Transitions: Parts of Two Weeks in the North Country 9/3-13/12

Prologue:

tran-si-tion [tran-zish-uhn, -sish-] noun
1. movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change: the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

The past year has brought us several transitions. The biggest of these has been accepting the slow change in energy and endurance of our beloved dog, Emma. She has just passed the thirteen year mark on her life journey and although she is still willing we have slowed our own hiking pace to match hers, just as we had increased it to match her when she was younger. An injury earlier this year which required surgery to correct put a damper on things, but she has since recovered excellently and is once again strong on the trail. We are very grateful for this, but we have toned down our hikes somewhat. Fair is fair!

One of the things we have done during this transition is to take up kayaking. After years of sharing a canoe a little separation was needed! This has worked to keep us in the outdoors we love and to also get some exercise as well as visit new and beautiful places. Besides our backpacking tent we have picked up a larger car camping tent so that we can venture further from home without having to pull our 1000 lb camper on the long journeys. This saves on gas when it is priced so ridiculously.

Our first trip in the new tent went well. I will spare you the entire dialogue which can be read by clicking on the links. I'll just let the pictures do the talking with some excerpts from the trip reports along the way:

Part I: Little Diamond Pond/Coleman State Park 9/3-6/12

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Little Diamond Pond in Coleman State Park

"In our never-ending quest to seek out new places and do new things we took a trip further north than we had ever been in New Hampshire before. This trip brought us north of Dixville Notch to the town of Colebrook, and to Coleman State Park, that has within its borders a small pond by the name of Little Diamond Pond. I am not sure of the origin of the name, but it is truly a "Diamond " in the rough. Rather than hauling our pop-up camper all that way we opted to field test our new tent. We took our new Coleman tent to Coleman State Park in Colebrook. How d'ya like them apples? The tent passed its quality test with flying colors when we got two inches of rain in a deluge Tuesday night."

The dialogue and a full set of pics is HERE:

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Common Loon Gavia immer

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Sunrise on Little Diamond Pond

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Loon at Dawn

Before and After 2" of Rain: Pictures of the Waterfalls in Dixville Notch

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Huntington Falls

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Baby Flume

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Beaver Brook Falls

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Video of Beaver Brook Falls HERE:

"We had never been to Dixville Notch, so before heading out to our hike of Table Mountain we drove through the notch. On the east side there are some pull outs that bring you on short walks to some nice waterfalls. The summer has been so dry these were barely running at a trickle. The notch was foggy and the sky was just a dull gray with no delineation of clouds to be seen. We stopped at Huntington Falls and walked well past the 10 minute to Upper Falls sign. The gorge it ran through was a beauty and we could only imagine it filled with spring run-off."

The dialogue and a full set of pics is HERE:

Continued:

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The Balsams Grand Hotel from Table Rock

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Table Rock

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Dixville Notch

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Another Sunrise on Little Diamond Pond

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The Girls on Little Diamond Pond

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Loon Chick

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Momma Loon

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Mr. Bald Eagle

Then home for the weekend:

Gunstock 9/9/12

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On Gunstock

"One of our old fall-backs is the Belknap Range when we want to hike and don't really want to drive for hours to and from the White Mountains. On several of our most recent trips to the Belknaps we had hiked Gunstock from the Gilford Village side rather than from the ski are, so it had been a year or more since we had been on this side. We were surprised to see that there have been quite a few changes. Constantly looking for ways to make money in the off-season ski areas have found new ways to entertain visitors. Some of the new stuff at Gunstock includes Segway rentals and a course to ride them on. There is also a rope and climbing course to try your skills as well. Most interesting to me though, and I'm sure to my grand daughter is the new zip-line course."

The dialogue and a full set of pics is HERE:

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Across Lake Winnepesaukee to Mount Washington

Continued:

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On East Baldpate

"I had longed to make this hike since looking out across Grafton Notch at these hills from Old Speck years before. We had a clear, crisp late summer fall-like day on which to make the hike, and we all started out in high spirits for this one. Any time we get to explore new trails and territory is good, but we had a feeling this one was going to be great! A great deal of attention has been paid to the lower sections where stones have been laid in muddy sections and stone steps made to where there are short, steep rises. The trail winds along, rising moderately through deciduous forest and the hiking is easy."

The dialogue and a full set of pics is HERE:


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Emma Leads the Way

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Possibly: A type of Web Cap

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Between East and West Baldpate

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The Girls

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The View South

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On the Return Trip

Camping and Paddling at The Basin in Evans Notch

"I can't remember the last time we camped at The Basin in Evans Notch. If I can't remember, it's been too long! It is one of our favorite places to camp and hike. There are great trails right out of camp, or within a few miles of camp. Because there are no 4000 Footers it seems to be less visited than the other notches and therefore quieter. Over the years we have sought these quieter, less visited places more and more often. We were surprised to find the campground half full on a Monday morning in September. We may have set a trend! Not likely..."

The dialogue and a full set of pics is HERE:

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At Rattlesnake Pool by Jude

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On The Basin

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Paddling Chocorua Lake

KDT

I absolutely love every part of this from the TR to the photo's. Evan's Notch (Kevin's) was a sweet addition, but I did like them Coleman apples too :)

TR, Pictures, Incredible from start to finish. I Love that Emma is always smiling, she's so adorable!!

Yet another great trip report and incredible pictures. Love the Loon and Eagle shots. Thanks for sharing.

Absolutely agree. Great report and photos Kevin!!! Emma looks so cute riding in the front of the kayak. Thanks for sharing. :)

Thanks all! I knew you would like them apples!

KDT

Wow, what great pics. The first one of Little Diamond Pond/Coleman State Park was just stunning. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, DB! I made it a point on this trip to try to shoot the sunrise each morning. Wednesday morning it was still pouring, so that was a sleep in, but Thursday morning I woke to Nature's Call and unzipped the window of the tent enough to see that I stayed in bed too long. The entire sky was lit up with pink and orange in a hundred different hues. Scrambling to get 100 yds to the pond from the tent, and rueing the time wasted relieving myself, I managed to get to the edge of the pond and launch the kayak in time for that shot. I think it was worth the mad scramble in the cold chill of dawn...

KDT