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| Russell Pond in the morning |
Laurie and I
planned a trip to New Hampshire to see the foliage. Last year we also went up
this weekend. It was a miserable camping experience with forty degree rain
making life miserable and the viewing limited to the car. For that reason, I
planned on crashing at my cousin Mark’s house in nearby Maine. This year the
weather was perfect. It was in the low 70’s and not a cloud in the sky.
Wednesday we
went up when I got out of work. Because it was so nice, we slept in the tent at
Russell Pond campground. We didn’t arrive until after dark thanks to Route 128
traffic. We set up the tent then went to Lincoln for some pizza and beer (root
beer) Laurie bought me a new tent for my birthday so we tested it out. We slept
with the rainfly off to look at the stars.
When I woke
up Thursday morning I fished Russell Pond for half an hour without any luck.
The foliage was nice so I took some pictures. I wet waded and the water was
cold as was the morning mountain air. I got Laurie up and we packed up quickly
to start our day.
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| One of the Cascades in Waterville |
We drove
down Tripoli Road to Waterville Valley. Laurie saw a bear cross the road.
Sadly, I did not see it. When we got to Waterville, we pulled into the
trailhead for Waterville Cascades. I hiked to these cascades with DJ last month
and wanted Laurie to see them. There is a series of waterfalls one on top of
another only separated by beautiful deep pools. We stopped at each one and
relaxed.
After the
hike we headed to the Kancamangus Highway. We did the tourist thing stopping
and taking pictures at outlooks. We stopped in Conway for groceries. We arrived
at Mark’s house about 5pm. We ate steak tips and caught up until we all went to
bed. Mark and his wife Dotty just bought a 35 foot camper. That is where Laurie
and I slept. It was awesome.
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| Black Pond |
Friday morning
after saying our goodbyes we went back down the Kanc stopping at Lower Falls.
We went to the Ranger Station in Lincoln and hiked out to Black Pond. Black
Pond is the easiest hike I have ever done. It’s just over three miles to the
pond but it is almost completely flat. I fished for trout for a while with the
same luck I had at Russell the day before. I ended up targeting some shiners
which after looking them up turned out to be common shiners, duh.
When we got
back to the car we slowly made our way home. We stopped at the Mountain
Wanderer bookstore. The owner is a guy named Steven D. Smith. He has written
many guidebooks. I popped in to ask him to sign my copy of Ponds in the White
Mountains. I also bought another book. We chatted for a few minutes then were
on our way.
We stopped
at lunch at Canon Mountain and I fished Echo Lake picking up only three small
trout. Laurie walked around with camera in hand taking pictures.
Since we
would have arrived at the Mass border at rush hour, we stopped at a roadside
pond that had a beautiful view. I knew it was a smallmouth lake so I was hoping
it had red breasted sunfish. A species I may have caught hundreds of in my
childhood up in Maine. I never have identified it so I’ve either caught
hundreds or zero. For the last two years I have assumed my count was zero. It
has eluded me every opportunity I have had to fish for them.
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| Red Breasted Sunfish |
On my second
cast today I finally landed a red breasted sunfish. I was walking back to
Laurie so she could get a picture of it. A guy that had just pulled up to take
some pictures of the leaves asked me if I caught anything. I told him a
sunfish. His look on his face was of pity. I could read that he thought I
wasted my time. He didn’t know how excited I was to catch this three inch fish.
Beauty truly was “in the eye of the beholder.” I caught one more right after
that then we headed home.
Animals-
bear (just Laurie), fox, newt, three trout, common shiners, RED BREASTED
SUNFISH
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