Part of the reason you usually go down to Boston or up to Montreal when crossing from Ontario to Atlantic Canada is that the interstates up in New Hampshire, Vermont and central Maine don't cut west to east.

This put us on secondary highways where we crossed into New Hampshire an hour after leaving Livermore Falls. Reading "New Hampshire - Live Free or Die" on the welcome sign, I turned to the backseat and let the dog know, "Kingsley, you have two choices - it's live free...or die."

We pushed on past winter resorts and outdoorsy towns, soon finding the Mount Washington Auto Road, where we paid toll and received a "This Car Climbed Mount Washington" bumper sticker along with an audio CD about the road's history.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire's highpoint, is an intense mountain that would take a day's worth of hiking if it weren't for the mostly paved auto road and the cog railway.

Now I didn't want to commit to a day of hiking as we could only detour so much here, but I hoped that we could bite off enough of a trail to make this a rewarding visit. Except that today was slipping away and turning our plans into hiking just a short bit of trail near the summit, and then as the day slipped away even further, we had to simply drive to the top.

Recently I attended a work conference near Pittsburgh with a bunch of Americans and hit it off with this dude from Virginia after state highpoints came up, seeing as the Pennsylvania highpoint was within walking distance of our conference hall.

The thing about this Virginia dude was that he had a hard and fast rule that you must hike up to each state highpoint summit. He scoffed at how I caught a ride up Hawaii's Mauna Kea road instead of hiking for 8 hours at elevation. He too had South Dakota's Harney Peak, but he had done a trail twice as long as the shortest trail I picked that day in the Black Hills. And of course, he had hiked one of the intense trails that climbs up Mount Washington & let me know that my drive-to highpoint didn't count, haha.

Whatever buddy, it's still state highpoint #20 for me. I'll come back someday to appease that Virginia guy, but for now we had more important places to be, places that required daylight.

Even if you aren't into highpoints, the Mount Washington Road is worth the price of admission in terms of scenery - especially if you're someone who's never went west and seen roads and scenery like this.

The reason we needed to get off Mount Washington was because we still had backpacking to do before nightfall.

Needing to pick up snacks, water and maybe something for breakfast, we lucked into a Gulf gas station attached to the well-appointed Glen Lodge Corner Store in Bartlett. This was lucky because we just leaving the "elegant resort area" town of Jackson, where it didn't look like we'd be able to get a cheap/quick bite to eat anywhere amongst their sprawling and well-appointed inns.

Arriving at the trailhead, we raced to stuff everything into our packs as the day's shadows grew longer. Sloppily packing, we dived into the woods and up the Doublehead Mountain trail.

The Doublehead Mountain Trail is only 1.8 mi (2.8 km), but considered very steep. At times it felt like climbing stairs as I breathed heavily, especially as Isy told me to go on ahead to photograph the sunset and I then pushed myself as hard as possible to keep moving upward.

Reaching the top, I dropped my stuff against the cabin and went back down the hill to help out with the dog and our other gear. Isy wasn't very far behind though, and at least we didn't miss too crazy of a sunset.

I wasn't sure if we were seeing Mt Washington off in the distance, but it made me think of the fun it was to go from 6288 feet at the summit of New Hampshire, down to 671 feet in Bartlett New Hampshire, then back up to 3053 feet at North Doublehead.

The Doublehead Cabin was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corp.

Anyone can rent Forest Service cabins like this, and for all of $45, we had an 8-bunk, wood-fired cabin all to ourselves.

Not having done too much in New Hampshire previously, I was savouring that this was how we were expanding my experiences in The Granite State.

It ended up being a dark night as we forgot the string lights, leaving us with only the flicker of the fire and a couple of used candles.

This only added to the feeling of isolation and tranquility atop North Doublehead.

In addition to the string lights, Isy forgot her sleeping bag, leaving me to wake up in the middle of the night and discover that her and the dog stole mine, smh.

I thought about how nice it would be to have an inexpensive escape like this nearby. And to also have multiple cabins in all of the nearby state forests so they don't seem to be overbooked and always busy? Some lucky ducks around here.

We needed to keep it moving the next morning, but I still went over to the rock outcrop that provides a view out over the Presidential Range of mountains. Coming back to the cabin, Isy then went and checked out the same view, but returned quickly to ask if I saw the snake.

Somehow I totally missed this Garter Snake, which wasn't exactly small or inconspicuous as it sunned itself. I had no idea if the snake had been there the whole time as I sat and checked out the view.

The hike down obviously went easier without the rush to climb the mountain.

Hilariously, the poor dog still seemed to find it a bit warm.

Tough break for the dog though, as today brought more strenuous hiking!

Crossing into Vermont, we scooted by St Johnsbury and Stowe as we headed to the Mount Mansfield trailhead. I was extremely excited to finally find myself here, as Vermont's highpoint ranks as a difficulty 3, a class I'd never done before as I don't have Connecticut's or Maryland's highpoint either.

Having done difficulty 4 in South Dakota & Minnesota, as well as difficulty 2 in Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana and Michigan, I was looking forward to a hike that's right in that perfect area: not too short that it doesn't feel like much of anything, but not so long that we had to plan a whole morning or afternoon around it.

Unfortunately the dog really didn't like the granite outcrops and sizable boulders. There were points where Isy wasn't too keen on continuing and wanted to send me ahead because of the dog, but I really wanted all of us to get Vermont's highpoint and be able to relax there and not rush back.

It seemed like it was about to be all over as we came to a crevasse that the dog didn't want to jump over at all, until I picked up the 70-lb poodle and stepped across with him in my arms. Then, as we turned to continue up the trail, a man was coming down with a Chihuahua that casually hopped said crevasse.

Our damn dog is softer than a baby's thighs.

Finally reaching the peak of Vermont, these 4.5 kilometers (2.8mi) felt like more of a difficulty 4 because of all the worry about the dog and the extra work, haha. I would be curious to return to Vermont and hike this trail again to see if it still feels substantial the second time.

At least my friend from Virginia has to respect this summit climb, where I also acted like a Sherpa for a standard poodle.

It was funny how many people were out enjoying the peak as a recreation site. I don't know how much I'd want to live in a Vermont ski town, but being able to read atop Mount Mansfield would be alright.

I knew we'd be going right by the Ben & Jerry's factory afterwards, so I saved it as a nice surprise reward for our summit of Mount Mansfield.

Kingsley was quite the hit with all of the children here.

Returning after being sent off to buy ice cream, I couldn't believe his celebrity status as all of the kids wanted to pet him, including a 3-year-old who would run up and then scream at ear-piercing levels whenever he touched him.

It's a good thing Kings is really chill with kids.

Looking back, I'm not sure how we packed everything in the car to be able to camp with Isy's giant tent in Maine, be prepared to bring gear up to Doublehead Cabin last night, plus stop at skateparks with my bike.

Tonight would be much easier as we had an AirBNB in Burlington, Vermont.

I'd never been to Burlington and I was excited that our top floor apartment was right in the heart of the Old North End, just up from downtown. In the end, I came to like Burlington more than I would expect, as it's a handsome, historic town right on Lake Champlain, with lots of food and beverage options.

Isy asked if I would move to Burlington and even though I know how cold it gets up here in the winter, I liked it enough that I'd happily accept a transfer to northern Vermont.

After cleaning ourselves up, we walked the quiet streets where the heat of the day had subsided into a gorgeous, calm evening. Kingsley was startled by some skateboarders going to check out a hubba, but otherwise we were able to find a dog friendly patio at 9 at night, one that overlooked City Hall Square, distant church spires and stone corner turrets. Isy was able to get a raspberry beer only sold in 8 oz. glasses because it was 9%, while we also had good food and relaxed in the night air. God, life was splendid.

The next morning the heat returned with the highest temps of the entire trip. I wasn't going to let this defeat me though, as Burlington has an amazing DIY skatepark & I needed to get in a quick session.

Built on a stretch of failed interstate that was never used, I had the parking lot marked in my GPS and figured the skatepark location would be obvious.

Except that this stretch of interstate was far greater than I imagined.

Leaving Isy & the dog behind, I rode around the jersey barriers at the end of the road and got to cruising, figuring that the skatepark would be just ahead of every curve.

Except the skatepark never came & eventually I met up with an arterial highway and real traffic. I wondered if I missed news of the skatepark's demolition?

Or was the "skatepark" just this embankment? It had been a while since I researched it, so maybe I was remembering something more than was actually on the ground?

So I made a little circle and aired the bank a few times. I was left wishing that we instead went and rode that downtown ledge we saw the skateboarders hitting last night.

Returning to the car, I decided to pop over to the other side of the street and voila! The DIY skatepark was right there under our noses.

With the interstate bisected by jersey barriers for this entire stretch, this location already had a leg up and the locals have only enhanced it. Parts of the jersey barrier are turned into normal quarterpipes, parts are closer to sharp street transitions & parts are simply bank to ledges.

No one was here but Isy, myself and the dog, so I had the place to myself and was starting to put some lines together. I was really jealous of what Burlington has here, but happy for the opportunity to enjoy it this morning.

Except as we just started to try and film something, one of those Mercedes-Benz, extended, 15-person Sprinter vans pulled up and scooter and skateboard kids flowed out like clowns out of a clown car. Apparently it was skate camp day at the local DIY?

The kids strangely left me alone, but Kingsley was losing his mind as dogs and skateboards don't mix.

Unfortunately we had to get going.

We were just about ready to head into southern Quebec, but I wanted to grab some booze since we'd been in the States for nearly 48 hours now. I stopped in Rouses Point, New York after not caring for the selection in Swanton, Vermont, but actually left RP Liquor and Wine without product, just to find a good store out by the highway.

My dumbass would later learn that there's a cool abandoned fort in Rouses Point, so maybe I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings than to where I can pick up a case of cheap Busch.

Heading north to the highway west to Gatineau, Isy let me know that we needed to stop for poutine now that we were in Quebec.

Yeah, that would definitely work.

After the poutine, I subjected myself to Montreal traffic because I was too dumb to go south around the city, but eventually I dropped Isy and the dog off in Gatineau and received a 5-star rating for my new Gatineau Car Service.

The next day I was free to go wherever I wanted, as the world was my oyster with only having to cover the 16 hours back to the Newfoundland ferry sometime within the next 5 days.

More to come.