Welcome to New Hampshire

I have long believed the most precious places on this planet you must ski to see. Okay, okay, you can snowboard many of them too, but I'm still an independent leg action kind of "Type A" woman. . .A for Adventure.

And our New Hampshire Ski Adventure began Monday, March 24, when we landed in Manchester and met Brian Chamberlain from Wildcat Mountain. He drove us up to his neighborhood just outside of the famed Nordic ski mecca of Jackson.

On the 3 hour drive we stopped in Concord, the capitol city, for lunch at the Barley House. The restaurant is right across the street from the gold-domed capital building.

In a short time we were done with the interstate and Brian took us the scenic route, motoring the winding two lanes to Jackson for an overnight at a quaint New England Inn. You enter this town through a covered bridge and the lodging is just as classic. Lucy has owned the Wildcat Inn & Tavern on Main Street for a little over 2 years. The elbow grease is still drying on this century old inn.

Travel light because hauling a heavy duffel is not in the cards if you want a room on the 3rd floor, a hike up two flights of steep narrow stairs. As we followed Lucy up to our room she reminded us, "This is an old inn with hot water radiator heat so if you hear the pipes clanging, it's not a ghost." As soundly as we slept, I did wake up twice to her heating system symphony. You can choose to eat in the tavern or the restaurant. We dined with fellow members of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. We were a rowdy bunch since we haven't seen each other in months but skiers and stories are welcome in this restaurant. In fact, I can tell lots of skiers have had reunions sitting in those high backed Windsor chairs in the barnwood paneled dining room. Every Thursday Lucy offers a free pasta feed for any ski shop and ski area employee. Not bad for a Lifty or a rental shop tech to have a free meal. The Wildcat Inn is also where the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation started on June 23, 1972. I'm not close to my ski history book here, but I believe that to be the Bill Koch era.

Ski history is close to the surface in this section of the White Mountains and I hope to share some of those chapters over the next week as we visit Wildcat, Bretton Woods, Mt. Washington Hotel, the New England Ski Museum and on Friday, hike up to the famed Tuckerman's Ravine.