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Robert Leach's depression era travel diary recording summer trips with friends and family in the 1930s, primarily to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire and various places in Maine, approximately 140 pp., and over 18,000 words in ink, plus a few pieces of memorabilia laid down or tucked into the pages of a composition-style notebook, 9 1/2 x 7 in. Some aberrations in spelling, but all in a legible hand. A detailed and informative account of his travels. The first two years Leach vacationed with his friends Gordon and Kenith, then for the next two with just Gordon, on motoring, hiking and camping trips to the White Mountains, including rambles up Mt. Washington each time. One year Walter Belcher and Arthur Gorson joined the excursions. A careful record is kept of each trip, listing the places visited, where they stayed, what they ate, and the cost of the trips. One expedition into Canada mentions that they hid a rifle in between the mattresses piled on top of the car when they came to customs. The trips were usually taken in mid-July or mid-August and lasted for approximately 5-7 days. Over the course of his narrative, Leach describes viewing the Old Man Of The Mountain on Cannon Mountain near Franconia, NH; driving into a field and pitching their tent and then walking up to the farm house to get warm milk from the farmer, at the cost of 50 cents; dropping fishing lines in many places along the Androscoggin River, and its tributaries, and the Game Warden coming to join them, but not really caring if they had a fishing license as he was too drunk; stopping at cabins in mid July without a reservation and getting a double cabin "with flushing," and the girl from the restaurant across the street coming to tell them when dinner was ready (pot roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, corn and desert) at 50 cents each. Each year, Leach and his friends returned to hike up Mt. Washington. Handwritten entries include: "July 15, 1930. Gordon and Kenith came to the house after me, at about ten oclock. The car was all packed, I piled my things in, and we started.We had a flat tire between Derry and Manchester, the same one blew agin in the center of Manchester.We stoped and saw Profile Falls. It was getting late when we got to Newfound Lake, so we took a dirt road to the left around the lake.We unloaded our things and started to put the tent up but desided that there was to many people camped around and to noisey.so we packed up and went on about three miles." Later he writes that we "stoped" at the Flume, there is a bus that will take you in for 25 cents. "We walked in". They next saw Profile Rock, then went on to Franconia Notch and then Base Station for the walk up the cog railway trail at Mt. Washington. A few days later they got into a ball game with some French Canadians. On the way home, they saw paper mills at Rumford and large piles of logs around them waiting to be made into paper. Total cost of the trip was $21. The next year, in July 1931, they returned to Mt. Washington: "We hike for 5 hours up and then had to add our 3 hours time going down." He mentions the stone house about a mile and a half from the top where men were employed by the Appalachian Mountain Club to stay year round and assist climbers and care for anyone who needed help on the mountain. They met a New Jersey fireman and his wife making the hike: "He was a NJ fireman and not very good in the woods." The going was often rough and they all helped the woman make the summit. "We saw the Lake of the Clouds which is really two small ponds side by side, this is where the Amernosuc [sic] River starts down, and is fed by springs all the way down." At the top of the mountain they mailed some postcards and put their names in the book. From there they visited Breton Woods, Crawford Notch, Silver Cascade, a public camp in Crawford Notch, across the street from Willey Cabins, Berlin to Andrewscoggin River to Errol, 30 miles from Canadian Border, and on to Andover, Wentworth, Willsons Mil.
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