The early morning sun flooded its warmth and light into the cottage bedroom as though to nudge us out of the comfort of sleeping in longer than even we needed to. The day's adventure beckoned. First off, we figured it might represent a fine idea en route to the Franconia Notch to stop at Lincoln; an opportunity to forage briefly in their excellent book shop. The town is neat and tidy, existing primarily as a popular tourist spot with vacation condos for sale or rent for the skiing crowd in winter; a jumping-off point for climbers planning quick access to the nearly mountains in climbing season.

The attractive, expensive new building constructed to enhance the shopping experience of the tourist trade had been full of service and food shops. When we stopped by, as we often had in the past, the gleaming building now held only a few food shops. Gone the barber, the cleaners, the bulk of the cafes, the coffee specialty shops and, of course, the bookshop. We were not the only prospective shoppers for reading material to turn away disappointed. Another older couple like us bemoaned the sad sight of so many closures.

We forged on to the Notch, for our planned Basins expedition. Realizing too late that we'd forgotten Riley's harness. Thank heavens for a stiff breeze that kept the black flies down, but not entirely out. Since it was the week-end, there was a relatively sizeable tourist presence, but not overwhelmingly so. We bypassed the Basin itself where everyone tends to gather, usually going no further.

Close by we were stopped by a burly young man asking if we knew how to access the cascades trail and we directed him and his two older male companions to the very trail we were ourselves embarked on, planning our own uphill clamber for gawking at the series of cascading mountain-fed streams falling over the face of the mountainside making up below, the wherewithal of the Pemigewasset river.

They expressed interest in the trail onward to the alpine lake above, a 2.7-mile trek and therein lay the memorable stories of our own adventures years ago. Asking for recommended climbs, we suggested the nearby-enough duo of Welch-Dickey for starters, Clinton-coll-Eisenhower for a longer challenge, and the thrill of climbing Mount Lafayette to Eagle's Cliff, then going on, on and further still to the summit, stopping at the National Forest's hut for a restorative cup of tea before the final assault to the top.

We offered them Moosilauki, and Little Haystack when they felt vigorously challenged as we had, years earlier with our then-teen-aged children. Taking possession of a White Mountain climbing trail guide would be of inestimable value to them, we recommended. But they'll have to venture a little further than Lincoln to find a venue where they could access one, unfortunately.