Some highlights from NH

This was my first Smallmouth at 
Umbagog. The lure is 3" long. 
The fish was not much bigger. Not
the start I was hoping for.

    My Fourth of July getaway was kind of a disaster. I stayed on the NH/ME border from Tuesday June 26-July 2. The plan was for me to go up on Tuesday and secure a campsite. Laurie was coming up Friday night and for us to stay until Tuesday. The weather was so bad we came home early Monday morning.  

   After getting a campsite on Tuesday, I planned on fishing Wed-Friday for Smallmouth and trout. Every day that I was up there it rained. I might have a pleasant morning and then afternoon thunderstorms would roll in. Other days it rained from morning till night. There was not one twenty four hour period without rain. The best two weather days were Friday and Saturday. Though I did wake up Friday morning to rain, it cleared up and was a nice day. Saturday was nice from morning till night. Laurie and I had a good day at Grafton Notch (see post below) but it did rain Saturday night and by Sunday morning our campsite was a quagmire. 

   Other bad things that happened were- my camera broke. It got wet and it no longer works anymore.

  Sunday morning I woke up to water dripping on my face. Overnight our big comfortable tent started leaking. Luckily, I had my backpacking tent but after four days of rain, it was damp and uncomfortable to sleep in Sunday night. My back tire started making a squealing noise Sunday evening. This of course worried me that I'd be spending five hundred dollars to fix it. The good news is, the squealing stopped and I drove home Monday morning very relieved. Lastly, I almost got into a fight with two rednecks who decided to swim with their dogs in the exact spot I was fishing. 

   I tell you all of this because I promise honesty on my blog. This was not a fun vacation. Much of it sucked. While people post on social media the best versions of themselves or their lives, I can not do that with this trip. While I try to live as adventurous a life as I can on my budget and physical abilities, I don't want you to think that my outdoor pursuits always end up in big fish, beautiful views, or paradise. This is one example of a big pile of suck. 

   However, over the course of almost six days there were a few highlight. Even as each pitfall came at us, we tried to make the best of each situation. The two exceptions were the argument with the rednecks which I dwelled on for days that someone could be so rude. The other being the car trouble. I worried I might not make it home, and if I did, I'd piss away most of the rest of my savings. 

Below are some highlights of the trip. They are not in chronological order since they are from three different cameras (mostly my phone, but also my pocket camera and my big lens before it broke). 

   The highlight would have been the moose but I saw it five minutes after my tire started squealing so you can imagine my nerves being two hundred miles from home. Also, my camera was broken by then and the light was low so my little 5x zoom was not cutting the mustard. 

   On Saturday after Grafton Notch we stopped at a church bake sale and bought some goodies. One treat was a homemade Snowball. It was chocolate cake balls rolled in frosting then coated with coconut. Pure deliciousness.

  The fishing wasn't bad. I fished three lakes including Lake Umbagog on Friday. My bast day was Thursday when I caught ten smallies. I caught a few decent fish but no monsters. Some of the fish were pretty small.

A mountain lake with the Presidentials and clouds 
in the background

Aphrodite Fritillary Butterfly at the lake

My best moose photo aka garbage

I was very surprised to catch a largemouth so far
north.

I was hoping to catch a pike so I brought my 
camera on a tripod to capture the moment. No
pike but did practice my skills with my camera's
timer.

Someday I won't look constipated taking a selfie.

Common shiner. 

It doesn't look it, but this Fallfish was about a
foot long. It took a four inch grub with that
tiny mouth .

One of my dream lakes to fish, Lake Umbagog.
I only caught six bass but at least I didn't go home 
skunked.

White Admiral Butterflies were everywhere. They must 
came out of their cocoons all at once. I saw over one hundred.
This was one of four at our campsite.

This snowball bought at a church fair 
was so good it almost made me religious...almost

I caught this beautiful brown not two minutes before my argument
 with the Rednecks who started
swimming right where I hooked this fish

I worked hard to catch any brookies.
This was only one of two I caught.
The other was the same size.