Memorial Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. Whether you went somewhere had cookouts or went to a parade, I hope it was enjoyable. DJ, Laurie and myself went up to New Hampshire for the three days. We tried to go Friday afternoon but Route 128 was so busy we stopped in concord,MA and came home. We left again 7 am Saturday morning.Here is an abbreviated trip report. I will leave out details like what kind of oatmeal I had for breakfast in an attempt to keep this somewhat short.

Saturday:

We stayed in the mountains so we arrived at the area we were camping ( free dispersed camping/ no reservations) around 10:30. It took a little while to find a tent site that wasn't occupied. That was our biggest fear with this trip- finding a place to sleep. After we found a campsite ( near a running brook and really flat, we lucked out) we took off again. We drove by some lady slippers and we got out and took some pictures. DJ had spotted them while looking for sites. There were two white ones, that was new to me.

It was cloudy and in some places misty. We decided to hike Cannon Mountain anyway. Part of the trip was to get in some exercise. The trail up Cannon was 2.2 miles and about 2200 vertical feet. It is a short but very steep trail. I let DJ go ahead. Laurie and I took over 2 hours to make it to the top. DJ made it up in 68 minutes( and down in 44). It was cold and windy up top. We went into the cafeteria and rested before we came down. The hike down was wet and slippery. It took as long to get down as go up.

After supper we fished Profile Lake in our waders. I caught 2 tiny brookies and three yellowperch. DJ didn't get any. We went back to the campsite. DJ started a small fire. I ate two marshmallows and was asleep before 9.

Sunday

When we got up Sunday the clouds were still blocking views of the mountains. I was not hiking anymore mountains without the reward of seeing the view. I was surprisingly not sore from Cannon Mountain. We hiked out to Arethusa Falls. Its the tallest waterfall in New Hampshire. Its a little less than an hour hike. It was full of water and very pretty. We got there just in time. Two other groups were at it when we got to the falls. By the time we left 30 minutes later at least 40 people were there. On the hike back we passed at least another 75 to 100. Everyone had the same idea not to hike a mountain in the clouds. We just got an earlier start. After going to the waterfall we ate at the picnic area at the Wiley House.

After lunch we fished Saco Lake. I let DJ use the kayak while I fished in waders. The weather got real strange. The sun came out then it rained then it got cloudy with blue patches. The wind changed direction many times also. I couldn't stay in a spot where the wind was at my back. I managed one brookie about 7 inches. I fished about 2 1/2 hours. Much of that time was spent walking to the calm side of the lake and bringing the camera back to the car when it started to rain. After fishing we went to Lincoln for supper. We got pizza. It was delicious

After supper the sky cleared and the ride through Franconia Notch was awesome. We stopped at the Basin and looked at the mountains of Franconia Ridge. We then fished again until dark. I took the kayak out while DJ fished in waders. I caught a 8 inch brookie. About 10 minutes later I hooked a huge fish. I played it a solid 5 minutes and it popped the hook. I was crushed I was hoping for a chance at a trophy brook trout. I got my chance and lost. I thought I blew my one chance. I caught another brookie about 10 inches long. Unfortunately DJ wasn't getting any from shore. All the fish were out in the middle. I paddled over to see if he wanted the kayak. He said no and I went back to fishing. Good karma must have been on my side. I hooked another big fish. This time after a ten minute fight I landed it. It was about 3 pounds. I did not measure it but I paddled back to DJ who snapped some pics before I let it go. After that DJ used the kayak. I didn't get any more fish. We went back to camp made a fire and then went to bed.

Monday

In the middle of the night we had a huge thunderstorm. It lasted well over an hour. We had one thunder right above us. We all jumped to the roof of our tent! We got up hoping to hike Mount Jackson. I thought the storm would clear the sky and it would be bright blue. Nope, cloudy when we got up. We ate breakfast and decided it looked like it was clearing and hiked anyway. Mount Jackson is another 4000 foot mountain. Its 2.6 miles and about 2300 vertical feet. It was a lot easier than Cannon. The view at the top was awesome. The sky cleared and we had a 360 degree view. We stayed up top until 1 pm. Washington was even out of the clouds. I let DJ go ahead on the way down. If he got down ahead of us ( of course he would) we could fish Saco Lake in the kayak hoping to catch his first trout of the weekend. He beat us down. Despite real windy conditions he did catch a brook trout.

After we put the kayak on the car we went back to our campsite to breakdown camp. The tents were now dry and it was much easier than it would have been in the morning. We stopped in Lincoln where I promised DJ ice cream then we came home.

Useful information

If you've read this far here are some things you might want to know. We went as far north and east as Crawford Notch. The mosquitoes were not bad at all. There were some and I got a couple bites but they were not unbearable. They were worse at night and the bites I got were Sunday night and I didn't use bugspray. We were surprised not to see any hiking through the woods. I didn't use bug dope the entire Jackson hike. Saw two black flies they were not an issue.

Gas was $ 3.99 in Lincoln but only $3.77 in Twin Mountain

Year long NH non-resident license is a whopping $ 53 ( ouch!)

We didn't look for nor see any moose.

All my trout were caught on a size 14 hares ear fished just below the surface.
Most forest and state campgrounds were full over the weekend. If you were to plan a Memorial Day three day next year and you wanted a campground I'd make reservations