This past weekend a heat wave visited New England. Humidity and temperatures over 100 means its going to be very uncomfortable. So naturally my wife and I decided we should head north into new territory for us and go camping. Neither of us have really seen Vermont so we chose a new course and started the 3 hour drive into the mountains. But not before stopping off to get some muffins for breakfast.
The whole ride up we blasted the air conditioner and took in the rolling hills and far away mountains along the highway. Once we reached the area we were camping there’s a small stretch of road that is probably the scariest thing I’ve ever driven. Giant boulders jut out into the road that becomes so narrow that only a single car can navigate on a two way road. Combine that with a 16% grade incline and lot of blind turns and you get a head on collision waiting to happen. Luckily we only had to pull over for 2 cars and safely made it to camp. With the tent set up and hours before sunset we decided to not drive on that road again and just relaxed at our campsite for the day. After making are freeze dried meals we escaped the annoying tiger flies and played cards for a while until we fell asleep. But around 11pm I woke up to a slight rustling in the woods close by. A few moments later I heard our tent cover moving but I just assumed it was my wife moving her leg. Just as I was dozing off again a loud bark like growl noise right at the screen door of the tent made me bolt upright. I’ve heard that sound before and knew a raccoon had just peeked its little face into view of us and must have scared itself and run off after giving us a little scare. After that I didn’t sleep much and we both were wide awake around 3:30am and figured we should start packing up and go wait for more light to visit our first photo opportunity. We seem to have a magnet for animal encounters while camping together since the last time a fox ran at our tent in the middle of the night and two owls were hooting all night.
After we waited in the parking lot dining on our gourmet meal of Pop Tarts we set out to the first waterfall of the day. With only a half mile to the falls it seemed like an easy hike. Until we quickly realized it was a steep walk all the way down which meant a steep hike all the way back up. I saved my wife from suffering the worst part of it and told her she could wait in the middle while I went to the base of the falls. Once I got there I tried to find a composition that would work but there was really only once option with the water level in the river being about knee deep and moving pretty fast. Since I never learned to swim I chose to not risk falling or slipping over the small cliff edge and shot the image you see at the top of this post. With a 30 foot drop into a clear pool this waterfall was a real beauty. I only managed to get the one photo because it immediately started raining hard so I packed up my gear and made it back up to my wife and we hiked back up to the car with the trees blocking most of the water from getting us.
We skipped the next waterfall on our ride home since the rain was going to keep up for a while and we had a long drive home, but ended up choosing to go to the third waterfall since it was an hour south of the rain. Once we arrived the short walk from the parking lot led to a 68 foot tall cascade that fed into another pool of clear water before gently flowing into a small creek. This time I got more time to walk around and try out a few compositions. I didn’t really like what I was getting and started to get a little bummed out, but I saw these two logs resting among the river rocks that would make a great leading line. I chose a vertical composition to add to the lines leading straight at the falls. Using a polarizing filter I got this shot below and walked away in a better mood than when I was struggling. I ended up shooting two images and focus stacked them to get the waterfall and immediate logs all in focus.
On the last leg of our weekend getaway we drove to a place known to be one of the best breakfast places in the state. The parking lot was almost full by the time we got there an hour and a half after they opened, but the line moved quickly and we had some of the best pancakes before setting off home to our resentful cats that weren’t happy they didn’t get their wet food the night before. All in all I’m happy with the two images I got this time and even if I didnt get any, it was nice to get away even for a short time.