Pillsbury State Park — Coasting Toward Blue

Nights #19 and #20 of our summer of social distancing (i.e., van camping) had us at Pillsbury State Park in Washington, New Hampshire, considered “one of the more primitive and lesser known gems,” according to its page on the NH State Parks site. We had been to Pillsbury once before, in our camping life 1.0 (picture a six-person tent for two people, and you’ll get the picture of what we looked like back then) about 15 years ago. Then, we had one of the hike-in sites. We don’t remember much about that trip, but we do remember hauling our stuff from our car to our site and then renting a canoe. That paddle led us to buying our first canoe…which we loved but parted with to make way for kayaks and later, for me, a paddle board. This visit, we opted to take our packrafts with us and explore one of the ponds near our site.

Pillsbury State Park is nestled in Washington, NH, about 48 minutes from Concord, our state capital, an hour from Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city, and just about an hour and half from home for us. Yet, being there, you feel worlds away from the rest of southern/central New Hampshire.

Pillsbury has just 41 sites; 11 of those are remote and accessible either by foot or canoe. The park’s own map/info sheet calls the campground “primitive.” I’d say rustic, but perhaps that’s the same. In other words, you won’t find any modern washrooms or dishwashing stations at this park—just pit toilets. That suits us just fine, as we have our trusty Nemo Equipment Heliopolis pee tent (I know, I know, I keep mentioning this in every post—but seriously, folks, it’s been a camping game-changer). We had site 35 for the weekend; while it had a view of Mill Pond, we could not access the water from our site. In our humble opinion, site #2 is the very best site at this park; it’s set apart and right on Butterfield Pond. We’ve already booked it for a weekend next summer, since you can begin New Hampshire state parks 11 months in advance.

Pillsbury’s sites are spread out, and while some offer incredible privacy (#2 and remote sites, for example), others are clustered together; while they might be waterfront, they also don’t afford great amounts of privacy, quiet, or seclusion. On Friday afternoon, we decided to walk from our site (the furthest site on the far right of the map above, just before the hike-in sites) to the others to scope them out. The walk from our site (#35) to #1/#1A (back near the entrance gate, the dumpster, and near Vickery Pond) was just over a mile—something to keep in mind when booking sites.

Our stretch of fantastic camping weather had a bit of hiccup this weekend, as we spent most of Saturday morning hanging out in the van and reading due to rain/thunderstorms. By noon, however, the skies had cleared, the hammocks were back up, and the packrafts were ready to go…but not before I managed to slam G’s fingers in the van door. I’m still not sure how that happened (and he’s been so great about it, saying that his hand shouldn’t have been there anyway), but as I’m writing this more than three days after “the incident,” I still feel awful. Ugh.

The waterfront sites make for easy and convenient boat launching. While we couldn’t get down to the water from our site, the day use/picnic area was nearby, so we packed up our packrafts Saturday afternoon and walked just a few steps down to that area, inflated the rafts, and launched into Mill Pond. It’s a small pond, and a dam prevented us from accessing May Pond and Butterfield Pond, but we had still had fun paddling for a bit. It’s always great getting out onto the water, and while I much prefer paddleboarding, the portability of the packrafts is pretty tough to beat. We have the 2019 Kokopelli Hornet-Lite models, which weigh less than five pounds each. Rolled up, they measure roughly the size of a full paper towel roll; the company says they roll to 12 x 6, but I’m not sure we’ve ever rolled it quite that well), After just a minute or two using the company’s branded Feather Pump (sold separately) to inflate them, we’re on the water in minutes. The paddles break down into four parts, making for a really compact bundle. Honestly, the PFD is the bulkiest piece! Though on our next trip, I’ll be using my belt-style PFD, which is Coast Guard approved. (Note: New Hampshire law requires that a PFD is either worn or on board for every adult; children under 13 must wear a USCG-approved PFD). And then, once we’re done on the water, we clean off the rafts, deflate with a press of the valve, and roll them back up.

If you’ve been following the blog, you know that we’re a big fan of cooking in our pie irons. This weekend, we again made buffalo chicken pockets in the pie irons, then mixed it up the next night with turkey hot dogs grilled over the fire on skewers. We also threw a small can of baked beans onto the grate and let that warm up a bit. I did make more an effort with dessert, however: blueberry crisp. I pre-mixed the berries with flour and sugar and then pre-mixed the crumb topping separately. I packed the butter and cut it up to place right on top of the mixture. Threw that on top of the grate over the fire, and we had ourselves a fantastic blueberry crisp—and leftovers for night #2.

And what would a camping weekend be without our nightly games of cribbage? Well, again, G kicked my butt, 4-2—winning (stealing?) two of those games on the VERY. LAST. TURN. Ugh.

All in all (minus a smashed finger), another great camping weekend. Up next: Mount Blue State Park in Weld, Maine. Stay tuned!