of people up there will drive down to North Conway for groceries, shopping & movie outings.

Coös county has a decent amount of initiatives designed to support/improve the area (tillotson fund, economic dev grants, etc). I felt like it was fairly easy to get to know people who genuinely cared about the community.

I can’t speak to friendliness or political leanings except where I lived (Gorham). Overall, politics was rarely alluded to. My neighbors didn’t hold the same political views as me and they are who I miss most in terms of living there.

I personally wouldn’t want to live in Berlin, high property taxes and bleak looking downtown. I liked being within a reasonable commute of the other places I mentioned that have more amenities (Bethel, Littleton, North Conway) so for that reason while I enjoy outdoor recreation much further north, I have never felt drawn to living in that area. I’d lean towards Randolph in terms of very small population towns, if I had to choose.

People absolutely respond to friendliness/kindness/common sense. The political ranting on here does not accurately reflect daily life. (I know it’s out there, but it’s avoidable.) So please ignore the random assholes here who’ll pop up saying stuff like “we’re full, try VT.”

Wild things unfortunately only does tactical gear these days. I really wish I had stocked up more before they pivoted to that!

Ragged Mountain makes THE BEST heavy duty waterproof totes. They also do quality fleece tights & hoodies. Located in North Conway.

Spandits is in Maine & makes very bright leggings/running tights, headbands & hats geared towards active women.

Molly Mundy has trucker hats with her watercolor illustrations of Mt Washington on them & original art & prints.

Hanna Lucy makes winter hats & headbands. She also has a calendar of her artwork as well as prints. I think she has hats printed with her art, too?

KCMF is a Maine-made furniture line.

Sasha Lennon is a Maine potter.

Erin Flett is a home decor line based out of Maine.

If I can think of more, I’ll update! Also once you get here go visit Portland, Maine for a day trip…. there’s a few really nice shops that stock locally made items.

Well, I certainly wasn’t driving there from MA, but I did commute 25 mi (one way… occasionally 50 mi one way) to Lancaster daily for over a year and I never felt like roads were that bad, but I had AWD and good tires. Can’t speak for the highway conditions, as I wasn’t driving the direction that you’ll be coming from, but I did have to go through Randolph (or on my longer commute days, though the Notch) which always was much colder/getting hammered with worse weather.

If you’re worried, get decent snow tires put on. Worth it for the peace of mind!

Maybe you should move back to MA. I hear they do a MUCH better job plowing there.

There’s one in Tamworth.

It’s so cute when you guys get angry and bust out flatlander as an insult.

I can walk out my door and access trailheads to a 4,000 footer without even driving… have been lucky enough to live in several parts of this state over the years where I could do so… but go off!

Btw it’s a purple state politically… maybe some day you’ll be able to grasp that concept without blaming Massachusetts?

I’m speaking for the down voters, obviously.

Because we are tired of libertarians thinking that they can move here, use tax payer-funded roads, vote to gut public services, and tell everyone that they are libertarian every chance they get.

Thank you, that is really helpful and sounds exactly like what I need to do.

Eh. That’s anecdotal, as is pretty much all of the discourse on this thread.

I find that Mainers often take turns/corners more painfully slowly than any other drivers I have ever encountered, then there are others who speed pretty aggressively, but they also are often perfectly normal drivers… just like you might encounter in any state, including here!

I drove to Saco, Maine last night on windy back roads in pissing rain. Normal driving in both ME & NH by both yours truly and the other drivers… with the exception of one driver who came up behind me fast & probably didn’t like that I was slowing down on curves (just in this one meandering hilly section I’m unfamiliar with). I pulled over. Problem solved for both of us.

I do have one hypothesis that fits your opinion though: New England is FULL of old people. They can drive just fine in the snow as they’ve been doing it their whole life, but can’t see shit at night in the rain. (I’m not that old but am blind as a bat and use contacts… glare at night for me while driving is awful & precipitation makes it way worse.)

We have a shitty propane wall unit and a small wood stove. It’s not the best but we use it as our main source of heat, propane is just on as a back up.

I know shit’s bad right now with all the starvin’ bullshit. And the dust storms. And we runnin’ out of French fries and burrito toppings. But I got a solution…

Leavitt’s entire campaign seemed based on fear mongering and the fact that she had been a Trump lackey. Not too compelling!

That “red wave” you all were talking about got downgraded to a ripple. Historically speaking the incumbent party always loses votes. The fact that Democrats didn’t get trounced speaks volumes about the current Republican Party. Did I really need to explain that to you? This is common knowledge. I think even Fox News might be framing it that way.

Feeling a little triggered by early voting results, eh?

Lol it’s not too interesting. I just don’t like how Presby was angling to put a “luxury hotel” in the alpine zone and then (since that was poorly received) pivoted to proposing sleeper cars in an area they are calling Lizzie’s Station. I believe out of 18 cars 9 will hold up to 70 overnight guests, with fiber optic, bathrooms (yay more alpine sewage), and concession.

A little tea gets spilled here and here.

Currently there are 3-4 trains that go directly to the summit to unload (on the hour, I think) adding to the congestion (thousands of visitors) at the summit . The new plan says that only one car will go back and forth to unload at the summit, the rest will disembark at Lizzie’s Station (with passengers having the option to walk up to the summit or ride). The claim is that this development is a good thing, and will help with congestion.

I’m wondering how many back & forths the one car will do every hour (I assume the same amount as now, but who knows). I like how the chaos is currently solely contained to two ugly parking lots, a viewing deck, and the buildings/sign area. Walk past all that, hop over the tracks, and it’s fairly peaceful. The heavier flow of traffic is always going to Lake of the Clouds because it’s the closest real destination that someone hopping off a train or shuttle can reasonably “hike” to. With this there will be way more of a stream of people on the other side as well.

I’m pro-observatory and I’m all for encouraging people who wouldn’t normally engage with the outdoors to foster a connection to nature. That being said, I know how people use the summit and can predict what this expansion will do… I don’t think encouraging sprawl is beneficial. The dude can park cars at the bottom/create a hotel there… he just knows that’s not as glamorous/profitable.

Regardless of month, anything above tree line has the potential to be unsafe when the temperature lowers. You can become hypothermic even when it’s above 40 degrees if sweating/wet/chilled.

You should be checking the Mt Washington observatory website rather than asking us about snow. 🙂 They do a daily summit condition report and a higher summits weather forecast. I briefly skimmed & it sounds as if any light dusting of snow happening in the mountains early this week will melt Wednesday. Regardless of which summit, before you go check the forecast, ground conditions, wind speed and wind chill. Don’t rely on what you saw earlier in the week & monitor conditions closely.

It is safe to hike higher summits in November when you have a thorough understanding of how to regulate body temperature in the cold (avoid sweating/getting clothing wet, layer and de-layer as needed, pack/eat enough calories, have a solid warm clothing layering system plus spare mittens & socks) and an understanding of what the forecasted conditions are actually like to experience. Meaning, if you haven’t hiked in colder temps a lot yet, try that first in lower elevations. If you haven’t experienced high wind speeds yet, do so in an area where you can easily bail rather than overcommit in a more exposed location. Fingers can stop working very quickly in cold weather. It is definitely safer to gain an understanding of your limits by expanding your experience gradually rather than diving right in.

I can’t tell from your post if you are planning on eventually hiking in the snow/winter more often and are working towards that goal & acquiring more gear, or if you think that you’ve got enough stuff to be safe and are hoping to just tick off this specific adventure once.

If this is a one-off event for you, I hope you’ve tested out your layering system and that you know your limits regarding the cold/wind speed & wind chill. Pack microspikes even though at this time of year traction is often overkill.

The other commenter who suggested doing Jackson gave very sound advice & if I were you, I’d switch my game plan to that.

Lol I spend a lot of time thinking about what I’d do with a lottery win. More like r/copingmechanismsforwhenyouresickofyourjob