Two more great days in New Hampshire

When I looked at the weather outlook on Tuesday, the weather for my area in MA and RI was northeast wind and rain forecast for five straight days. This sealed the deal that albies would be gone for another year.

However, the weather forecast for the White Mountains in New Hampshire was for clear skies on Thursday and cloudy but not rainy for Friday. So after work on Wednesday evening I made the three hour drive to my happy place.  When I got to the mountains I found a campsite while it was still light. It was chilly though. After I set up camp I was huddled in my sleeping bag watching the stars by 7:30.

The temperature didn't exactly warm up over night. When I finally forced myself out of bed at 7 am,

Left to Right
Monroe, Washington, Boot Spur from
Isolation

it was 39 degrees. However, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I made the hour long drive to the Rocky Branch trailhead for the fourteen mile roundtrip hike up Mt. Isolation. Isolation is just over four thousand feet (4003). It has a great view of the southern Presidentials. The one thing it does not have in its favor, is the trail is long. It is 7.2 miles from car to summit, and obviously, the same distance back. I wanted to be hiking by 7:30, but since I stayed in my bag too long, I started at 8:30. 

Isolation is a rare mountain where you get most of the climbing done in the beginning of the hike. In the first two miles you climb 1700 feet. After that, you can't even notice you are climbing. However, after the initial climb you have to cross the Rocky Branch River five times. The main reason I chose to do this hike this week instead of next year is the drought he have experienced. It made more sense to do these river crossing now then next June and deal with snow melt and high rivers. This was a good call. Every crossing was very easy. 

The other thing that made the hike a little difficult was the constant rock hopping. For miles, the trail is wet and puddles. You have to tediously hop from rock to rock to keep your boots dry. This would be kind of fun except it really goes on for miles slowing you down adding hours to an already long hike.

None the less, I found the hike pretty enjoyable. Because of the rock hopping I did not make good time. Also I crossed the river in a spot that looked like a trail but wasn't. I kept trying to find the trail on the other side. This cost me quite a bit of time. 

When I finally reached the summit, I really only had an hour to hang out. Even still, this only gave me three and a half hours to hike down before dark. The view was awesome. The weather was perfect. There wasn't any wind. There weren't any clouds or humidity. I could see for a hundred miles. The view was absolutely grand. It is almost 360 degrees but the highlight is by far the view of the Presidentials. 

Just as I was packing up and ready to leave a family of grey jays came by begging for a snack. I got some more pictures of them eating out of my hand like they did on Star King. It was getting late so I couldn't hang out with the jays too long. I went down as quickly as I could but only made it down ten minutes before total darkness. Because I was pressed for time, I only took two pictures on the trails. I drove back to camp and huddled in my sleeping bag for the night.

Friday- 

Cherry Pond

I knew after doing fourteen miles I'd be a bit sore. I also knew the forecast called for clouds. So I wasn't doing any four thousand footers. When I woke the sky was red (Red sky in the morning, sailor's take warning" So even though there wasn't any clouds yet, I figured it was going to become overcast throughout the day. 

There is an observation deck at Cherry Pond.
On the right you can see the northern Presidentials

I figured since it was still clear I'd hike out to a pond with a view. I hiked to the Cherry Ponds off of Rt. 115. The area is known as Pondicherry. The trail to Cherry Pond is an extremely flat dirt road. Just perfect for someone sore from a big hike the day before.The area is known for being a good place to go birding.I've never actually birded in New Hampshire so I brought my binoculars. (I had been to Cherry Pond before many years ago). 

I wasn't disappointed. I saw a baby Cedar Waxwing, some wood ducks, confusing fall warblers, and a pied billed grebe (FOY).I took a walk to little Cherry Pond also. There were some more wood ducks on the pond. On my way out I had a Ruffed Grouse walk right in front of me, and I had my camera around my neck.

Ruffed Grouse

After the hike I went to Lincoln. I got a cheat meal and devoured some McDonalds food. I also visited the Mountain Wanderer Bookstore and asked the owner/author/ hiker Steve Smith a bunch of question about future hikes I want to do. Then I went out to another lake.

My next destination was Peaked Hill Pond. It is off of Rt 3 between Exits 29 and 30 on I-93. The trail is 3.4 miles. There is about 550 feet of elevation gain. Almost the whole trail is on a wide dirt road type path. It is almost all uphill to the pond but the footing is smooth and not at all steep. I was there in less than an hour. The pond has a backdrop of a pointy mountain known as Peaked Hill. There were frogs and newts in the water. Since I was a half hour closer to home and I didn't want to hit Boston traffic, I lollygagged on the sitting rocks for almost two hours. It was pure joy.

Peaked Hill and Peaked Hill Pond

The hike back was less than 45 minutes. Then I had a two and a half hour drive home after drive home after a couple fantastic days in the Granite State. The weather once I got into Massachusetts was nasty raw rain. Wish I could have stayed in the woods.

Trail miles exactly 22.0 miles 

Animals seen- a dozen wild turkeys on road sides, frogs, newt, ruffed grouse, grey jays eating out of my hand, heard barred owl, cedar waxwings, many white throated sparrows, red breasted nuthatch, wood ducks, red breasted mergansers, many warblers.

Numbers confirm, a great day on Mt. Wachusetts

When someone says they caught fifty stripers or saw a thousand hawk in a day, it is certainly difficult to believe. I understand that. I as a writer also know how important credibility is. If people do not believe you, then anything you write is a waste of time.

When I said I saw over one thousand hawks in an hour, I understand that is an unbelievable number. As a person on the Massbird email list, I get daily emails from the Hawk Watch. As you can imagine, I was extremely interested to wake up Sunday morning to read the totals from Saturday.

I wasn't surprised to see the total number of Broadwing Hawks for the day was 2281. Of course, I am sure this number is an estimate, but I bet the actual total is very close to that given the skill level of the observers. As you can see, thirteen bald eagles were seen along with many other hawks.

I did not see all of these hawks and eagles. I got to the top of the mountain around 11 am after my drive and hiking up. I only stayed on top for two hours because my sweat soaked shirt was chilling me. Still, what I saw was unbelievable. I saw four groups of over two hundred hawks each. Sometimes it was tough to tell where one group started and another ended because there were so many in the sky. I clearly picked a good time to reach the summit. I'm sure if I stayed longer I would have seen a lot more hawks. The morning count was "slow" so the big numbers came while I was there and after I left.

Another interesting fact; I mentioned in the below that even in migration, you need good conditions and a lot of luck to have a high hawk day. The number of Broadwing Hawks seen on Friday- 10.
Luck is a beautiful thing

Hiking and Hawks

Mt. Wachusett

Contrary to what you probably think, it is tough for me to combine my favorite hobbies. When I go hiking of course I'd like to see animals and birds. However, if I'm going on a long hike an extra two pounds of weight is going to be water and not  binoculars. Obviously, I will still see animals, but when it comes to small birds in brush, I'm going to miss out if I don't bring binoculars.

For the most part, birding is the easiest of my three major hobbies physically (hiking and fishing being the others). Hiking requires actual excursion. Also, if I have a destination like a summit or waterfall, I just want to get there.  Birding is much more methodical. I would rarely break a sweat while birding. To be a good birder requires patience and listening. Both of these things are much easier at a deliberate pace. Rushing through the woods will scare away birds. Your noise will make it harder to hear what is going around around you.

Lastly, when I fish, I concentrate so hard on the next cast and look for signs of fish, I can't look for birds. Again, they are nice to see, but if I'm fishing my main goal is to catch a fish. I don't bring my binoculars while fishing since I have enough to carry.

So today was a real treat for me. I hiked up Mt. Wachusett with the sole intention of being part of the Eastern Mass Hawk Watch. Wachusett is one of the best places in the east to see migrating hawks. Every September thousands of hawks migrate south right by the mountain. So in turn, hundreds of birders go to the mountain to watch the spectacle.

Monadnock to the north

Greylock at least 60 miles west

 The hawks ride thermals on their way south. As the sun's rays heat up the surface of the earth the warmer heated air rises. The hawks can ride this rising air so they use less energy as they migrate. The perfect days to see the most hawks are sunny days in mid-September. The wind is important also. As the hawks travel south they want a wind out of the north (preferably northwest because it is dry). From my limited experience a slight northwest breeze is better for observing than a howling wind.

Osprey

All kinds of hawks and eagles fly over the mountain. Falcons, bald eagles, red tails, and many other species use the thermals. However, the main species is known as Broad Wing Hawk. By far, they outnumber the other hawks combined. Broadwings travel in groups the way fish travel in schools. A group of hawks is called a kettle.

I took the hour plus drive to the mountain. I hiked up to the top. I didn't hike the usual trail from the visitor center. Instead I took a trail from a side road. It was named the Mountain House Trail.  I was hoping it would be devoid of people but I saw a few people on the way up. I assumed the trail would take me an hour to hike. It was much shorted than I expected and was on top in half that.

The top was very busy. There is a road with a large parking lot. There are also many trails from all directions. There were many hawk watchers on the platform of the fire tower. At least ten people were there with scopes and dozens with binoculars.

There were some high clouds in the sky. Even with the clouds, there was very little humidity. I could see for miles. To the southeast was the Boston skyline. To the north was the always amazing Mt. Monadnock. Monadnock is at least twenty five miles away. Believe it or not, to the west we could see Mt. Greylock, which is at least sixty miles away (91 miles driving a fairly straight line). With a spotting scope the tower on Greylock could be seen. The view was awesome.

I picked out a spot and started looking for hawks. It didn't take long. Every minute or so a hawk or two would fly by. Some close, some miles away. Some of these people could identify a hawk miles away just by shape or wingbeats, it was impressive. I contributed to the hawk finding. I have pretty good eyesight so I spotted a few hawks without my binoculars. I'd point out "bird" and others would say what kind.

All those black dots are not spots on my camera lens. They are
hundreds of Broad Wing Hawks. This was just one
small section of the sky 

About 11:30 am, the sunlight that had been hitting the ground all morning must have done its job. No longer were single hawks coming by. Broadwing kettles were soaring by us. These kettles were huge. Believe it or not, I saw kettles of hawks that had hundreds of birds. At least four times in less than an hour did I see different groups that were larger than 200 each! It was unbelievable how many hawks were in the air. They were using the air currents to get extremely high, then using the north tailwaind to go south. I have never in my life seen a mass migration like I did today.

More Broadwings against a bluer sky

In less than ninety minutes I am sure I saw over 1000 hawks. The guy that keeps the final tally of the
count was hoping to reach 1500 for the hour of 12-1 pm! I get emails everyday from the hawk count, so I will be extremely interested tomorrow to see the total numbers. Besides the Broadwings, I saw many other species. They include 3 bald eagles (others were seen but I couldn't find them) and multiple ospreys. The hawk watchers would get disappointed when a raven would show up. I was more than happy to watch a half dozen ravens do acrobatics in the wind. I also saw Coopers, Sharp shinned hawks and a couple merlins.

The meadow/orchard at intersection of High Meadow Trail
and Bicentennial Trail

I stayed on top with the hawk watchers for a couple hours. Unlie most of them, I had to hike down and drive an hour home. since the hike up took less than a half hour, I chose a longer way down. I started back down the Mountain House Trail. I veered right on the Jack Frost Trail until it connected to the High Meadow Trail. I took that to the Bicentennial Trail, which connected back to the Mountain House Trail near my car. This hike was slightly longer. It was scenic. The Jack Frost Trail went through a nice Hemlock Forest. The High Meadow Trail did go through a meadow/orchard.

When I got down I drove to the other side of the mountain. I wanted to see the Balance Rock. I took the Bolton Pond Trail an easy half mile to the rock. It was neat. There is a huge boulder on top of another boulder. I got a picture, headed back to my car and went home.




Useful information-

Balance Rock

 Seeing hundreds of hawks isn't an everyday thing even in migration. Just like fishing you have good and bad days. You need good conditions and luck. For the best hawk viewing you want a wind out of the north (northwest). You want it to be dry and sunny because you want the ground to warm up to produce thermals. Lastly, from my experience, you don't want a thirty mile an hour wind. The best time to see the hawk migration is in mid September. Obviously today is closer to the end of the month but it was great. Birders will still be up there counting birds into October, but there will be a lot less birds.

It was 65 degrees at the bottom. It was much chillier at the top. I bet the wind chill was around fifty degrees. Dress appropriately. I had my raincoat with me and used it as a windbreaker. That said, I got cold and was glad to heat up again as I hiked down.

If you like hawks it is well worth the trip. If you don't want to hike, I believe there is a five dollar fee to use the state park.

All directions to Wachusett and trail maps are on their website

I made the wrong decision

Pectoral Sandpipers

In my last post I discussed whether I should go hiking or birding on my days off this week (Fri and Sat). I also said, the worst case scenario when I went fishing on Wednesday I would be seeing albies way out but not catching any. Well, that is exactly what happened. I went to Narragansett on Wednesday. I caught a few blues. I saw some albies way out, but while I was there none were caught. My friend Dave caught one while I was checking out another spot (catching some bluefish).

On Thursday I bought groceries for New Hampshire. However, at the last minute I decided to stay home and fish instead. My reasons were three fold

1. Dave caught four albies on Thursday and fish were breaking for a quite a while.
2. I haven't seen Laurie in a week because she was visiting her father in South Carolina
3. I could watch the Thursday night Patriots game if I didn't go to New Hampshire.

Happily the Patriots destroyed the Texans. Happily Laurie came over to watch the game and we had fun. Friday, not so much fun

Ruddy Turnstone

I left my house before 6 am. I was in Narragansett very early. I tried multiple spots. I saw some albies very far out at two of them. I casted at each spot for 30 minutes. My goal today was to find fish. By 10:30 I hadn't seen any albies in over two hours. I kept going back to spots multiple times. The problem today was the lack of bait. I never saw any sign of bait around. There wasn't any bait balls, I didn't see any birds working. Other then the few albies way out at daybreak, nothing was feeding.

So at 10:30 I made a decision. I could either keep hoping for albies to show up which was certainly not a sure bet. Or I could take a few hours off from fishing and go birding. So that was what I did. I left Narragansett and drove to Westerly and walked out to Napatree Point. There wasn't a ton of birds but there was enough to make it worth my time. Besides the really common shorebirds I saw Ruddy Turnstones and Pectoral Sandpipers. I basically found the bunch of birds. I sat down, watched them, and took pictures for an hour.   While walking back to my car I spotted some Saltmarsh Sparrows.They were a lifebird for me. By far, the highlight of my day was the birding at Napatree.

Saltmarsh Sparrow

I got back to Narragansett at 2 pm. My friends Dave and Tom got there at about the same time. To make a long enough story a little shorter, I had one hit. Dave had two hits. I stayed fishing all the way until it was getting dark. I had one hit all day. Man, am I glad I went birding for a while. However, I absolutely should have gone to New Hampshire instead!

I obviously don't have any pictures of any fish but got some really good photos of birds and a decent sunset

The Big Decision of the Week

As I write this is is 80 degrees and humid. It is 9 pm and the temperature feels like an  August night. Still, I know that fall weather is right around the corner. Any day now could go from a beautiful seventy five to a chilly 45. I'm still going to be outside during crisp fall weather. However, before that happens I want to do as many of my warm weather activities as I can.

Which leads to this week's dilemma, what to do on my days off this week? My two options are go to the ocean and fish for albies. There is certainly the chance they have left and won't be back again.

The other option is to go hiking in New Hampshire. Assuming the weather is decent, I could hike two more four thousand footers. This would leave me only three more hikes next year to join the 4000 footers club. One of my goals this year was to hike enough mountains to be able to finish them next year. It would be a lot easier to finish them with three hikes instead of five.

I won't go to New Hampshire and hike if twenty two miles if it is going to be rainy. So assuming the weather will be fall like, then the mountains are "a sure bet"

The albies on the other hand are a gamble. They could still be around, they might not be. You may be asking, why gamble on the fish, go enjoy your weekend? The answer, albies are here for such a short amount of time. If I have the opportunity to catch  them I should. I do think about them all year. 

I try to do pluses and minuses for decisions like this. I try to think about best and worst case scenarios. As I said, if its raining, I'm not going to NH. That said, if it rains, there probably won't be any albies either. 

I am going to 'gansett on Tuesday. I have a surfcasters meeting anyway. That day I'll go to the ocean and fish after I get out of work until the meeting. If I somehow walk into a bunch of albies then I'll probably stay home. If I don't see any, I will be extremely interested to know if any are caught on Wednesday.

The worst case scenario would be to go fishing on Tuesday and see just enough breaking way out to keep me interested. That would suck. If I saw some breaking a quarter mile from shore, I'd obviously hope they would come close enough to catch. If they don't I'll wonder if they are moving on or just not near shore that day. 

Decisions, decisions!

Author's note. I understand this is a good problem to have. There are much more serious problems we all face than wonder if I should fish or hike. That said, I'd prefer not to bring my real world problems onto my blog ( like I was robbed last week and my bank doesn't want to give me the money back from my stolen credit card!) so I concentrate on the things that make me most happy. That is why I write about hiking vs fishing, albies, and birding.   

No albies, I'll go birding instead

Not a great picture but the back bird in the
middle is a Caspian Tern

Since the wind turned east Thursday, my dreams of fishing dawn till dusk for albies on my days off were shattered.  I did not have a back up plan because the weather was going to be clear. When I woke up today I decided to get some important errands out of the way in the morning. I was productive and by 11:30 I was free.

I decided if I couldn't go to the ocean to fish, I could go to bird. I haven't been birding much lately. The shorebirds are migrating south from July through September. I enjoy seeing them so at noon I left for a day of birding.

My first stop was Charlestown Breachway. There were very fey birds there. Of the acres of mudflats, there were only a few birds. They were mostly semi-palmated plovers and black bellied plovers. However, I did have one really good find. I found a Caspian Tern. This was a life bird for me.

I gave myself two hours but since there were so few birds I was done in half that time. For once I was ahead of schedule. Next I went to Trustom Pond. There was a reported Pintail Duck there this morning. Pintails are the one fairly common duck I have yet to see in Rhode Island this year. I walked down to Osprey Point with my scope but did not find it.

From there I had a choice, it was almost 4 pm. I could have gone north and tried fishing in Narragansett. I would have been closer to home. Or I could go south to Napatree Point and see if the Marbled Godwit was still there. Marbled Godwits are a large shorebird with a slightly upturned bill. They are fairly rare around here. I have only seen one in my life. Also reported at Napatree were Red Knots. I had never seen one before.

Marbled Godwit to the left
Willet to the right

So I went south. I found a parking spot and made the long walk out. Napatree Point is a long sand spit that sticks out into the ocean in Westerly, RI. Along the way there is a small salt pond that was an outlet to the ocean. There were a lot of birds in this area. I saw fifty American Oystercatchers. Before today I'd seen maybe 10 in my life! There were also many Black Bellied Plovers and gulls. No Godwit.

I kept walking toward the point. I was walking into the sun. My plan was to walk almost to the point and then turn around. This way I'd have the sun at my back and it would be easier to identify birds. After I turned back toward the car I found the Godwit. It was hiding in some tallish grass. It came out and was surrounded by Willets as they wanted to hang out with the cool kid.

After I left the Godwit I came across many other shorebirds including Red Knots.  In the spring these guys are actually red. Like most birds there plumage fades throughout the summer. They turn grey just like every other shorebird. However they are a little bigger and more plump than most shorebirds

The chunky bird in the middle is a Red Knot.
Notice that most shorebirds are grey. It makes identification
extremely difficult for all but the experts which I am
not.

so they were fairly easy to pick out.

All in all I had a fun afternoon. I stuck out with the pintail but had other good species. I saw two lifebirds in the Caspian Tern and Red Knot. I also got other first of the year bird in the Marbled Godwit. I saw tons of other birds most notably all the Oystercatchers and Black Bellied Plovers.

It was fun while it lasted

I had known I'd have Thursday/ Friday off from work this week in September since February. In my opinion, the best time to fish for albies is between September 11-18. I had off Sept 15, 16. Better yet, my days off this week are Thurs/Fri so I could avoid the weekend crowds.

I got up extremely early on Thursday and was fishing by 7:10 am. There were fish breaking all along the Narragansett shoreline. I hooked a fish on my second cast but it came off. I caught a couple in the next hour. At 8:40 all hell broke loose in front of me. Albies were busting bait all over the place for a couple hundred yards for ten minutes. Birds were diving, bait was jumping out of the water, it was wild! I caught two in this time period.

After the fish stopped showing, they were still around and I was catching fish. It was dead calm when I got there. There was a light breeze out of the north. Around 9:30 the wind shifted east. Of course conditions were still calm at first but I could clearly tell the water was getting choppier.

I was still catching. At 12:30 my total for the day was ten hits, fought nine, released eight (one came
off during the fight). Any day when you can catch an albie from shore is a good day. So having fought all those fish made for a great morning!

However, during this time, the east wind was getting stronger and the waves were building. I never got another hit all day. I fished for four more hours.

I'm sure other fish were caught during the calm conditions of the morning. Hazard and Newton Ave were so busy I couldn't park there. By mid-afternoon there was barely a fisherman around. Many guys would come down look at the water for a minute and leave or talk to others doing the same. I didn't just look, I casted and casted. The fish took off in the damn east wind.

This wind is not going to let up for a few days. Will the albies return when the wind turns west? Who knows. I sure hope so. I dream all year of fishing for albies. I got down to the ocean three times for them this week catching 2, 4, 8. I sure hope they come back, if not, I will be crushed, but it was fun while it lasted

More 4000 foot mountains

Before the albies came in, I went back to New Hampshire on my days off last week. I got up there early enough to go for a short hike. I did a quick loop of Ammonoosuc Lake. It was close to dark, but it was a short flat stroll. I was just happy to be in the mountains.

 The next morning I climbed Mt Waumbeck. To get there one has to go over Mt. Star King. There are great views on Star King. Sadly, it was overcast. Most of the view was blocked by the clouds. By far the highlight was this Grey Jay. These guys are not shy and will eat out of your hand

                                                   
                                                     Waumbeck's Summit is wooded, but I climbed it hoping to enjoy Star King.

 Waumbeck is in the northern Whites. After I got down at 1 pm, I drove around the area. I came across this spring and filled up my water bottles

And turned around in the Santa's Village parking lot

I was aggrivated that I climbed a mountain without a view thanks to the clouds. The weather cleared throughout the day. I decided to climb Mt. Avalon in the evening. Although much shorter than Waumbeck, I found it difficult. The view of the Presidentials was amazing though.

The cliff scared mountain is Mt. Webster. This was a great place to admire how rugged it is!

I was almost even with the clouds

There was a very steep pitch with jagged jumbled rocks that slowed me down.

The next day I hiked the Kinsman's. First stop was  Lonesome Lake. North and South Kinsman's in the background.

The cairn on S. Kinsman. The Kinsman's were hard. I knew it was a long hike. Ten miles round trip. I did not expect the steepness climbing from Lonesome Lake to North Kinsman.

There is a great flat ledge on North Kinsman. It was a great view of the Franconias. It was clouding up with rain showers in the afternoon. Lincoln was under the cloud ceiling, but Lafayette a couple hundred feet higher was hidden

White blazes in the mountains are the Appalachian Trail. All other trails are marked by different colors.

                                                   Kinsman Pond

 This is the view from Lonesome Lake of Franconia Ridge. I was there two winters ago.

 This was the view in March 2015. The air temp was about ten degrees. That does not include the wind which was easily blowing at thirty miles an hour.

I had a good couple of days. Both Kinsmans and Waumbeck are four thousand footers. Both Avalalon and Star King are under the catagory of "52 with a view". I only have five more hikes left to join the "Four Thousand Foot Club".

Things I learned- I was glad to find the spring on Rt. 2. It is south of the junction with Rt. 115.

Extra, Extra, Read All About It! (or pretend this is a news program) Albies are here!

We start off the news tonight's broadcast with our top story. The great gamefish known as False
Albacore (Albies) have invaded the Rhode Island shoreline. For those that don't know, albies are a warmwater fish. They come up to southern New England in early fall. They are unpredictable however. Some years to the disappointment to many, they just do not show up. Last year was a big year for them. By all accounts, it was predicted this would be another banner year thanks to the amount of bait around.

For a report lets go to our man in the field- Nick Pacelli

News person " Nick, what can you tell us?"

Nick- "Well, the albies are definitely here. I have seen them popping up all over the place. In multiple spots I have seen them in various numbers."

News person " Have you personally seen any or caught any?

Nick " Yes, I spent this afternoon fishing for them. What a great fish. I caught four of them and had a couple other hits. It was a great afternoon. Besides the ones I caught, I saw many others caught, at least twenty.  I talked to another fisherman that started fishing before me who caught the mind blowing number of nine!"

One of Dave's nine fish today!

News person- How does one catch an albies?

Nick- "Albies are very very difficult to catch. They are extremely fussy. That said, the techniques to catch them are quite simple. Most anglers use metal lures like Deadly Dicks and Kastmaster XL. The guys that seem to catch more fish use a wooden egg as a float and cast out a fly with a three foot mono leader. That is how I caught my fish today. An alternative method if you don't make flies would be to substitute the fly for a Zoom Fluke on a hook.

I made the fly myself. what a great feeling to catch an albie on a fly (and float) that you made yourself"

News person- It seems like the fishing is great in southern Rhode Island right now. We will let you get back to fishing.

Nick- Thanks guys, back to you in the studio

My Letter to the White Mountain National Forest

There are new proposals for passes in the White Mountains. People can comment on them until mid-September. I disagree with many of the changes and wrote a letter to them. To see the proposals click below

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/whitemountain/passes-permits/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5281515

If you feel strongly for or against their proposals, I do not know if your opinion (or mine) will do any good, but it might make you feel better to have your voice heard

Hello, 

I'd like to weigh in on your proposals for changing the fees to the White Mountain National Forest. I respectfully disagree with many of them.

1. I do not understand why you would make the proposed trailheads free? Places like East Pond and Greeley Ponds are tourist meccas. First off, tourists (and not real hikers) should have to pay to hike the same as a dedicated person should who hikes out to the Bonds or Passaconaway. It seems to me that if you are going to charge for trailheads, there should be a fee at all trailheads. The exception  would be picnic areas and waysides. I don't think a family on vacation should have to pay for a day use pass to eat some peanut butter sandwiches for thirty minutes at a Wayside. However, I see you plan on charging for Zealand picnic area use.

2. Although, you use the reason as cutting administrative costs as a reason to eliminate the weekly pass, I feel it is unfair to folks that go up for a week in the summer. I go up to the Whites for a weekend multiple times a year so this does not effect me. However, I have had years where I only got to visit one week for the summer. How can you justify making a family pay for a yearly pass who is only up there from Saturday to Saturday. Please reconsider this option

."Realigning the White Mountain Pass lowers overhead and operating expenses freeing up more funds to support recreation facilities."(copied form your website) This seems wrong to me, as weekly passes are just a piece of paper like any other pass. Having weekly passes, literally costs you nothing. I would understand if you raised the price to ten dollars but to delete them all together really is unfair to a vacationer.

3. Lastly, I admit I go to your national forest as often as I can. I usually sleep ten nights a year in my tent in the mountains. I love it there. That said, your proposed fee hike to thirty dollars will put you at the same price as Yellowstone. It seems a little off to charge the same for a yearly pass as one of the greatest national parks in the world. Just something to think about. That said, I will still pay the annual fee.

My disagreement is really with the first two proposals. If I have to pay to hike Middle Sugarloaf or a real mountain like South Twin, then others should have to pay to hike their trail. On the other hand, if I get to use the mountains for weekends all summer, a struggling family from Manchester shouldn't  have to pay for the same pass as me for a week in the mountains.

Thank you for your time, but please reconsider these proposals. I think a much better way to make some money would be to ticket violators at trailheads without passes and to check on people at the dispersed camping sites on Gale River Road and North Twin Road and make sure they do not stay longer than the allotted time. Some of which I believe were there all summer. Making people pay at the more popular trails as they already do seems to make sense to me. The more popular trails such as East Pond and Sawyer Pond are the ones that require the most maintenance  because of litter and such

Sincerely, 

Nick Pacelli

Laurie and I went back to New Hampshire on my days off from work this week. After a hectic day on Wednesday, we got to the mountains well after dark. So we started having any real fun on Thursday. We had to be home mid-afternoon on Friday because we had concert tickets Friday night.

Our main goal on Thursday was to hike Hedgehog Mountain. While not a big mountain, it was the mountain we turned back on last week because Laurie developed half dollar sized blisters.

Hiking up Hedgehog, our first view was about a mile from the car on a ledge

Although the trees are growing up the view at the summit was quite impressive

Right next door was the huge mass of Passaconaway

Laurie enjoying the view

After we got down, we drove west down the Kanc. We stopped at Sabbaday Falls. Although the stream leading to the falls seemed like a trickle, the falls was still pretty nice

It's about a ten minute walk slightly uphill to the falls

We stopped in Lincoln for some fuel, then took a round about way back to our site in Twin Mountain. Down Rt. 112 past the Lost River is the very pretty Beaver Brook Pond. It is a roadside pond with a picnic table. 

With an hour before dark we tried to think of something to do. I wanted to hike up Artist Point, but Laurie was done hiking for the day. So we went to the Old Man of the Mountain Memorial. I remembered this sign from my childhood

Laurie at the memorial. 

The mountain just doesn't look right without the Old Man's profile 

As if we hadn't done enough, we watched the sunset from a little bridge at Exit 34C. It is a memorial to a New Hampshire governor. The view faced west toward Vermont.

The next day (Friday) we got an early start and drove to Mount Cardigan. Cardigan is in the lakes region not the Whites. It was a long drive. From the highway it was about 45 minutes. It was well worth it. The hike is easy. It is only about 1.5 to the top. There is a firetower and a 360 degree view. I would absolutely recommend this hike to anyone. We took a slightly longer way up the mountain than most people do.  This way we got another view than just the top. Our first viewpoint was at a spot called Rimrock

It was a good spot to have a bag of fruit snacks before pushing to the summit

Laurie on a little footbridge.

It was extremely windy on the summit. I'm glad I brought my raincoat to block the wind

A bay of Lake Winnipesaukee

The firetower on top

The parking lot was quite full when we got down

On our way back to the highway we came across a sign for the Daniel Webster birthplace. It was only a couple miles off our path. We took the detour. His burial site is in Marshfield, MA near an Audubon Sanctuary I go to, so I figured I should check out his birthplace also

The cabin is obviously locked. We looked in the window and saw the cooking area

We had a great couple of days. Although we did a lot of small things, my favorite part was the hiking. I would have been satisfied with the great views from Hedgehog. However, Cardigan is one of the most fun mountains I have ever hiked. It reminded me of Monadnock in so many ways. It has trails from all sides. It is a state park. The top of both mountains is bare granite. On clear days you can see fifty miles or more. It truly was a spectacular hike and a great way to end another chapter of my New Hampshire adventures.