Summer Fotoggin' Trip....................Final

Well!....Lets talk trip. Better yet, lets lead up to the trip. A week and a half prior to setting sail, I had to put Mom in the hospital for a severe infection. It was truly a long week and a half as I had to spend most of my time with Mom while trying to shuffle my daily routine let alone packing for my solo adventure. And the guilt I was experiencing.......planning a vacation while Ma was sick. WOW.... That was the toughest part, but I did it......I can truly say I did it. Long story short, Mom went to a sub-acute facility and little Bro Peeps (my nic-name for my baby Brother Chris) was going to take over the show. R-E-L-I-E-F!!!!....Anyhows, Mom is doing well and I went on vacation. Left in the wee morning hours of July 12th.....around 3am. It was an uneventful ride through New York up Interstate 95.........when finally.....sunrise, just outside Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Stopped and grabbed some shots but didn't want to linger to long as the Old Man was calling me. Those of you who know who the Old Man is, can relate. Google him and you might understand what I mean. Anyways, the next few hours have not much to speak of.........eventually made new Hampshire and settled in for the ride on Interstate 93. I must say, NH has this air about it......93 is such a pleasant highway and an absolute pleasure to drive. Once you get up to about Canterbury and beyond, the scenery becomes hypnotic......eyes wandering for a view of a pond with a mountain backdrop or the occasional moose at the side of the road. Next stop.....Lincoln.....the beginning of the Kancamagus Highway. Talk about backdrops!! As I have done, oh so many times in my past ventures up this scenic byway, stopped for a fresh coffee, tanked up the truck, put my Neil Young Harvest cd in the deck, stopped to feed some frogs, and set out for a spectacular morning drive through the White Mountain National Forest. Didn't quite make the entire drive up the Kanc as I detoured through Bear Notch Road (closed in the winter) as a short cut to Dry River where I would spend the first 4 days. Usually get to see some wildlife along this route, but to my disappointment, nada. Hey....did I mention that I have taken a boat-load of pictures so far?.......If not, I have! At the end of Bear Notch Rd is Bartlett, NH.......every now and then a steam train will roll through....unfortunately, now and then didn't happen for me...oh well. 3pm.....roughly 12 hrs later....give or take.....I arrive at Crawford Notch State Park and set up camp at Dry River Campground, the ONLY place you can camp in the park. Very secluded, very quiet, so serene..........very intoxicating to the senses. As an extra added bonus to the start of a wonderful vacation, I get a call from Tracy wanting to know if I "had room at the Inn". Next thing I know, Don, Tracy and her 3 children, Shannon, Jenna, and my new Bud, Matt, arrive at my wilderness homestead and set up camp. What a delightful surprise. I finally got to meet Don. Kinda reminds me of my Uncle Tommy when he was young. The resemblance is uncanny. Sooooooo.....we did camp things....sat around the fire, roasted marshmallows, told stories, got bit by bugs.........got to know each other. That evening, Don had to leave due to work the next morning and Tracy and crew took in the crispness of the NH night and stayed for a ride up to the summit of Mt Washington the following morning.

Mt Washington........what a mountain! I have been to the summit so many times, I've lost count, and each time, a new surprise. At times, the view can be absolutely breath taking and then there are the days you cant see your hand in front of your face. Such was the case Sunday. It was a very dreary, overcast day in the valley......temp was around 70 in the valley. Once in awhile you could catch a glimpse of the summit through the clouds. How bad could it be? The drive up was on. We went in Tracy's' pickup with Tracy driving (white knuckled I assure you) The auto road is very narrow....barely enough for 2 cars to pass let alone the occasional tourist van. On your right are shear drops with nothing to stop you from going over, yet, no one has ever met their demise in this way. About a third of the way up (total trip to the top is 8 miles) we started hitting the clouds and visibility was almost nil. Tracy pushed on (and so did the kids). We made stops here and there to grab a few shots through some cloud openings but that was about it. It took us roughly an hour to make the parking lot at the summit. There was a 20 to 25 degree difference in temperature and winds around 70mph. When I tell you that we could literally not see our hands in front of our faces, I kid you not. Most people would say, "why go up there on a day like that?" And the answer is easy.....to experience all that the mountain has to offer. I've been up there on extremely clear days and I've been up there with winds over 100mph. I've walked in the fresh fallen snow at the peak, drove the auto road in a caravan of 26 Nissan Xterras for a special sunset viewing designed just for us.....(had the mountain all to ourselves) and once built (with the help of some good friends) a memorial to 911 with rocks from all over the country and Canada and it is still in place today.I would absolutely love to be at the summit in peak winter. Anyways....walked around a bit.....shivered.....got wet....shivered some more and decided it was time to descend and Tracy wasn't driving down....no way....her knuckles were still sore from the drive up. I figured it would be gentlemanly of me to offer to drive down since the kids weren't volunteering. Had to pull over a couple of times to let the brakes cool off and eventually we made it and eventually we made it back to the campsite.


Back at base camp, we made typical camping fare....hamburgers and hot dogs on an open fire. The kids were having so much fun, they convinced their Mom to stay one more night. Well.....it turned out to be a rainy miserable night, but we made the best of it and kept a fire burning. And if the rain wasn't bad enough, the air mattress that Tracy and Shannon were sleeping on was loosing air which led them both to sleep in the truck.
The next morning was a typical New England morning dew kinda day. We ate breakfast, (scrambled eggs and sausage), washed up and dressed for a hike up to Arethusa Falls....the largest falls in New Hampshire at 200 feet. It was a moderate hike with some challenging situations, but the scenery on the way up made up for the toughness. Round trip was about 2.5 miles (short and easy in comparison to some of the other trails I encountered) After our tiring adventure and some much needed rehab, we drove to Conway and had an excellent lunch at The Muddy Moose. The waitress thought I was Dad but why go through the whole deal of the story......I just became Dad for the moment and the kids had fun with that especially after our waitress brought me a sippy cup after I spilled my first coke. I think the kids wanted to stay yet another night, but Tracy was feeling it and off they drove into the sunset. I had such a blast with them and made a friend in Matt for sure. From here on in, it would only be me. Would the solitude break me? Would I get lonely? How would I occupy my time? Who would I talk to? These were the issues I would be faced with. Surprisingly, to answer the questions (in order).....No.....No.....found plenty to do....and myself. Stayed in Crawford Notch for the next 2 days and did a massive amount of hiking and took even more boatloads of pictures. Prior to my departure Weds morning, I was speaking to the Ranger and he told me that a bear had been in the campground that night. He thinks it might have been a bruin they have been watching since last summer. Apparently, Baldy, the name given to the bear because of a bald spot on his rump, was labeled aggressive after an incident in the campground where he tried to get into a pop up camper full of kids. All this going on and I was sound asleep. And on I went to my next home in the woods for the next 4 days....Franconia Notch

Franconia Notch, also referred to as "The Notch" is a natural wonder. It's quite easy to take in all of the Notch in 2 days time if done right. Most of it is tourist friendly and is also suited to the handicap. In my opinion, it's very commercial to an extent. Crawford Notch is all wilderness, nature, and free. Franconia Notch, on the other hand, is New Hampshire's bread and butter......pay to see this, pay to do that......but its all worth it.......I'm not complaining and besides, I did get a shot of a bear in the trail head parking lot for Artists Bluff. Went to see the Old Man....(most of you have already Googled him)......It's soooo sad to see that he is not there anymore.........he's been gone 5 years now. I remember a tear falling the day I learned the news. A spectacular monument is planned in his honor and, God willing, I want to be there for the opening. Spent the next few days taking in all the Notch has to offer and even made it up the Great North Woods in search of the elusive moose. I did get a few shots of a young sick bull in Bartlette, I've come to call Bart, just outside Crawford......but that didn't count. I wanted the Moose picture...cut and dry. Just hope the Bart the moose made it.....he was quite sad looking.


Short of it all.....I had a memorable time........took more than a thousand pictures, wore out the soles of my hiking shoes, drove 1400 miles, passed through 7 states and stayed well fed and slept like a rock....(on top of rocks).....mountain air will do that to you. A few nights of rain but nothing to cry about. Sporadic cell phone service, yet managed to stay in touch with my family. Tonite will be the last night in a tent and tomorrow I head to Mt Snow, Vermont for a downhill mountain biking competition that a friend of mine will be participating in. Then.....Home. It's been an awesome 8 days and I really don't want it to end, but I do miss home and my crew....so be it.

My last night...........I don't want to leave. It poured early tonite, but hey, camping is camping and besides, it kept the bugs down. Stood under the hatch of the Xterra after I got back from an exhilarating drive through The Great North Woods. Still no wildlife. Sought shelter under the hatch for about an hour and a half and didn't see it letting up nor did I see myself trying to cook something under a steady rain.....sooooooooo.......went to Gordis' Steak & Fish house in Lincoln. Treated myself to a 16oz steak and a few area home brews. Hey....beats "campfire" broiled meats any day...well.....maybe not....but just the same. Returned to my rain drenched campsite (finally stopped...for now) and built the best fire so far to date in my 8 day venture.......despite the rain. The stars finally started to appear and the beers slowly disappeared. Anyways.....the fire on the mountain is slowly going out and so am I. I will check in but one more time after tonight....so until then...Ciao

Update to last night.............been up since 4am when it started to pour......I mean a deluge.....lightning....thunder...the whole package. Finally stopped around 6am so I took the chance to break my muddy camp and get an early start to Vermont. Packed up, ate, gassed up, input coordinates into GPS (avoiding highways......love driving through the woods) and on the road by 8. I had at least 2 hours out of New Hampshire so I settled in for the ride, cameras on the front seat. I was almost to the Vermont border on 115 (I think) also known as the Sawyer Highway, when I caught something out of the corner of my eye as I rounded a turn. A young bull moose!!!!!! Finally!!!.....I locked up the brakes and came to a stop not more than 200 feet from him. As I got out, he nonchalantly looked up at me and gave me the ideal opportunity to shoot away. I took a dozen shots of which at least 6 were blurry as I couldn't keep the camera still from all my excitement.......BUT.....I got my Moose!!!! I affectionately named him Sawyer. That was the proverbial icing on the cake. Met up with my Friend Jerry and The SnowFire Bike Team at Mt Snow in Vermont and took in a few hours of extreme mountain biking competition........I have a whole new respect for these guys (and girls).......this is some serious stuff........got some great pictures. Anyways...the rest of the day was the final drive home and blah blah blah.......here I am...back in Joisey. Speaking of pictures......As i said....i took a boatload.......I will have pictures posted once I get the chance to go through them all....but for now....I need a shower and a mattress........Its good to be back.



Below is a list of trails and waterfalls I experienced:

Waterfalls, Flumes and Cascades:
Arethusa Falls (Crawford Notch)
.....to include Coliseum Falls and Bemis Brook
Ripley Falls (second tallest falls at 100 feet) (Crawford Notch)
Lower Falls (Kancamagus Highway)
.....to include Rocky Gorge, and Sabbaday Falls
Avalanche Falls (Franconia Notch)
....to include Liberty Gorge Cascade and The Pool
The Basin (Franconia Notch)
......to include The Cascades,Kinsman Falls, and Rocky Glen Falls

.....These were the most impressive.....there are falls all over the White Mountains. I've only listed the more popular ones. Probably found a dozen more along my trek.

Mountains:
Mt Willard 2865ft
Mt Prospect....drive up......found the 1st of 2 Firetowers here...the 2nd at Milan State Park (there are 15 total)
Mt Washington 6288ft (of course) Highest peak east of the Mississippi
Cannon Mountain 4100ft
Mt Field 4340ft
Bald Mountain 2340ft

Trails
Avalon Tr
Mt Willard Tr
Arethusa Falls Tr
Ripley Falls Tr
Bemis Brook Tr
Elephant Head Tr
Owl Head Tr
Artist Bluff Tr
Bald Mountain Tr

(forgive me if I missed a few.......each trail averaged between 1.5 to 3.0 miles one way...some more, some less......some interconnected....all in all, in 8 days I hiked roughly 25 miles)

Photos can be found here
http://www.picturesocial.com/photo/albums/1483478:Album:173955 (copy and paste into your browser)



Now to think about what to do next summer.....................................


Willy