Wondering What Comes Next

Sitting here watching the snow fall, starting to preplan some adventures for the year. My motivation to share has suffered heavily, social media participation has been at a stand still and interactions with people other than through work have been mostly nonexistent. There are many things I have been missing over the past year. And although I did get in two trips since that virus thing shut us down, I still feel unfulfilled. I am incredibly thankful I have not stopped working, but my photo side has been waning and in need of a rejuvenation of sorts. I miss that one on one interaction of having people in the studio. I was lucky enough to get a few outdoor dance weekends in and that helped tremendously but in the end, that is still work.

Enough Debby Downer stuff. As much as the family dislikes joining me on most of my adventures they will never deny a beach trip so this time it will be to a couple of warmer locations than New England. Though, since I will be an hour away from Cape Cod in April, I have looked into a two day jaunt there, setting Falmouth as a home base, after one of my dance weekends. Purely for sunrises and sunsets and maybe a trip to the point to climb the lighthouse. Did that with a few high school buddies back in the 80’s. We ran up 230 or so stairs. Do not think I will be running up any stairs now. A brisk walk will do.

Back in October 2020 I went up to Maine and New Hampshire for a little leaf peeping and waterfall hunting. Travel was not restricted as these were considered safe states for me to visit. Dine in options were still banned, just take out, so I made sure to bring some grub with me to make it easier. Mostly healthy, high calorie snacks and freeze dried dinners. By the last day I still had some food leftover so I gave a few items to a through hiker who was taking a day off from the trail. Think I made his day. I ended up staying 2 days in each location, tack on a travel day on either side and it turned out for a 6 day respite.

Acadia was the first stop, no rain this time, so I was able to find some color. It was weird though. Some of the same types of trees had not changed, some were peaking and some were ending. Many of them had a very dull sheen to them which some of the locals attributed to the lack of rain over the summer.

A stop/photo that is all over the place is Jordan Pond, I avoided getting my own shot last time I was here, but this time the day was too nice to pass it up. Since it so popular I had to convert it to black and white and then invert it to get this spacey look to it.

I did hit up the Ocean Path. Love this walk. It is 4 + miles one way, but it is flat and I like flat. Of course I had to detour up in the middle of it. Nice change, but nothing photographically pleasing for me.

After the day ended I went for some dinner to prep for the darkness and a return to Sand Beach. Something I have never attempted, nor even seen enough to identify is the Milky Way. Holy Crap. I wish I knew what the heck I was doing, even when you study how to, once you are actually shooting it and you are in total awe of what you are seeing most of that info just goes right out of your head. Staring me right in the face it was. Clear as faucet water and I totally boffed the foreground. Now that we have been introduced can’t wait for the next chance.

Transitioning over to New Hampshire and the White Mountains. I had some unfinished business with Mount Washington. It was closed when I was there in May, way too early in the season. Well it seems that the second week in October in a bit too late in the season. So it remains a bucket list item. The top of the mountain was covered in snow from a recent storm. A week earlier and it would have been clear. They cleaned it up enough to open the road up to the 4200′ lot, so after waiting an hour or so at the bottom for them to finish cleaning, up we went. It was still very cool, but I really want to go and take in the view from the top.

I believe this is the backside of the mountain. You can just make out the tower at the peak from town.

One other spot that was closed in the spring was Bear Notch Road. This I was able to take in. Some very pretty views.

I grabbed a sunset off the Kancamagus Highway which was well worth it. Hung around a bit a attempted to get another shot of the Milky Way but light pollution and cloud cover interrupted that idea.

My most adventurous hike of the week was to Arethusa Falls and Bemis Brook Trails. Had a great time traversing obstacles and climbing hills on this one.

It has been a while so this has been very therapeutic for me. Thank you for making it this far. Stay Safe, Stay Well, See ya on the next one.

Phil