Jim, Roli and I have a few favorite places that we like to go to on the weekends for a short hike and a swim in the warm weather.

One of these is off the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountain National Forest. It is a beautiful, winding stretch of road with many different trails.

Last weekend, when we headed for our usual location, we found it was already occupied by a group of people. It was a little disappointing, but we shrugged it off. “Oh well”, we said, “we’ll just have to find ourselves another spot.”

Jim and Roli led the way and found a little clearing through the trees and down a small ledge to a beautiful sandy area along the river. It worked out perfectly. There was a fairly deep swimming hole where we could cool off and some nice big rocks to climb and sit upon. There were cascading miniature waterfalls that drowned out any sounds of other people upriver and created swirling, relaxing whirlpools.

When have you been forced to try something new that turned out better than expected?