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February 14th, 2018
Take 12: Murphy’s Bog (January 25th, 2018)
For those of you who haven’t read my previous blog posts, I am a 51-year old woman that has lead a very sheltered life. I met my husband my freshman year of high school. Up until a year ago, he drove me just about everywhere (except to work) that I needed or wanted to go. This has caused two things to happen: 1) I struggle with directions. I do not know where ANYTHING is, so every trip is a new adventure. 2) I have never really done anything by myself. This is another area that has caused me great anxiety in my new endeavors. My fear of being in the woods alone has been somewhat hard to overcome.
One thing I would like to mention, and anyone who has read this blog in the past knows, I am not a mature, refined and/or polished-51-year-old woman. I am far from the fresh, manicured, wrinkle-free, respectable woman my mother raised me to be. No, I am my father’s daughter….so, if you are expecting refined behavior or intellectual reading – this is not the blog for you. Most of the time, I wonder if my posts cause my mother to put her face in her hands and shake her head in defeat. Hehehe So, please, if you read on, this is a judge-free zone.
My next couple of trips out on Murphy’s Bog, I left Bella at home - safe in her kennel. If you read my previous blog post (Take 11), you know exactly why Bella did not accompany me. While I do not like going into the woods on my own, I actually found peace for the first time. I was not constantly attempting to keep contact with a furry beast with a penchant for trouble. However, without Bella, even this trip out - just a half mile from my home, was not without its many mishaps.
This trip to Murphy’s Bog was somewhat of a disaster. I figured I would take a quick jaunt out back of my home (before work) to get the bog lighting up at sunrise after a freezing rain storm. Anyone from New England knows that after a good freezing rain storm, the snow takes on this heavy crust. Normally, if it gets cold enough after a good storm, I can just walk on top of it. The snow had melted a lot and then frozen, so I felt, my best choice was to leave the snowshoes home, and wear those awesome grippers I got for Christmas after the Bald Mountain fiasco (Take 10).
The grippers worked great for about the first quarter mile. I made it down over the first ice-covered hill, across the icy snowmobile trails and then headed off towards the bog. THIS is where the issues began. So, I am wearing my little short L.L. Bean boots and my grippers. Why the short L.L. Bean boots you ask? Well, because the grippers would not fit my tall L.L. Bean boots. They are too bulky. Why would things be easy, right?
Anyway… I just had my jeans on, because that was what I was wearing to work that day. It was around 30°F, so I felt I did not need anything warmer on my legs and I knew from experience (due to the lack of an exercise regimen) that I would be sweating in no-time.. The lack of waterproof/warm pants would have been fine that day, had I stayed on the snowmobile trail, but alas, I did not.
About three steps towards the bog (off the snowmobile trail), I realized that the sun hadn’t gotten to that area and there was still significant snow on this particular – unused trail. No worries I thought, I will stay up on top of the snow - most of the time anyway. If you have read my previous blogs, you know I’m a tad “fluffy” (overweight) and I am being nice saying a “tad fluffy”. Anyway, the temp had creeped up a tad, so the frozen top layer was losing its hard, crusty nature. So, I would take a step or two and crunch through. Each time I would step through, the snow went over my L.L. Bean boots and pushed my jeans up my leg. This left my leg exposed to the snow. This is when the grumbling began. The crust that was left on the top of the snow was scratching up my leg and in case you do not have snow in your area – it was freaking COLD! I was only about .25 miles from the bog, so I elected to keep going versus turning back and giving up. By the time I got to the area where I would turn off the trail to go to the bog, I was sweaty, soaked, cold and very cranky. How can you be sweaty and cold you ask? Well, my feet and legs were freezing from being exposed to the snow, but my upper body was sweaty due to the exertion of trudging through the snow. Having to pull your legs from knee deep snow to pull yourself back onto the crust is exhausting for us “fluffy”, old people. Just sayin’.
So, as I said, I’m wearing short L.L. Bean boots and my grippers and I head off trail into the bog. This is where it gets interesting. So, the sun did not melt the snow around the bog, because the area has heavy tree cover. Said heavy tree cover was also the reason that this area did not have that nice “crusty” topping from the freezing rain. So, when I stepped into the snow in this area, I sunk up over my knees. I would take a step, fall through, take another step and fall through. I look down and my jeans are wet up to almost my waist. I also notice that there is a gripper laying in the snow next to me and one is missing. I growled again as I had worn them only once. I still decided to push on. If the gripper can be found, it can be found on my way out. At one point, I decide I am going to have a heart attack and die alone in Murphy’s Bog due to the level of exertion required to walk through knee deep snow, so I decide that perhaps crawling would work better. You know – better weight distribution and all. I’m wet up over my knees anyway. Hey! It could have worked.
I’m sure you guessed that knees go through snow just as well as feet. Now, I am basically sitting IN the snow up over my waist (because I’m on my knees) and I am pretty-well soaked from head to toe. I stopped at one point and contemplated my dilemma. I figure that with all this effort, I need to get a few photographs no matter what has to be done. I can’t fail after all this effort. I looked at my cell phone, I should have been leaving for work, and I was a half-mile into the woods. I hadn’t even pulled my camera out yet. I thought about the situation for about twenty seconds and decided – will -meet way. (Where there is a will there is a way). I pull my backpack off my back (camera bag) and I rolled to the edge of the bog. Yes – ROLLED. I was wet anyway! Don’t judge. It worked.
Once I was on the bog, the snow had that thick crust again and I was able to make my way around and get some photographs. The sunrise was pink and cast a glow on the ice coating the trees, it was magical. I ended up texting my boss and told him I would be late. Ohhhhh, the wonderful aspects of working for small businesses. He did not even question me. So, I set up my tripod, stick my camera on there and start snapping away. As I do with any excursion, I changed locations multiple times, which caused me to have to move and re-adjust my tripod. How many of you have had to use a tripod with a layer of ice and then heavy, thick snow underneath? I had to force the legs of my tripod into the snow and try to push and pull it to get it where it needed to be. About fifteen minutes in, my tripod broke. The piece that keeps the legs at the same length from each other broke, so one leg went wherever it wanted. Try pushing the release button on the camera without moving it, when you are shaking from being wet and cold and your tripod is broken. Yeah….it went well. (NOT) Despite the difficulties, I managed to take 75 photographs in the bog that morning. When I decided to head back, I did a little jig of joy at the slight feeling of success after fighting the hard fight. Then, I remembered I had to get home.
I handled this situation like any mature adult would, I pouted and grumbled to myself. I contemplated waiting for the spring thaw, but I had to get to work; so I sighed again, grumbled a little bit and started rolling towards the trail. This went as well as my first pass, but I did find my gripper in one of my deep foot prints in the snow. Yipppee! They live to walk another day!
I struggled for a bit getting through the snow and then came upon a couple of beautiful birch trees that had been forced over by the weight of the ice covering them. Under those birch trees was a small, baby pine tree that was also leaning over due to the weight of the ice covering it. It was beautiful. It was a cloudy morning, so the light was low, but I loved the mood of the shots taken. (https://fineartamerica.com/featured/loves-choice-jan-mulherin.html ). I worked with the low light, adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to get the look I desired. Well, I hoped anyway. I have a hard time truly knowing from the small screen of my cameras. Old eyes and all…. I leave every location not knowing for sure if I will have anything worth using. It occurred to me at this point though, that I am learning to work better in manual mode, because the adjustments are starting to come easier. This helps make all the effort to get to the bog worth it. Progress! Woohoo! I just hoped that I got at least one photograph/image that I felt was good enough for my Fine Art America page. Not that I am any photographical savant or anything, but I do have my standards. No really, I do. I really do.
Anyway……I got back to the house about a half hour after I was supposed to be at work. I was completely wet, my make-up was gone and my hair….well…. let’s just say “it wasn’t pretty”. So, I peeled off my wet, cold clothes, cleaned up as quickly as I could, then headed off to my daily grind.
What did I take from this excursion? (1) Well, it is much more relaxing to take photographs when I am by myself. Bella is always up to no-good and it causes me a lot of anxiety. Should I go alone or take her with me? That is the question. (2) I am doing much better working with the manual settings of my camera. The learning curve is slow as I learn better by doing than by reading, but alas progress is being made. (3) The tragedy of the day was the death of yet another tripod. I have to make yet another visit to Jeff Bezos’s Amazon to replace yet another piece of camera equipment. Yes, I’m making Jeff Bezo’s rich – one order at a time. I should buy stock. Amazon Prime was the best and worst thing that ever happened to me. Gotta love the free, two-day shipping. Oh dear God, now I am providing free advertisement for the billionaire.
Anyway….on the way to work that day, I contemplated my next long trip, which was scheduled the following weekend. While it was more relaxing to go on my photographic excursions without my cohort in crime (Bella), it also got really lonely…. So, the following Saturday, Bella and I headed off to Houston Brook Falls near Bingham, Maine. We had fun, but the trip had its own challenges – but that is a story for another time….
January 31st, 2018
Take 11: Murphy’s Bog – December 12, 2017
For those of you who haven’t read my previous blog posts, I am a 51-year old woman that has lead a very sheltered life. I met my husband my freshman year of high school. Up until a year ago, he drove me just about everywhere (except to work) that I needed or wanted to go. This has caused two things to happen: 1) I struggle with directions. I do not know where ANYTHING is, so every trip is a new adventure. 2) I have never really done anything by myself. This is another area that has caused me great anxiety in my new endeavors. My fear of being in the woods alone has been somewhat hard to overcome.
If you read my previous blog post, Take 10 – Bald Mountain and the Height of the Land, you know that saying the trip “did not go well”, is an understatement. It took about three weeks for the remnants of the huge, beautifully-colored bruise on my thigh and the six-inch cut along my side to heal. During this time, Maine experienced a cold spell, which kept me fairly-close to home. Yeah, you guessed it, my last trip went so awry, I struggled to motivate myself to get out there again. The excuses for not going out on one of my excursions grew and grew.
One of my excuses for not going out after the Bald Mountain fiasco was the amount of snow on the ground. I decided that I needed to practice up on my snowshoeing before I headed out. Good excuse huh? I thought so. So, I headed out back of my home with Bella, my 11-month old Rottweiler and Emma, my 7-year-old Labrador Retriever. Now, if you have read my previous posts, you know Bella struggles with proper behavior when accompanying me on my little excursions. Despite my desire to limit the drama that took place during this trip, this day was just another in a long-line of misadventures for Bella.
I am sure you are thinking that a nice leisurely walk in the woods with my two dogs would be relaxing and calming. Well, you would be terribly wrong. Bella was somewhat upset that this little photo op was not a one-dog show. I had never taken Emma with us because Emma gets car-sick. Normally, when I put on my backpack and Bella’s harness, that means we, meaning her and I, are heading out alone together. That is always the way it had been. Bella, being the jealous, misbehaving animal that she is, decided to give Emma a hard time. She would run full-blast up to Emma, side butt her, growl and carried on this way the entire way to the bog. That’s over a half-mile walk with her antagonizing poor Emma. Emma is just such a calm, relaxed girl. She just let it go, but it is hard for me to relax with Bella doing this, so I kept yelling “Bella – NO!”, Bella, cut it out! And “BELLLLLLLLA!” Typical for our outings, so it did not even phase her.
To get to the bog, I must leave the normal trail and walk through thick trees and brush to the water’s edge. This is sometimes a difficult feat, especially when my backpack/tripod gets caught up in the bushes. There are times when I am on my hands and knees attempting to get through thick shrubs. Anyway, I made my way to a small clearing on the edge of the water. The water had a thin coating of ice covered by a little snow. You never know how deep the water is on this bog, so better safe than sorry. I set-up on the shoreline.
While I was setting up my tripod, Emma sat down right next to my legs. (Hmmmm, a well-behaved doggy companion, what a novelty.) On the other hand, Bella was off running around investigating the area, which again, is typical for her. I pulled my tripod off my backpack and started getting that set up, so I could get the sun rising over the trees. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bella walk by me and then I heard (and felt) a big splash right next to my tripod. I looked over and Bella had walked on the thin ice and fell through – right next to the shoreline. I grabbed her harness and pulled her out of the water, managing to keep myself mostly dry. Bella seemed a tad put-off, but shook off – RIGHT NEXT TO, you guessed it – me AND my open camera bag. Once she shook, she seemed to get over the little scare and ran back into the wooded area. I was a little bit worried, but I felt Bella had learned her lesson and pulled one of my cameras from the bag, wiped it off and set it on my tripod. I no more than get the camera set up on the tripod and fix my settings, but there is another big splash and then more splashing about ten feet from the initial fall-through. Bella went through the ice, AGAIN! I run over, pull Bella out of the water and ask her if she has learned her lesson yet. She looks at me as if I am to blame for this sad state of affairs. She takes two steps, shakes off and starts to walk away. But alas, I am smarter than the average bear and am not going to fall for this again, so I make Bella come with me over to my camera and tripod. She stays for a few minutes, but when I am distracted by the sunrise, she takes off yet again.
I get about 20 photos and I hear another big splash. I look towards the other end of the bog and Bella has fallen through the ice again. She is so far away from where I am, I do not know what to do. Not only is she quite far from me, she did not fall through the ice on the edge of the water; she made it a few feet onto the ice before she fell through. At first, I was so horrified, I could not react. I stood there in shock - watching the scene play out in sheer panic. As I am watching, I contemplate my dilemma; I am standing on the opposite side of the bog about 50-yards from Bella. I would have to leave the shoreline of the bog and make my way through some bushes back into the woods and then make my way through the thickly-wooded area to get to her. You cannot walk around the shoreline because the bushes are too high and thick. If I made it to her in time, I would have to lay down and reach across the ice, hoping it did not break, and try to pull Bella from the water. So, I stand there in complete horror, unable to react, for a few more seconds. I can’t bear to take my eyes off her for some reason, like if I can see her, she won’t go under. At this point, Bella is paddling for all she is worth. She is whining the entire time as she fights to get out of the water. I start to move away from my camera and into the woods and Bella gets her front half onto the ice. I falter, hoping that she can get the rest of herself out of the water, but she is still struggling. I duck into the woods and start making my way over. She struggles for a few more seconds and then pulls herself out of the water and comes running to me at her fastest doggy speed! She gets to me – dives in the snow, rolls a few times and then shakes off – yes, you guessed it – right next to me. Well, at least I didn’t have to go swimming in ice-cold water, right? So, I grab my other camera, take a couple shots of the nut (Bella) after she dives in the snow. Photo: ( https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-misadventures-of-bella-jan-mulherin.html ). At this point, I decided that I needed to get Bella back to the house and cut my photo session short. Well, the sun had moved over the tree line as I was attempting to save Bella from imminent peril, so the photo opportunity had passed.
Bella, Emma and I made our way back to the house. On the way back, Bella left Emma alone as she spent most of her walk back to the house running, throwing herself into the snow and then rolling around. On this entertaining walk back, I kept thinking that Bella needs obedience training and a doggy psychologist. Emma makes a much better photo excursion partner, but alas, she throws up after a twenty-minute car ride. Bella and I head out hours from home when we go out. So, obedience training – it is.
I will be honest, the next few short trips that I took, I took Emma, not Bella. My next few excursions were just back out to the bog and I couldn’t bring myself to include her. To be honest, my trips were a lot more enjoyable with Emma. She behaves MUCH better. I was able to relax and do what I wanted to do. Emma would whine if she thought I had taken enough time at a location and we would move on. The three trips were the most relaxing times I have had since kayaking ended in November. Where they drama free? NO. I broke my tripod on one trip, which caused me to help out Jeff Bezos' (CEO-Amazon) financial stability yet again. I lost a gripper in the snow on another trip, but after some of the snow melted, I found that sucker. However, other than those little hiccups, the trips were calming and relaxing.
What did I take from this particular excursion? First, the land behind my home is gorgeous in the winter. Why travel a couple of hours, when you have such beauty just a short walk away? I need to remember that not all trips need to be long-drawn out affairs. Second, I need to figure out a way that both Bella and I can enjoy our little trips. Obedience training is a must.
I would like to say that by our next long trip, Bella started her obedience training and I kept her away from icy, open water, but alas, that would not be the case…..however, that is a story for another time....
January 25th, 2018
Dunn Falls/Cascade Trail, Andover, ME November 20, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-7”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some hiking excursions far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. My husband lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. However, hiking on my own presents new issues with my sudden difficulty with heights and my long-term fear of being alone in the woods….
For my next trip, I chose Dunn Falls for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it was rated 5.0 out of 5.0 in my New England Waterfalls book. The upper falls is horsetails and fans and the lower falls is a plunge (70 FT). The second reason, it was only a two-mile loop which again, I thought this old body could handle. So, armed with Google Maps, my New England Waterfall book and my Map My Run app, I headed out.
At this point, UPS had delivered my bungee leash that attached to my waist to keep Bella, my 11-month old Rottweiler, safe and near my side. I was optimistic that this would be a much better trip than the last. A girl has to dream, right? I am not sure why I thought having the bungee leash would magically make Bella a well-behaved pet, but suffice to say the rose-colored glasses were definitely on.
Google Maps got me to my destination without much issue and I was feeling optimistic, except, I had no idea which side of the road I should be hiking on and I really need to go to the bathroom. I decided to let Bella out of the car, get her acclimated with her new leash and go try to find some trail head signs.
Perhaps this is not a story that should be told, but alas, if you do not want to hear about the peeing debacle– skip to the next paragraph. I realize for many, this is a situation that should not be voiced, but I still chuckle when I think about it. I am sure my mother might be embarrassed by this overshare, but alas,I do not believe this blog post will ever make it out to the masses. Anyway…..I need to pee and I need to pee now, that is apparent. I am not looking forward to it as it is about 25°F and I have Bella tied to my waist. Why I ever thought she would behave so I could pee, I will never know. So, I walk off the trail into the woods while struggling with Bella because she doesn’t seem to comprehend the tree/leash issue. I find a tree where I am hidden from the road and prepare for the cold air. I yank down my pants and…… you guessed it - Bella starts yanking on her leash and growling again. Uh oh. I am not as well-balanced as I was a decade ago and being in a crouched position at my age is never a good thing, never mind having an 80-pound dog start playing tug-of-war. So, after a few seconds of trying to coax her to behave, I bellow at her (rather loudly) and tell her to sit. She looks at me like I just killed her puppy and starts sniffing around the area in front of me. Phewww, crisis averted. I relax and decide its time to pee. Next thing I know, the little worm starts walking around the tree that I am leaning against. AROUND THE TREE. The leash is long enough to make it around said tree and then some. So, my pants are down around my ankles and now I am basically tied to the tree. Did I mention I have two bad knees? Why, yes, yes, I do. So, standing after being crouched is not an easy thing in the best of conditions, as I do not have any strength in my knees. My feet are basically tied together, I have no strength to stand up and Bella listens as well as a deaf two-year-old. The struggle was real and this struggle took place with my pants around my ankles in 25°F conditions. It is a good thing I chose to hike in the “off-season”, because that could have been extremely embarrassing. By the end of it, I was second-guessing the bungee leash, my sanity and taking Bella with me on future excursions.
So, after the relieving myself debacle, we head back to the RAV4 and grab my camera equipment and head out. Bella again decides that tug-of-war is on the agenda, so I am being pulled left and right again while yelling “Bella, cut it out”, “Bella!”, “Bella, I’m gonna kick your ass”, “BELLLLLLA!”. I make it down over the hill and breakdown and let her off that leash. I also vowed to get the dog OBEDIENCE LESSONS. I will – don’t judge.
Unfortunately, to get to Dunn Falls, it is necessary to cross a rather wide stream/river both below and on the upper falls. After what had happened the week prior, I took one look at those icy rocks and said, “no way, Jose” and decided to follow the trail to the upper falls. Bella thought that was a superb decision also. So off we went down the Cascade Trail.
The trail was beautiful. I stopped quite a few times to attempt to get photographs of the many cascades along the trail. Sometimes I was successful and sometimes I missed the opportunity given to me. I am still learning, so I utilized “landscape mode” and “snow and sand” and also experimented with shutter speed and aperture. I am not sure if there are any other individuals out there that struggle learning what works as far as manual settings, but for me, the struggle is real. I have learned a few things along the way, but for me doing, works better than reading. Bella was NOT cooperative with the many long stops along the hike. Bella likes to thoroughly investigate an area and I was cramping her style. I would get the tripod set up, the camera angle set and either she would come by and hit the tripod; OR, she would end up in my shot. I spent a good amount of time calling her out of the shot, so if there were hunters around all they heard all morning was “Bella – come!”, “Bella – move”, “Bella – get outta the way” and, “BELLLLLLLLA!” I was starting to question if I actually needed a co-pilot on these trips, but alone in the woods still did not set right with me.
We hike and take photographs for about an hour or so and it becomes necessary to cross this wide stream to go any further. This entails walking across icy rocks, through water and ice that may or may not support weight with no idea what lays underneath. I decide I am going to attempt it because it is apparent I am not going to see a waterfall if I do not cross. In this particular location, there is a tree that crosses the river, so I figured I can shimmy my way across or hold onto it as I cross, but shimmy across is my first choice.
If you read Take 7, you know Bella does not like to walk on ice. She had a bad experience and it is apparent she is not happy with the idea of crossing over ice. Now, this is where I should have had the camera out of the backpack and pointed at my 11-month old Rottweiler as her mind worked and her decisions played out, because let me tell you, she is about as good at decision-making as I am and if you read about my prior trips, you know I suck at solid decision-making. Bella stayed on the side of the river as I shimmied and walked over the ice to get across the expanse of the river. She decides, “hey, she made it – I will do the same thing”. It’s true, I saw it in her eyes. So, she climbs up on the tree trunk and starts crawalking. What is crawalking you ask? Well, that is Bella’s version of crawling. She was walking on the tree, but kinda doggy-crawling. It was quite comical. Regardless, she did pretty well at it. However, there is a reason I had to use a combination of tricks to get across the river – because the tree had branches, so Bella gets to a tree branch and just looks at me, like “what now?”. She hates the ice and her only choice is to jump down onto the ice or go back. She whined a little bit and then being the brave pup she is, she jumped down onto the ice. Now, the girl weighs 80-pounds and there is running water under the ice – so what do you think happens next? Poor Bella goes right through that ice and into icy-cold, swiftly moving water. She WAS NOT happy. I swear as she walked out past me I heard her say that she was never going on another “trip” with me again. I think she partially forgave me when I gave her a dog treat, but I still felt the stink-eye as we walked further up the trail.
This is when the clouds took over and darkness filled the ravine and my nerves set in. I kept looking around for creatures with big teeth that were hungry for a large lunch. I tried to push my fear aside and keep hiking towards my goal, but I must admit I was a tad nervous. The trail became steep heading up to the upper falls; and then icy and extremely slippery. Bella tried to catch herself a couple of times on the ice with her nails, only to slide down the rock she was attempting to climb. It was THAT slippery. We get to the top of the falls and we are supposed to cross here to get to the good stuff (waterfall viewing). The trail has us crossing at the top of a very large waterfall drop that can’t be seen from the trail because it falls within a tight ravine. First, I am worried Bella will go off over the side. There was very little leeway on the right side and the water was high and powerful as it went over the falls. At this point, I have had absolutely no shots of the falls as the ravine is too slippery for this old body to traverse and I certainly didn’t want Bella following me to her death…so I was waiting for the shots that were shown in the book. I had two choices at this point. Take my chances at crossing or give up the dream of capturing a waterfall that day. I took one look at poor Bella and decided I had put her through enough and turned around and headed back the way I came.
Getting Bella back across the river was difficult and again, provided a little comic relief, but we made it, her and I. We spent over five hours in those woods taking photographs and hiking together and then we headed to the RAV. We had another fun-filled game of tug-of-war as we headed towards the road and the vehicle, but Bella was out like a light as soon as I started the car.
At the end of this trip, two things are very apparent. Bella needs some serious dog obedience lessons and perhaps photographing waterfalls where I have to traverse rivers, streams and brooks should probably be completed in warmer weather. If you fall in the water in June, it is a different experience than falling into the water in late November.
All-in-all, I considered this trip a success. I did not get lost at all on the entire trip. Way to go Google Maps! And Bella, despite everything, still seemed to love me. Despite not getting to see the main attraction, I captured some beautiful shots of the cascades along the Cascade Trail.
While listening to Bella snore on the way home, I plotted my next adventure, but that is a story for another time…….
January 25th, 2018
Bald Mountain and the Height of the Land, Rangeley, Maine area: December 8th, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-9”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some hiking excursions far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged and more than slightly out-of-shape as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. My husband lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. However, hiking on my own presents new issues with my sudden difficulty with heights and my long-term fear of being alone in the woods….
I have put off writing this blog post for over a month. I think possibly because I like to keep things light in my posts and laugh at my misfortunes, but it has been a month and I still can’t find a whole lot of humor in the events of that day. In my past endeavors, Bella and I had lots of missteps, but alas, my decisions on this trip bordered on sheer stupidity, lack of self-preservation or perhaps just complete denial that bad things could happen. Alas, things could have ended up a lot worse. After all, I made it out without a broken hip, but I certainly can’t take any credit for Bella and my safe return home that day.
This trip was my first “mountain” hike (in over a decade) and I picked it because it was a relatively short hike and I read good things about the views. I figured this old body could walk 2.6 miles. Nooooo problemo. I chose to hike Bald Mountain in Oquossoc, Maine. The website I found boasted: “with an assist from its observation tower, the summit of Bald Mountain provides panoramic views of Rangeley Lake, Mooselookmeguntic Lake, Saddleback Mountain and many other peaks of the Longfellow Mountains”. It sounds PERFECT, right? So, I got my directions downloaded from Google Maps and went to bed dreaming of beautiful mountain views and the peaceful journey to the top that I was sure to have the next day. Yes, I was highly optimistic. Probably should have been my first clue that something was going to go colossally wrong.
So, perhaps I should start at the beginning…. I head to Rangeley (Oquossoc) around 6:30 AM. I have explained before that Bella does not like to get up before 6:00 AM. She prefers a 7:00 AM wake-up call and is extremely happy when she gets to sleep until 8:00. Getting her up to leave at 6:30 is a chore. Once my husband gets out of bed, she takes over his pillows and snores as loud as he does. Anyhow, I get her up and going, pack up the car and head to Rangeley. I decided to stop at the Height of the Land because it always is so beautiful there and I had never seen it with snow. The weather report said it would be clear, sunny and in the twenties that day, but when I arrived in Rangeley it was blistering cold and snowing. Of course, the forecast of 20°F was supposed to be the high for the DAY, but hey. It didn’t stop me from grumbling that Accuweather is more like “InAccuweather”. I can get a tad grumpy when things do not go as planned. Nevertheless, I have photographs on my Fine Art America page of the Height of the Land that morning with the snow and ice. It was beautiful, but so cold. Trying to get photographs in those conditions was an experience in itself. I had my tripod set up in about six inches of snow, the wind was driving the snow left, then right, then right in my face. I was trying to protect my camera as best as I could, but not having much luck. All the while Bella is running throughout the parking lot rolling and diving into the snow. No seriously, she does that. So, I am calling to her repeatedly - trying to keep her somewhat close to me. I did not worry too many people would be pulling into that parking lot as I can’t effectively convey how ungodly cold and windy it was that morning and the parking lot was not plowed. So, I work as quickly as I can to get my camera settings correct for the light, while my fingers freeze and shake. Within minutes, I can’t feel the tips of my fingers and I decide, what I have is what I have at this point, and I get in the RAV.
So, at this point, an intelligent person would say – perhaps the conditions are not optimal for hiking and perhaps I should turn around and go home, but alas, this is where the “sheer stupidity”, “lack of self-preservation” or “complete denial” take effect in this story. I decide – “ehhhh, what’s a little wind and snow”. I can do this. I am just a 51-year old woman, with two bad knees, 50 extra pounds who hasn’t hiked in over a decade, but hey…no problem, right?
So, I drive out of the Height of the Land parking lot and set off to my mountain adventure…..
I wish I was not so directionally challenged. Seriously, it is a curse for someone who loves to do things outdoors. Google Maps let me down on this trip, not sure whether I was without cell reception for too long or what. I did download the directions onto my phone, but it said I had arrived at my destination and there weren’t any trail heads. I drove for another four or five miles down the road looking for a good place to turn around. I saw what seemed like a driveway where the house was not too close to the road and decided this was where I give up, turn around and go home. The driveway turned out to be the parking lot for the trail head. One might say it was dumb luck, but I did not feel too lucky about 15 minutes later….
Now, I had read in the information on this hike that the summit was sheer granite and slippery when wet. There was a huge sign on a nice brown board at the trail head that said “Slippery when wet – Use Caution” or something to that affect anyway. Again, not one word from the self-preservation side of my psyche, so I powered forward.
Initially, I tie Bella to my belt again and head off into the cold, blue yonder. I hike about 10 minutes and the sun starts to come out. It was GORGEOUS on the trail and I have many photos on my site that prove how beautiful it was in those woods. Bella does not sit still well, so as soon as the tripod was set up, the girl was let loose and she did her thorough investigation of the area. She usually stays within my sight, so I did not worry too much and stopped and took many photographs. I finally feel like I get enough photographs and I tell Bella, I am going to put my camera and tripod away and we will head to the top. She seemed in agreement as I think she was a tad bored with her current surroundings. I open my backpack, put my camera in, realize I can’t find my lens cap (refer to Take No. 9/Amazon reference) and I tear my bag apart looking – NOTHING. CRAP. I have to buy yet another lens cap. I grumble some more, put my pack on and start hiking. Hmmmm, I don’t see Bella. I yell….nothing. I yell again…nothing. She NEVER is out of my site. NEVER. I yell and yell and realize, there is a terrible echo where I am, and she is a pup….so, I start saying her name, but just slightly louder than my normal speaking voice, hoping to limit the echo issue. About five minutes later, I am in a complete and utter panic. I am in the woods of RANGELEY, MAINE. Bella could get lost forever in those woods. I text my husband, no response. Yes, amazingly enough, cellphone coverage on the Bald Mountain trail provided two bars of contact with the outside world or I probably would have completely lost it. So, I am not sure what to do at this point. Do I stay where I am? Do I hike to the car? What do you do in this instance? I decide it is best to head to the car, I am not sure why I think that is where she would head since my scent is in that direction…I dunno, I walk down the mountain and call her name – having heart palpitations all the way. So much is going through my mind. My Bella is lost. Tears well up, I can’t leave her here. I CANNOT LEAVE HER HERE. What if I can’t find her? What if she doesn’t come back? I am sure if Bella can hear me she can hear the sheer panic in my voice. About fifteen minutes later, I hear something in the woods to my left and Bella comes out of the woods. She seems surprised that I am actually there as she hesitates when she sees me, and then sprints to me at her fastest puppy speed ever. When she gets to me, she is so exhausted she falls to her feet and lies there and pants. I get her some water. I kiss and hug her and tell her how much I love her and how much she scared me. She seems really happy to see me too, so she puts up with my kisses and hugs. We sit there and let her rest for about five minutes and then she decides enough resting and decides we need to move. At this point, I think most normal people would have gone home, but alas, no, I had not overcome my sheer stupidity, so I turned back around and headed up the mountain. I figured after all that, what else could go wrong? Yeah…I’m that stupid. I hooked Bella back to my waist-belt and we took off for the top.
I guess the next thing I should point out that I have not hiked a mountain in over a decade and never in the winter. This means, I am not up-to-date on the current gear or what is necessary on winter hikes. In the old days, you threw on your hiking boots and you went hiking. I only hiked in the spring, summer and early fall, so those good old hiking boots were sufficient. Well, now-a-days, they have something for most every issue you could incur while walking in the woods. One of these new inventions that would have been a HUGE help – you guessed it - grippers. Now, knowing snow was on the ground and it was going to snow that day may have been helpful, but I guess since it was December in Northern Maine, I should have known there would be ice. However, even if I had known about the snow and ice, I did not have any clue there were “grippers” for your hiking boots. Live and learn I guess. I got some for Christmas. Happy days. 😊
Anyhow, I walked up the trail about ten or fifteen minutes and I came across Bella’s footprints allllllll over the place. She had run back and forth and back and forth up there. I can only assume, my voice was echoing so bad, she could not determine my location and just ran and ran until she found me. I felt really bad because if I had hiked up the mountain, instead of down, I would have come across her in just a few short minutes.
Now, we are at the “climbing” part of the hike as the granite starts about .6 miles from the trail head and we are heading steadily uphill. What I did not realize is there is a stream or brook that crosses the trail in many locations along your climb to the top. THIS is what makes it so slippery. The rocks are most likely wet most of the spring, fall and winter. Just to be clear, most of this hike to the top is on the ice-covered rocks. There are times that Bella tries to run up a rock and she slides back down trying to grip the ice with her nails. I would crawl up and over and pull her leash, so she could make it up and over to the next slippery rock.
So, I have now been in the woods for over two hours between picture taking and hunting for Bella. We have lost the sun, the wind has picked back up and the woods seem really cold and dark. There are BIG, HUGE, moose prints EVERYWHERE. While I would love to catch a shot, I was already surprised by a big ass moose in Baxter State Park (photo is on my Fine Art site), and I am not up for that type of surprise in the middle of nowhere with no one else around for miles. So, I am getting a tad nervous about what is actually in these woods with me. My childhood fear of the woods was rearing its ugly head at a very inopportune time. I keep telling myself that I must be close to the top, I can do this. Things get hairy after that. We get to a relatively flat area and I guess my confidence got the best of me. Bella got down off a large boulder first and when I stepped down it was glare ice and I fell, and I fell hard. I literally felt like I could not move. I was in that much pain. I got up and was determined to keep going. A little bruise was not going to stop me. We hike a little further and I grabbed onto a tree, lost my grip when my feet slipped and went down hard as a tree branch cut into my left side. This time, it took me about three or four minutes to get up and I was starting to wonder if I should turn around, but sheer determination, aka sheer stupidity, kept me moving towards the summit. So, to summarize the situation, I am about .3 miles from the top. I have, what will be, a huge bruise on my right hip/upper leg and a gash on my side about six inches long. I am in pain, cold and fairly freaked out about being alone in the woods. At this point, it occurs to me that - I am completely alone in the woods, in the winter, a mile from my car. If I can’t walk out of there, my only companion is my ten-month old pup. I had already seen what she does when she gets lost and that did not instill confidence in her abilities to find help. Did I turn around and head home? Dear God, no. Of course not.
Bella and I hike another few yards or so, which takes about twenty minutes to maneuver around the ice. At this point, I can see the looks from Bella. She thinks I’m nuts and she wants to go back to the car; which in hindsight means the puppy has more common sense than her 51-year old mother. Sad, but true. So, I can see the break through the trees. Yes, I can see the top. Do you know what else I can see? Ice. Ice, ice and more ice. It looks like there was a waterfall coming over that trail that just froze there for the winter. I tried to find a way around the ice, but my lack of upper body strength and my fear for my dog’s well-being had me second-guessing my decision-making skills. I tried for another 20 minutes to find a safe way to the top, but alas, it was all just icy rocks. I was as close from the top as I was going to get. So, instead of turning around, Bella and I scaled the ledge and got a couple of photographs of the area through the trees. One of those photographs is posted on the site.
Once those photographs were taken, I put everything back in the backpack and we headed down the mountain. I would like to say that down went better than up, but alas, that would be a bold-face lie. I was careful and sat on my butt on most boulders and slid down on my butt. I didn’t let go of one tree until I had another. Bella found ways around the trail that worked better for her. Unfortunately for me, I was in the most danger of falling when I was the most confident I was safe. Flat terrain was what got me EVERY time. I took two more very hard falls. One, I hit my head on a tree on the way down, the last, I fell on a rock with my right hip again and ended up landing flat on my back, which was my backpack, which was holding all my camera equipment. I carry two cameras, one of which holds my 600mm lens. Hey, you never know when you are going to see a moose or a deer and need that 600mm lens. Of course, by the time I got it out of the backpack and hold the thing up, whatever I had seen would be long gone, but alas, refer to the first paragraph and you have your answer for that one (sheer stupidity). I believe everything made it through the fall. I was extremely lucky.
So, Bella and I get down to the car and at this point, I can barely walk. I am so cold, I can barely feel my fingers and toes; the right side of my body feels numb, (which I suppose was a good thing), and my side is bleeding onto my good Under-Armour pull-over. I could have kissed the RAV. I threw the camera gear into the car, gave Bella a treat and some water. I ate my peanut-butter and jelly sandwich and started my drive home.
I think what I pulled from this day was that I need to accept that not all trips will be fruitful, and that is okay. Part of the fun is journey. It was during the journey that I caught a few sunrise photographs that I absolutely fell in love with and put up on my site. You do not necessarily need a perfect view or the perfect scene. Sometimes the everyday can be beautiful.
Bella and I were housebound for a couple weeks due to severe wind chills. We did not head out again until a couple weeks into January. I wish I could say that Bella and I have since escaped emotional and physical peril on our outtings, but alas, that is not the case…..but that is a story for another time………
January 8th, 2018
Step Falls & Screw Auger Falls, Grafton Notch: November 25, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-8”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some hiking excursions far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged and more than slightly out-of-shape as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. My husband lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. However, hiking on my own presents new issues with my sudden difficulty with heights and my long-term fear of being alone in the woods….
For my next trip, I decided to be smart and pick a location that was a short, easy hike, a tad closer to home. The Waterfalls of New England book that I purchased via my Kindle helped me choose Step Falls in Newry, Maine. I figured Bella and I could do the quick hike and be back relatively early in the day and perhaps get some Christmas shopping done. For those of you who have not read my previous blog posts, Bella is my 11-month old, not-so-obedient, Rottweiler. I love her to pieces, but the girl does not listen well – at all. Yes, obedience training is in her very-near future.
So, Bella and I took off at about 6:30 am. If you read my previous post, you know that Bella refuses to leave any earlier in the day. Bella likes to sleep in. So, I get up, eat breakfast, make sure I have packed everything, get dressed and then head upstairs to get her up. This usually takes at least ten minutes as she requires lots of stretching and groaning before she can start her day. If I am lucky, I can get her to walk downstairs at a pace that would rival some of those over 90 at our local retirement home. If I am not lucky, it takes her another ten minutes to make it down the hall and down the stairs. She stretches at the top of the stairs, takes a couple of steps, stops, looks around, takes another couple of steps, stops, groans, contemplates world peace and then may take the next few steps down. Once she is on the ground floor - she stretches, moans, groans and tries to deal with being woken up at such an ungodly hour. It takes about 15 minutes before she will decide it is necessary to go outside, so in that time I pack the car, get the GPS settled and then head back inside to try to get her moving. I get her to go out and normally, it takes another few minutes before she will even think about eating her breakfast. Once she eats, I start my RAV, so it can warm up a bit, get her in her harness and hopefully head out. So far, she hasn’t thrown up and we have had some long travels. So, eating so close to departing has not been an issue for her. Thank GOD. I have never had a dog that is harder to get out of bed than a teenage boy… Anyway….
On this trip, I was lucky enough to have figured out Google Maps on my cellphone/computer. Did you know that you can pretty much find anything on Google Maps? THEN…you can get directions to those places and the program is so smart, it will download said directions onto your phone, so if you loose cellphone coverage, which is common in northern Maine, you will not be left to figure things out on your own, like when you use VZ Navigator. Sorry Verizon. VZ Navigator is great when you are in cellphone range, completely useless otherwise – just sayin’. So, at this point, I am fairly-confident I can find my way anywhere. Even if Google lets me down, I have my “New England Waterfalls” book which has step by step directions. I find it hard to read a book as I drive, so I chose to use Google over the directions in the book. It has proved to be helpful to have it with me though.
Bella and I pulled into Step Falls around 9:00 AM. It was cold and windy and there was a trace of snow on the ground, but nothing significant. I put on my layers, got Bella hooked up to my waist and headed to Step Falls. Now, .6 of a mile does not sound like much, but being tied off to a puppy can make .6 of a mile feel like 6 miles. I eventually allowed Bella to run free. I figured that the number of hikers would be limited as it was cold and off-season, so I was relatively confident that things would be okay with her loose. She stays close for the most part.
So, Step Falls is a well-kept trail that runs along Wight Brook. The trees had lost their leaves weeks before my trip, so the area was not as pretty as it could have been. Ice had formed along the rocks and sides of the brook, but not enough to bring the photographic beauty back in the lower brook area. I kept my camera in my backpack and hiked until I heard falls. Viewing the falls, at least to photograph, is difficult in low water. By this time, we had not had any significant rain or snow fall, so the water was limited. The falls is made up of many horsetails, cascades, slides and pools. I elected to hike to the first large cascade that I saw as the rest seemed difficult for my camera to capture effectively. The view from the side of the brook does not provide a good angle, so I decided to take my chances and try to get out on a granite ledge. This entailed crossing some significant, high-current water that flowed down the trail side of the brook. Bella likes to follow me, which can make things a little hairy for my camera and tripod, but we were making it work. I get out on the rock ledge and try to set-up my camera to capture the beauty of the area.
When taking photographs of a waterfall or cascade, I like to do long exposures, I just really like the look. However, in this area, I also wanted to be aware of my aperture as this was a long set of rocks/granite that this water was cascading down and I wanted to capture it all in detail. Also, the light was not the greatest as it was cloudy. Taking that all into account, I got my camera set up. I tried to take some photographs, but Bella had her butt planted right in my shot. Long-exposure does not work well with an active Rottweiler. After manipulating her to remove herself from the area, I took a few shots. I was not exactly pleased with my angle, so I picked up my tripod and headed to the far side of the brook. Bella decided she wanted to be in front of me for this part of my trip and grazed my camera and knocked the lens hood down over the granite ledge… down into a nice, ice-cold pool below. So, I stood there on the granite ledge and contemplated my dilemma. The sun was starting to show its face, so I really needed that shade to continue to take photographs. If I did not have the shade, I would be done my day after only taking about 20 subpar shots. I would also have to order yet another lens hood. No wonder why the Amazon guy is so rich. Between lens caps and hoods, I am keeping Jeff Bezos in his custom suits. No, I decided, I could do this. I could rescue my lens hood. I would not allow such a stupid hiccup to stop me. So, Bella and I made our way slowly down the banking on the far side of the brook and I assessed the situation. My lens hood was in a pool surrounded by obstacles: two very large boulders about 12 feet high or so, the quick moving brook water, and then the high granite shelf was on the other side of the boulders. I decided I would climb between the boulders and see if I could find a way down without breaking a leg or a hip. As I made my way around the side of one of the boulders, I realized that people had climbed through this area before as they had a cable to climb to get through the boulders. Jackpot! My only concern was that Bella would be unable to follow and I knew this would stress her out. She likes to be able to see me at all times. I decided I had to do what I had to do and started climbing the cable hand over hand. Yes, as an out-of-shape- 51-year-old, I was surprised I could accomplish this too. Go me! I get to the area between the boulders and there is a nice tree that has fallen, so I basically could slide down to the granite floor. Woohoo! I felt like I should leave and buy a lottery ticket. Now, I just had to find a way to get to my lens hood, without getting my feet too wet. I hear something to my right, so I look up on the huge rock and there is Bella staring down at me. I am sure my mouth hit the granite surface at my feet and I drained of color. I have NO IDEA how she was able to get onto that boulder. NO IDEA. It was at least 12 feet high. Now, I am concerned that she will not be able to get down without breaking something; and now I must figure out how to get an 80-pound Rottweiler off a boulder.
I did quite well traversing over ice-covered rocks and fast-flowing water and finally reached my lens hood. I did a little jig of joy and then turned around and realized I had rejoiced too soon as I had to make it back and save Bella from imminent peril. I got back and pulled myself back over the tree trunk, over the boulder and then around the boulder, all the while, trying to figure out how I would get Bella down. I make my way around to the front of the boulders and low-and-behold, there was Bella, on the ground, wagging her tail at me, well, wagging her stub at me anyway (her tail is cropped). She was in one piece, but I have no idea how, as I could not understand how she got up there in the first place. I guess I will never know. One of the mysteries of life, I guess.
So, I head out onto another granite covered area, set my tripod back up, play with my camera settings and take maybe 20 or so more shots at different shutter speeds and aperture settings, attempting to make sure my ISO stayed at or below 400. I do not like grainy photographs. At this point, I have about 40 photographs. Anyone who knows me, knows that I believe you cannot take too many photographs ESPECIALLY when the light is not optimal, and you are playing with your camera settings. See, I’m old and the eyes are not as good as they used to be, so viewing on my camera screen is not always a good indicator of a good photograph. I just can’t tell. So, I usually take anywhere from 100 to 200 photographs when I head out on an excursion. At this point, I am at 40 photographs. I am in the process of attempting a different angle and Bella starts barking up a storm. I look over and there are a family of hikers coming up the trail. The older man starts coming towards me and Bella flips the freak out. I have NEVER seen her so upset in her short life. I tied her off to my waist again as I did not need her to go after the guy and tried to talk her down. She was VERY upset. She was even scary to ME. I still attempted to get my camera settings correct for the new area and I look up and the three individuals are now walking across right where I am attempting to shoot. If the light was good, I could probably get some great shots of the falls with the people for reference, but the light was not good and without being able to get a good shot with depth of field, the shots would be useless. So, I pack up my camera and tripod and headed out. Bella is still barking up a storm and she is tied to my waist – pulling to get to the guy walking in our area. He seems a tad intimidated, which makes me feel a tad safer. Let’s be real, I do not want to be one of those “do not hike alone” cautionary tales. So, yes, Bella being protective is a happy development.
I will admit to having a little bit of an attitude problem as my trip was cut short because three people could not allow me to get a few more shots. They did not even hesitate, they just walked along the granite area that my camera was focused on and did not even think twice. Now, it is cold (around 25°F) and windy, so they weren’t going to be swimming anytime soon and they did not have a camera on them, so why they felt the need to walk out on the granite shoulder while I was taking photographs, I do not know. Despite this being the “land of the free”, I had hoped that hikers would be a little more aware of their surroundings and perhaps give me a few minutes to finish up.
The man that had come into the area where Bella and I were – was attempting to climb the boulder that Bella climbed. I told him about the cable on the far side of the first boulder. Not only was he not able to climb the boulder that Bella must have walked up, but he was unable to climb the cable and get onto the boulder either. Take that to those of you that thought I was THAT out of shape. A fully grown 30something couldn’t do it and “I” did. Woohoo! Yeah me! 😊
So, with a seething Bella pulling at my waist, I attempted to traverse the icy rocks and strong-flowing water to the trail side of the brook. Bella decides she wants to go first, but she is tied to me at the waist and it is only a short bungee type leash. She gets on the rock in front of me and is stopped because I haven’t started across, so she sits on the boulder. I tell her to go, but of course, she doesn’t listen, and this hesitation causes me to step into the current and the water flows over and into my boot.
Once Bella gains her wits, she starts barking up a storm again, as said man starts to the trail side of the brook also. Bella had walked up the trail a bit as I pulled my old, fat body up the side of the brook area and her barking was even intimidating to ME. The guy says, “does she bite?” and I say, “not that I am aware of, but this is the first time she has acted like this”. His eyes got big and he stops walking and stares at Bella. HEHEHE. A little bit of satisfaction was had. 😊 I decide not to take a chance with Bella and this guy and tie her off to my waist belt again and head down the trail back to the car – all the while grumbling about a wasted trip.
Well, I am not nothing if not well-prepared for failure. I opened my “Waterfalls in New England” book and looked for nearby waterfalls. Screw Auger Falls in Grafton Notch State Park was just up the road in North Oxford, so I decided that it would not hurt to head up there to try to get some pics.
This little excursion really could not be called an excursion as it was only a few steps to the waterfall from the parking lot, however, it proved to be a Bella nightmare. This area is a very popular area, even in the off-season. Bella had to be tied to my waist at all times and she was not happy when anyone walked anywhere near me. Now, it needs to be said, that this dog has been socialized since she was a pup. She goes to work each day with my husband and sits in a police station all day. The people come in and out and she has no issue with them and my husband, but I take her hiking and all heck breaks loose.
So, I set up my tripod at the first falls and a similar occurrence happens here as at Step Falls. People show up and walk out to the area and despite it being off-season for swimming or anything else, they need to be standing right next to the water. The light is still bad, and I must be up and away from the falls to get a photograph, so the people running to and fro just do not work for me. I decide to move on.
I had never been to the area, so I attempted to find a good angle to shoot this waterfall, but it is in a tight ravine and it just doesn’t seem possible, so I am hoping if I walk downstream, I can get a better angle. Unfortunately, the trail has a lot of ice and I am sliding everywhere. My camera equipment is on my back, so falling is not an option. I head back in the direction I came and see an opening in the rock where I can get a good shot of the waterfall.
Bella is tied to my waist, so crawling up a rock ledge is tricky as she must be standing right next to me. I decide to lay down on the rock is the only way that I am going to get a photograph of this particular falls. I get my tripod set-up while Bella barks and barks and barks and barks and barks. I keep telling her to be quiet, but again, she does not listen. Now, I am easily rattled, and her barking is rattling me. I am working hard to find the right settings on my camera for the light, hoping for a good long-exposure shot. I am new to this “manual” crap and it takes time and concentration. I cannot concentrate with her barking and eventually, I bellow at her to be quiet and low-and-behold – she does. However, within just a couple of seconds, Bella jumps onto my back and up onto a boulder above me at the edge of the ravine. I am not sure of the total drop, but it is significant. If she falls, she is attached to my waist. We are both going over. As my life is flashing before my eyes, I take a few more shots of the waterfall and contemplate my predicament. Bella has the leash pulled taut and is precariously close to the edge of the rock face. My range of motion is limited. I take my camera off the tripod and put the lens cap on. I slowly collapse the tripod as far as it will go and then I slowly roll on my side adjusting the belt accordingly, so I can move. I get to my knees, which hurts profusely as both have been operated on and kneeling for me is an activity of my past. I fight the pain and pull at Bella to come down towards me as I can’t stand on the lower rocks until she comes down to the rock face that I am kneeling on. There is limited space for her to jump as it is not a big area and again I worry about her going over the side. Eventually, we worked it all out and I was never so happy to get her into the car and head home as I was that day.
So, what do we take from this little excursion? Google Maps is the bomb. I am doing better with my camera in manual mode AND Bella does not have ANY fear or self-preservation tendencies. While I am excited that Google Maps is working well for me and that I am “learning”, Bella’s safety is a huge concern for me. I must get her to those doggy obedience classes!!!
Whatever you may think of this trip, my next trip had even more trials and tribulations, but that is a story for another time…..
December 27th, 2017
Take 7: Angel Falls, Township D, Maine November 18, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-6”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some hiking excursions far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. My husband lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. However, hiking on my own presents new issues with my sudden difficulty with heights and my long-term fear of being alone in the woods….
I chose Angel Falls for this excursion because it was rated 5.0 out of 5.0 in the “New England Waterfalls”, by Greg Parsons and Kate Watson, that I downloaded on my Kindle just a few days prior. Another perk for me was that this waterfall was located in Township D, which means it is fairly remote. The books states that Angel Falls has granite walls that reach a height of 115 feet, with a 25-foot gap at the top of the wall provides the 90-foot plunge of water. This sounded like a good waterfall to start with. The hike was a little less a mile up and a mile back. If figured my fat old body could at least walk two miles. What could happen?
I do not believe that I have mentioned my ADHD (laziness is more accurate) when it comes to reading information completely. I got excited when I saw the rating and the short distance I had to hike to view the falls. I completely skipped over everything else about the trip and went straight to the directions to get there. Now, this proved to be a bit of an issue. See, it is now November 18th in an area of Maine that the cold hits first. So, a little more information may have been helpful. Like perhaps the statements from the book “We have heard of some difficulties of crossing this stream during periods of high water” and “…the trail skips back and forth across the brook before reaching the base of the falls”. Had I read this would it have made a difference? I would like to say yes, but, in all honesty, probably not. However, it was this little piece of information that shaped my first hike alone in the woods.
So, Amazon/UPS let me down this time and the bungee leash for Bella that would have clipped to a belt around my waist did not come in. UPS decided my leash needed to be shipped to southern Maine, instead of central Maine, so it was late. Not to be deterred from my plans, I grabbed a retractable leash and headed out. For those of you that missed Take 6, Bella is my 11-month old Rottweiler. No, she has not had obedience classes, which will be evident in this and ALL the upcoming stories to date. Do not worry, it’s my New Years Resolution to solve that little issue.
On this trip, I threw VZ Navigator to the way-side and used Google Maps. What a wonderful piece of technology. I was completely amazed. I plugged Angel Falls into Google, it found it on a map, provided directions and it even downloaded those directions onto my phone for me because reception was intermittent in the area. What a concept!! (one that VZ Navigator desperately needs to work out)
Bella and I left the house around 6:30 AM. It would have been earlier, but Bella has an issue getting out of bed. No really, she does. Bella likes to go to bed around 7:00 pm at night. She passes out on my couch no matter what is going on. When my husband tries to get her up at 9:00 to go out and go to the bathroom before we go to bed, she growls at him (yes, we need obedience classes). She lets him know that she is NOT happy with him – EVERY NIGHT. Each morning, my husband is up at 5:30 AM. Bella says, “screw that crap” and stays in bed with me. I must get myself up by 5:50 AM, because it takes me ten minutes to get Bella out of bed each morning. She stretches and groans, rolls on her back, stretches some more…lays back down…groans….stretches again. You get the picture. The dog really needs her beauty sleep. ANYWAY, I can’t leave until she is up and fed and forget eating at 6:00 -no freaking way! She’s not even coherent until almost 6:30. If dogs could drink coffee, she would definitely be a coffee drinker. She is the absolute worst to get up in the morning and that is saying a lot since I raised three teenage boys. So, anyway, yes, we left at 6:30 and missed the sunrise, because I have a lazy-ass dog.
About 9:00 AM, Bella and I arrive at our destination. Now, I need everyone to get the big picture here. I am on a logging road in the middle of FREAKING NOWHERE! It is SNOWING; the wind is blowing, and it is freaking cold. I open the car door and Bella dashes out and decides snow is awesome. She starts darting in all directions and then throwing herself to the ground rolling and groaning. I am sure she was glad the 2-1/2-hour drive was over, but it was evident the snow was something she was happy to see again. So, I’m worried some big logging truck is going to run her over before I can get her under control, so this is the first bout of panic that sets in on this trip. I haven’t gotten my warm clothes on yet; my dog is darting to and fro in the road and the visibility is bad due to the snow and wind. I quickly get my coat and boots on, put Bella on the leash, throw my backpack on my back and head out.
Now, Bella walks with my husband and I all the time. However, we walk out behind our house on some old logging roads. Bella runs loose. She is good about staying close, so there has never been any need for a leash. I’m not sure if you have caught on yet, but Bella has her own mind how things should be. She decided this day, that she did not want to be on a leash. She takes that retractable leash in her mouth and decides a good game of tug-of-war is in the game plan. She starts yanking on it, which of course doesn’t matter because its retractable, so at first, I just laugh at her. Silly dog, I say. Bella is no dummy though and pulls and pulls and pulls until she does have an effect. So, I’m in the remote woods of Maine, trying to get my 11-month old Rottweiler to stop yanking me back and forth while I walk down the side of the logging road. I decide once we get into the woods that she’s going loose. She has orange on her harness and I have a huge orange collar around her neck, we should be safe.
We come to the beginning of the trail to the falls which basically starts at a brook. Now, we had some heavy rains the week prior. I thought this would be a blessing when photographing a waterfall, however, it was NOT a good thing when you must cross a very wide brook that is knee deep in areas. This was a WIDE stream. WIDE. I am old and not as nimble as I once was. Bella takes one look and says – yeetah, water! I look at it and realize, I am crossing a stream that could end my trip before it begins as it is wide, deep and the rocks are covered with ice. Bella runs right across and looks at me from the trail, like she wants me to hurry. I surveyed the area and figured how I would attempt this crossing and just decided that I drove 2-1/2 hours, I WAS crossing this freaking stream. Through sheer will, I crossed this stream without incident. Yea, me! Who says life ends after 50. Not I! I was feeling invincible. That feeling did not last long.
Bella and I walk without incident about a half mile. I know this because I am using my Map My Runn App. As I have stated in previous “takes”, this Map My Run App is invaluable to someone who is directionally-challenged. I have a hard time with left and right and I get turned around easily. So, to take off alone in the woods without something to direct me - would be ill-advised. You can follow your path right back to where you started. Technology is grand. Anyhow, Map My Run says I have walked a half mile, so I’m getting excited. I take a few more steps and I am on a huge boulder watching water cascade over the first small waterfall/cascade on the trail. I realize quickly that I must cross over this brook AGAIN. Dear God….everything is icy, the water is high, so the current is strong. Bella takes one step onto the ice and falls through. This ends the carefree excitement of my 11-month old Rotty. She quickly crosses the area and looks at me like “what the heck did you get us into?”. I sigh, pull up my big girl panties and cross the brook. I look back and realize, I must get across this on the way back too. Something to look forward to…NOT!
We do not walk but a few feet when the trail crosses the brook AGAIN. Dear God…what DID I get us into? I find an area that I feel that I can make it, I make quick work of it and am on the other side, but Bella refuses to cross. I call her and try to coax her across, but she is just looking at me like “please, do not make me do this”. I go back across the brook and survey my surroundings…well, maybe I can go up this hill and come down the other side and miss this crossing. The “hill” is straight up. I am not blowing smoke up your butt, it is straight up. For a youngin’, perhaps less of an issue, but for an old-out of shape-woman, it was touch and go. I get up and over and realize it is a rock face on the other side and there is no way to pass or perhaps the people responsible for the trail, would have had us go that way, right? Sheeesh. So, I climb back down (slide my ass back down the hill) and contemplate my options. I could turn around and head home….no photographs to show for my death-defying brook-crossing antics or my 2-1/2-hour drive. I look at Bella and the trail ahead and say, “gosh darn it – let’s give it another go”. I cross in the same area that I successfully completed previously, and she follows behind me like it was not even an issue. Dang dog.
So now I am across the brook again and I realize that in five or six steps, we cross this winding brook AGAIN. This time, it is not so easy to cross. The water is knee deep, moving swiftly and the surrounding rocks are completely covered by ice. Bella crossed through the water, she did not care that it was ice cold. She was just happy for the lack of ice where she crossed. I was not so lucky. I slipped on the ice and my boot went down and under the ice-cold water. So, now, I am .2 miles from Angel Falls and my boot is full of ice-cold water. Ahhhh, nature at its finest!
I contemplate life while sitting on the far side of the brook. If I turn around at this point, I miss the falls and I must cross back over the brook four times and would have nothing to show for my time and effort. I could push forward and hope that my foot will stay warm due to the effort I am exerting through the hike. Bella took off up the trail, so I had my answer. We were going to push on.
I am so glad Bella made that decision because I went around the next corner and I could hear the rush of water. I turned another corner and there was Angel Falls. It was gorgeous. It was surrounded by ice covered granite and I was so happy I had pushed myself to get to the top. However, this waterfall is surrounded by trees and it is snowing. The light was not conducive to photographing this gorgeous waterfall, so a trip next spring is imminent. I did get a couple of decent shots out of the 200 or so shots that I took. I worked with shutter speed and aperture and tried to get that perfect shot despite the low-light issue. However, it was cold up there, my boot was wet, and Bella looked like if I took another photograph she was going to head back without me….so we made the trek back to the car.
The trip back was just as difficult as the way up. As I packed up my cameras, tripod, etc., I noticed how dark it was in the woods and the fear started to creep in. On the way up, the excitement of viewing the falls overshadowed my nerves, but now that the excitement had ended, I realized I was alone, in the remote Maine woods. There is absolutely no cellphone reception and it is dark, cold and snowy. I may have walked a tad faster on the way down. Bella was happy with the development and while she struggled in a couple of icy areas, she seemed to get a handle on the “ice” issue for the most part. I followed my Map My Run App and that blue line right back down the hillside as quickly as my old legs could carry me.
We get back to the brook at the beginning of the trail and I can’t find a good way to cross back over to get to the car. I go to the area I crossed earlier in the day and I could not see how I got across there. I went up and down the brook looking for a good area. Bella – just looked at me like I was stupid and walked right across. I finally decided the vehicle was only about ½ mile or less, so who cares if I get my boot(s) wet again. I trudged through an area with high hopes of getting across unscathed. No dice. I fell like dead weight into the brook (with $2K of camera equipment in my backpack) and came out with not only two boots full of ice-cold water, but very wet pants and jacket. A few new bruises for my efforts also. What a great day. Perhaps staying in bed with Bella until noon was a better option.
I contemplate the outcome of the day for a few seconds and elect to think of this event in a positive light; I decide I am glad this particular incident (falling into the water) happened on the way out and not on the way in and trudge towards the car. I decide I better get Bella on a leash in case a fast-moving logging truck treks by. She immediately starts the tug-of-war game again. So, here I am, soaking wet and cold, walking towards my vehicle, ice-cold wind whipping in my face with my well-behaved Rottweiler pulling at her leash while growling and hopping up and down like a rabbit. I figure if there are any hunters in the area, there is entertainment value here.
We get back to the car, I put Bella in the back with a treat, while I pull off my wet clothing and pull on some dry things. Let me tell you, once you are cold like that, it takes quite a while to warm up. I had a 2-1/2-hour drive home with the heat on high and I was still chilled when I got home. Note to self – bring extra warm clothes when hiking in the winter AND GET BELLA signed up for OBEDIENCE LESSONS.
One would think that this experience may deter future, ill-advised, solo hiking trips, but alas, you would be wrong, but that is a story for another time……
December 27th, 2017
Take 6: Mosher Hill Falls – November 4th, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-5”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some kayaking excursions far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. This issue has only increased with time. I blame it on my long-term relationship with my husband (over 35 years), I have become dependent on him to get me where I need to go. He does not kayak, has no interest in kayaking and quite frankly lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. However, now it is hunting season and getting colder - kayaking is no longer an option.
So, as I said in “Take 5”, hunting season was an issue on the waters in my area as gun fire was prevalent during duck, goose, moose and deer season. I had heard that up in Northern Maine, they hunt from the water and knew that capturing wildlife on my kayak was not going to happen. To complicate matters, with fall, comes rough waters and with a few thousand dollars-worth of camera equipment in my kayak, it was time to find a new adventure.
I struggled with what to do with myself. I was searching for ideas online and came across a few books on short hikes. There is nothing more powerful than Amazon and a Kindle when you want information. I started looking for short hikes and came across “New England Waterfalls” by Greg Parsons and Kate Watson. I downloaded that sucker immediately. Woohoo! While being in the woods during hunting season sounds more dangerous than being on the water, I had a theory: most hunters avoid areas where they know people will be walking as it scares away their deer, moose, etc. So, I decided to try this theory out on a short trip to Farmington, Maine and Mosher Hill Falls.
I was not feeling “independent” the week prior to my trip and asked my husband to go with me. This was for two reasons. I spend an exorbitant amount of time alone. I work in a small office, normally by myself for seven to nine hours a day. I drive 45-minutes to and from work each day. I watch my one-year-old grandson a lot in the evenings/nights (my daughter works 7pm to 7 am and her husband is out to sea). He goes to bed by 8:30 pm and then I am alone - again. I also have a deep-rooted fear of being alone in the woods. So, my master plan was to take my husband hiking with me and he would remember all the fun times we used to have hiking when we were younger, and he would want to join me on my future waterfall hikes. I am just too smart in my old age.
Well, that is not what happened. The trip started off well-enough. We followed the directions in my New England Waterfalls book and did not get too lost. It was apparent we didn’t completely understand the landmarks expressed in the directions and struggled a little bit as the trailhead is not marked. I was a tad uptight that my husband would give up, but he did not and delivered me to the trailhead with only a few minutes wasted. He is so handy to have around.
The hike into Mosher Hill Falls is a very short one. We got to the top of the falls and I quickly realized that my decade or so long hiatus from hiking had changed me. I am no longer the dare devil I once was. The ledge bothered me, walking anywhere near the edge bothered me. This perturbed me for a few reasons. For those of you under 40, you may not understand; but those of you over 45, I am sure you can commiserate. As you creep towards 50, things start to…… break down, wither, disappear and fall apart. I have somewhat accepted that I am getting older and am becoming more “limited”. SOMEWHAT ACCEPTED. My knees have already been operated on once, so there’s that. My balance is not what it used to be, and my waistline increases annually around the holidays. (Sue me, I like sweets and lack the motivation to exercise the extra pounds off – so they stick - right around my butt and thighs.) My lack of a good exercise routine has decreased my strength and flexibility, which affects my mobility when hiking. So, between my memory being non-existent, my knees protesting frequently, my expanding waistline and being completely out of shape, this new development that I have somehow become afraid of heights was hard to take. I vowed that I would get back to hiking and get over this new-found hatred for the high-level land and perhaps begin a new exercise routine. (probably a pipe dream)
So, once my husband laughed at me and my new-found fear for a few minutes, he then decides to help me get to the bottom of the falls, so I can finally capture some waterfall beauty. Now, I am anxious to get down there. I have studied long-exposure photography and I want to try that new-found knowledge out! Now, this sounds easy…hike to the bottom of the falls. What could go wrong? Hike down-stream and walk back up. Not as easy as it may sound. Perhaps it would not be an issue for you young-folk, but us old-folk, we struggled a tad. The water was high, which was an issue. Perhaps if we had hiked in the last decade, we may not have been quite so bad at it. It did not help that I was dealing with this new fear…. But we did it. We were able to scale down a rock wall and get to the base of the falls. This is where I figured out that hiking while doing photography with my husband was not going to happen in the future. Do any other photographers have this issue? My husband thinks you should grab your camera, snap a couple picks and be done. That is not how I roll. Yes, I set up my tripod and took a few photographs, but I wanted to do some long-exposure shots and perhaps take the shots from a few different angles. While he was good about it, I could tell his patience was running low near the end.
This trip, my trials and tribulations were not from being lost, but from leaving the better wide-angle lens at home. Welllllllll, maybe saying that was the better lens is a fallacy, but alas, I am still learning, so how am I to know? Years ago, when I bought my first digital camera, it came with a 18-105 lens. I loved this lens, but its over 12 years old and I am starting to have issues with the autofocus. I decided to buy a new lens and read some reviews and picked up a 24-120mm Nikkor. While this is a great lens, I am used to the 18-105 and so the new lens came up short, especially for this application. If you go to my site, you can see the waterfall comes down into a ravine – hence the reason my husband and I had to climb down into it. When God made this waterfall, he did not take photographers wishes into account. He certainly did not worry about novice photographers bringing a 24-120mm lens to a party that only ultra-wide-angle lenses should partake. I was able to find an area to take some photographs, but by the time I was happy with the angle, my husband was showing visual signs of impatience and I was worried my camera and tripod were going to be thrown down over a ravine and left for dead, so I snapped a few photographs and packed up and hiked back with him.
So, now I knew, I was on my own in my new hiking adventures. While I have a friend that offered to go with me, my daughter and she were working opposite weekends. In other words, our schedules did not match up. When she was off, I was responsible for my grandson’s care and vice-versa. In addition, I no longer wanted to worry about how many stops I made along the way or how long I took when I stopped. I wanted to be able to experiment with my camera. I wanted to learn to work in manual mode. I wanted to play with shutter speed and aperture. I now know that I cannot subject others to my craziness. I must learn to walk in the woods alone. Can I overcome a childhood fear at my age?
Walking in the woods alone has been a fear of mine since I was about seven or eight. The idea of Bigfoot came out in the mid-70’s, or at least that is when I became aware of it. I was young and impressionable….and then the Six-Million Dollar Man episodes with Bigfoot came out. Bigfoot beat the crap out of the bionic man. What would he do to me? The fear was real and now cemented into my psyche. I know I am older now and supposedly wiser, but while meeting Bigfoot in the wild was not a prevalent concern, wolves, bears and large cat creatures (cougars, mountain lions) were a huge concern – justified or not. In my distant past, I loved to hike, but my husband or friends were always with me. So, this was something I was going to have to get over…..or did I?
I have three dogs. I have a husky (Sky), that I can’t let loose, or I would never catch him. He takes off as fast as a deer being chased by a coyote and is just as hard to catch. I decide he is not an option, because if he did get loose, he would be lost in the northern Maine woods – probably never to be seen again by me. I decide it is not worth the risk. Then there is Emma; she is a seven-year-old black lab. She, like me, has an expanded waistline and could use the exercise, but I was afraid she would not take well to the long drives. She gets obviously uptight when we take her to camp, which is less than 25-minutes from my home. I do not believe she would take well to the hour and a half to two-hour car rides to the northern Maine woods. So, my only option was Bella, my 10-month old Rottweiler. She had been driving in my husband’s cruiser (police officer), since she was a small pup. I figured she could be trained to hike with me and she would be my hunting buddy for life. Who is going to mess with me when I have a Rottweiler tied to my waist right? So, I purchased the waist-belt, the bungee leash, and a harness and we headed out on our first adventure….this is where life gets interesting…..but that is a story for another time…..
December 21st, 2017
Third Roach Pond, Shawtown Township, Maine. October 6th, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-4”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some kayaking trips far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. This issue has only increased with time. I blame it on my long-term relationship with my husband (over 35 years), I have become dependent on him to get me where I need to go. He does not kayak, has no interest in kayaking and quite frankly lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. In my journeys, my navigation tools are my Quiet Water book, VZ Navigator and the all awesome Map My Run App.
My severe issues with directions, specifically north, south, east, west, right, left and any other direction came into play with this trip. This trip could have ended a lot differently, but it is evident that the Lord has plans for me that do not entail being lost in the remote Maine woods until death.
My choice of visiting Third Roach Pond was based on false confidence achieved when I made it to the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge without any issues. Another factor that had a huge affect on this trip was my lack of knowledge of the northern Maine woods and the lack of consistent road names. Seems the locals call the road one thing and the Quiet Water book another even VZ Navigator had their own ideas.
This trip started out as did the others. I set off just before 3:00 AM with my VZ Navigator, Quiet Water book and my Map My Run App. I get within 40 or so minutes of my destination and the fog becomes thicker than pea soup. Now, I am in Northern Maine, so I have to worry about wildlife in the road and going off the side into a deep gully. My NZ Navigator is cutting in and out and now I have a HUGE logging truck behind me ON MY BUTT. I struggle with directions anyway…and with this guy on my butt, it is becoming increasingly difficult to drive as slow as I would like and concentrate on my NZ Navigator directions. At one point, the VZ Navigator cuts out just before an intersection. I make a quick, best guess decision and head off to the left. The road is getting more and more narrow, the truck is so close, I can read his license plate and VZ Navigator comes on long enough to say “make a u-turn when possible”. F*ck a duck. Excuse my language, but how the hell do I do this? Trees are on both sides of the road and I have a very impatient truck driver behind me. I drive about five more miles before I find a place to pull to the side that I am relatively sure will not get me into a ditch or with a flat tire. Mr. Impatient passes me and I turn around and drive the 10-15 miles back to the missed right turn. So, now I am an hour behind schedule…but alas, I come to the sign that states the Medawisla Lodge and Cabins. Now, this is where all is lost….I misinterpret the area and the directions in the Quiet Water book and head up a long winding road. It is still dark and I am on remote roads in Maine. After realizing that I have been driving for over thirty minutes and I am not where I need to be, I turn on my Map My Run App. I have not turned off any roads, it was a straight shot, so I head back now figuring out that while the sign was there for the Medawisla Lodge, that was not the “turn-off” for the lodge. I drive back down this road for another thirty minutes and find my way up the correct road. Now, I am guessing again that the next road that is marked Medawisla Lodge is the actual access road and pass the turn-off and keep going. I drive for a few miles and there are splits in the road, I have no idea which is the correct road, I drive and drive and come to areas that the road is only as wide as my vehicle, more like a four-wheeler trail and there are huge areas dug from the roads to facilitate drainage. The RAV makes it over these areas without bottoming out, but it’s not easy – driving is very slow. I drive the allotted mileage indicated in the Quiet Water Book and there is absolutely nothing there. Did I veer off in the wrong direction at the forks in the road? I have absolutely no idea. I’m in the middle of the woods on a road no better than a four-wheeler trail – no place to turn around…the sun has come up and I am as nervous as cat in a Chinese restaurant. I am basically lost in the remote woods of Maine. Driving over horrible roads with sharp rocks…what if I get a flat or break down? There is no cell phone service and hasn’t been for over an hour. How long would it take me to hike out of there and find someone? I give myself about fifteen more minutes of driving before I decide to cut my losses and head home before something DOES happen.
I grab my lunch (apple muffin) and my water and head back down the road at a very slow rate of speed. At one point, I had seen a hiking trail sign, so I decided perhaps, I could grab some photographs down the trail… forgetting that being alone in the woods, scares the bejesus out of me. So, I arrive at this hiking trail sign and guess what it says? “Third Roach Pond - .2 miles”. God certainly works in mysterious ways. Now, I have missed sunrise, but at least I do not need to hike in the woods in the dark, right? However, I do have to haul my kayak, two cameras, floatation device, paddles, towels, water, cellphone, etc. down a hill. Now, I do not want to drag my kayak and luckily my camera bag is a backpack so I can hike with it on my back. I throw as much as I can in the backpack, but unfortunately with two cameras (one with a HUGE lens), there is not a whole lot of room. Keeping in mind, I am an out of shape, 51-year old woman, because quite frankly, I am pretty proud of myself for making this trip down over the hill. I throw the backpack over my shoulders, put the paddles, flotation device and my other necessities within the kayak and pick her up by the opening and start walking down over the .2 mile hill. It does not take long for my anxiety over the remoteness of the area to set in. What if a bear comes and eats me? What if I fall and I can’t get up? (no cell phone reception). What if there is a mountain lion or a wolf or a skunk with rabies? I think of every bad thing that can happen…so when I finally get down over the hill, I quickly jump in my kayak and take off. Luckily for me, Map My Run was already running or I would have gotten lost. While Third Road Pond is oval in shape, where I launched was not obvious while on the water. I paddle around this remote pond looking for shots with better composition as I have learned this is extremely important. I may be in a beautiful place, but if I am not aware of this piece, no one seems to enjoy my photographs. Well, this proves to be somewhat of an issue as the pond doesn’t have a whole lot of inlets with pretty trees at this point. Many have lost their leaves or the trees had previously died. Hampering my success is that I am just learning what to look for. Therefore, I take a couple hours just paddling around looking for “what looks good”. Within about an hour and a half, the wind picks up and the clouds start to form…I lose my light. I haven’t seen ANY wildlife except a couple of EXTREMELY shy loons and an eagle about two miles in the air circling. Dang thing wouldn’t come down and grab a fish…NOOOOO. Anyway, I begin to realize that perhaps getting back to my vehicle would best be completed sooner than later. As the rough waters are pounding my kayak and making photography basically an impossibility. I paddle and paddle and paddle…did I really paddle that far? Yes, I did…(I look at Map My Run) Then, it started to sprinkle. I have a .2 mile walk once I reach my put in – which doesn’t sound bad but I have to CARRY my kayak UP THE HILL with my relatively expensive camera equipment. REMINDER: FAT, OUT OF SHAPE AND 51 YEARS OLD! I paddle into the cove where I entered. Finding the put in was not as easy as it sounds as it is in dense woods. I really had to search for where I put my kayak into the water. I actually was nervous that I would not find it, but luckily I just followed the blue line from my Map My Run App and eventually VOILA!
So, I pack myself up as I did on the way down, but carrying the kayak up the hill proved to be a little more difficult that coming down and due to this I was even more anxious about ill-meaning wildlife. I decided pulling my kayak up over the grassy areas beside the trail sounded like a super idea. So, I put the kayak down and pulled it up the hill. At one point, I look down and I have three ticks on me. Ticks are a problem in Maine in recent years and I was not too happy about this development as I also wanted to go to the bathroom before I left. Use your imagination on that one. So, with a lot of struggling and grunting, the kayak and I reach the top of the hill and I see the wonderful sight – my blue RAV4. Wooohooo! I made it! Success! Well, success without the wildlife, but alas, I’m not dead or bleeding in the remote woods of Maine – so there IS that. I put my kayak in the back of the RAV and head back the way I came.
Now as I am driving I am aware of two things. I am in the freaking middle of no-where. I haven’t seen a person or vehicle ALLLLLLLLL day. Second, I didn’t realize due to my anxiety, just how beautiful my drive up this remote road was. I stop several times to take photographs along my drive out. The fall colors were out and in some areas, it was breath-taking. It was a very long drive out from the pond. It seemed longer than on the way in. I had left my Map My Run App on which was a good thing as there were forks in the road on the way back that made me scratch my head. I eventually found my way out, but to say it was not an anxiety ridden drive would be a lie. I was never so happy to see Lily Bay Road in my life.
Another trip without any wildlife, but this trip did teach me a few things. VZ Navigator is useless. I definitely need to find another way. Second, I can find my way. I may get lost – really lost, but my will perseveres every time (or is it sheer luck?). Only God knows.
As a cautionary tale, I need to also tell you that I woke up in the middle of the night due to a significant need to scratch an area on my back. In my foggy brain, I think “no, it can’t be”. “Please do not be a tick”. It WAS a tick. I head out of the bedroom careful not to wake the dogs or my husband and head straight into the bathroom. I quickly realize that a 51-year old woman who lacks an exercise routine is not as limber as they once were. I can’t reach the stupid thing. Can this wait until morning? No, not if I want to sleep. So, I bite the big one and wake my husband. He removes the tick and then finds he has a tick on his nether region. At least we got a laugh about that for a few days. Hehehe Anyway, I had removed all my clothes and showered when I got home. Therefore, if you hike, hunt or do anything in the woods, have someone check you for ticks. No one needs Lyme disease. It reminds me of that Brad Paisley song. Hehehe (For the record, I had put on Deep Woods Off that morning)
The next few weeks include babysitting my grandson and bad weather, so I do not head out again until the end of October. Unfortunately, duck and deer season were gearing up and that posed a significant danger to my well-being and also limited my ability to see wildlife. Gun shots do not bring the wildlife running out into the open. Sad, but true. I went out the last week in October and the duck/goose hunters were lighting up the Androscoggin River in Turner and it was apparent that I would definitely NOT see any wildlife for a few weeks. SO, I needed to venture even further out of my comfort zone and find other opportunities.
During the next week, I brainstorm ideas of ways to avoid hunters and also get out and get some photographs, but THAT is a story for another time……
December 21st, 2017
Magalloway River, Umbagog Lake – Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge (Maine & New Hampshire) September 22, 2017
For those of you whom missed “Takes 1-3”, I am a 51-year old woman who just started to exert her independence and head out on some kayaking trips far from home. It is important to note that I am directionally-challenged as this explains a lot of my trials and tribulations on my trips. This issue has only increased with time. I blame it on my long-term relationship with my husband (over 35 years), I have become dependent on him to get me where I need to go. He does not kayak, has no interest in kayaking and quite frankly lacks the patience to deal with my excessive need to stop and photograph what I see. For this reason, I had no choice but to buck-up and adventure off on my own. In my journeys, my navigation tools are my Quiet Water book, VZ Navigator and the all awesome Map My Run App.
As I noted in past “takes”, my goal this fall was to capture photographs of a bull moose. I had happened upon a cow (female moose), on the Androscoggin River in Turner the year prior, but really wanted to capture a moose with a big rack. I have chosen my destinations based on what the Quiet Water book told me about wildlife in the area. On this trip, I decided to try the Magalloway River and Umbagog Lake in the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge in Errol, NH.
My trip started out like all the others. VZ Navigator cut out about ten miles before my destination. However, this time, my husband and I had googled the area, so I knew EXACTLY what I was looking for…I arrived at my destination just after the sun started to come up and was off down the Magalloway River before the sun peaked over the trees. The area was gorgeous. The trees were starting to change for the fall and there was a foggy mist starting to break up along the river. I was so excited. I figured I would see deer and HOPED for a moose – so I paddled as quietly as possible down the river. On this trip, the Map My Run App was very important. I get turned around so easily and I KNOW I would have struggled to get back to my starting point – had I not turned that sucker on. The Magalloway River flows into Umbagog Lake and there are many inlets to explore and Umbagog Lake is HUGE, so for someone like me – this spells disaster. However, with this app, I can see where I have been and where I am headed. I am SOOOO glad for THAT technology. All I had to do was follow the blue line to get back on track and back to the launch site. A good app to use even if you THINK you can find your way back. Better safe than sorry.
I paddled and paddled and took many photographs, however, I did not see any wildlife even after an hour into my journey. I did, however, think that I caught some pretty photographs of the sun coming up, so I was pretty happy about that. As I reached Umbagog Lake, I turned into an inlet and jumped something in the woods. While I was happy to know that I wasn’t alone in this refuge, I jumped what sounded like a large animal(s), I was pretty upset as I figured I had scared away my only chance at a moose. I tried to paddle around the wooded area to catch the creature coming out the other side, but alas, I saw NOTHING. I was fairly upset, but looked around at the beauty around me and got to taking photographs of the area again. About 20 minutes or so later, I paddled back out of the inlet and onto the river and headed downstream. I was still upset at my miss, so I decided to at least capture some Canadian geese that were in the next boggy area. The water was low as we hadn’t had much rain and there were areas that my kayak bottomed out – so I had to push myself back and paddle around. I pull my camera up to start taking photographs of the geese and I hear splashing behind me about 100 or so yards. I look up and there is a cow, bull and calf. I have to believe my jaw dropped and my heart hit the bottom of my kayak. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity, but I was fairly far away and the lighting was not great. I took a few photographs as the cow and calf crossed the boggy area and I paddled the best I could around the low spots towards the moose, knowing that I didn’t want to get too close. After all, it was apparent that the moose could run out of the area faster than I could paddle. As I paddled closer, the bull noticed me. He stopped and stared at me. Last year, on a trip into Baxter State Park, I was told not to approach a moose in rut. I do not profess to be educated on animal behavior and I had no idea when rut started or ended….so his scrutiny made me a tad nervous. Am I took close to his wife and kid? Will he come after me? I was pretty intimidated at this point, but of course, was still snapping shot after shot. He kept staring me down, so as I did when dealing with the last moose that was a bit too close, I spoke to him in what I call a soothing voice. Apparently, not soothing to Mr. Bull Moose. He takes off at a run across the boggy area. Now, I am so upset because all three moose are running AWAY FROM ME! I took a few more shots, the bull moose stopped and looked me over again and then all three headed into the woods. After the adrenaline rush subsided, shear glee entered my system. This is when the jig of joy dance began as this is what I was trying to accomplish for quite some time. I, may or may not have, screamed like a sixteen-year old girl that just got asked to prom by the best-looking guy in the school. To say I was extremely excited is definitely an understatement. I, then, took some time to say thank you to God for giving me the opportunity that I had been asking for…..over and over and over again. I must have said “thank you, God” at least 50 times that day. I paddled around the end of the Magalloway River and around the edge of the lake for about an hour or so and then consulted Map My Run and found my way back to where I had entered the river. I saw only one other canoe that day, which was about a half-mile from my launch site and that was it. I was very happy for my very quiet and fruitful trip.
The excitement still hangs with me today. There is nothing like achieving a goal. The photographs that I took weren’t earth shattering. Due to the quick nature of the encounter, the camera settings were set to automatic and that doesn’t always produce the best photographs. I am just learning with the manual mode and I certainly didn’t want to risk not getting ANY photographs in this encounter, so the “sport” button was the button of choice that day. I am hoping to become more confident in manual mode in the coming months. For now, better safe than sorry.
I wish I could tell you that my next trip to Third Roach Pond in Shawton Township went as well as this trip, but alas, that would be a complete and total lie. This trip cemented the fact that I needed a better navigation system and a cart to haul my kayak around…but this is a story for another time……
December 20th, 2017
Pontook Reservoir & Androscoggin River: September 15, 2017:
In case you missed takes 1 & 2, I am a 51-year-old woman who just recently decided she needed to live a little and get out of her comfort zone. I have been very dependent on my husband for navigation over the past 35 years (since high school), so I was very limited on where I dared to go by myself. This past fall, I decided if it wasn’t now, it would be never. Unfortunately, there have been many trials and tribulations associated with this decision. I am severely directionally-challenged as I barely know my right from my left (I have to hold my left hand up to make an “L” to know which side is left), my brain does not process east, west, north and south. So, if any of you want a good laugh at my expense or to learn what “not to do”, this blog entry is for you.
Now, we are in the third weekend of September and my first few weekends have been riddled with missteps. One would think I would learn my lesson with VZ Navigator and its short-comings, but alas, I stuck with what I knew, (as stupid as this sounds) but despite being lost for what amounts to a few hours, I DID eventually find my way. Why mess with what works right? If you read the first paragraph you know I am not much for trying new things. I stick with what I know.
I took off for Dummer, NH (Pontook Reservoir and Androscoggin River) at about 3:00 AM - armed yet again with my VZ Navigator, my Quiet Water book and the Map My Run App. My goal this fall was to capture some photographs of a bull moose and this was another area in the Quiet Water book that promised I would have opportunities. I was so excited, I barely slept the night before. This was it! I felt it!
Now, I really want to stress that I DO READ the weather reports for the areas that I plan to visit. I check them the day before, the night before (in case I have to change my destination) and the morning just before I leave. On this day, when I checked at 3:00 AM, the weather had changed from partly sunny to partly sunny with morning fog. That doesn’t sound so bad does it? Fog photographs are great! It will burn off! So, I head out. There are no hiccups on the way as I am a VZ Navigator professional follower of directions at this point. However, it keeps insisting that I have reached my destination, but alas, I can’t see anything because the fog is so thick, but it appears I am in the middle of nowhere with water on either side of the road. Which side is the side I need? Who knows at this point. That would mean understanding directions. I do know that I should be arriving at a boat launch and all I see is fog and more fog. The fog is literally pea soup thick. My headlights aren’t cutting through it at all. At this point, I am very concerned because it should be sunrise within a half hour and I haven’t even made the boat launch yet and I like to be on the water when that time comes, but I do not even see any light on the horizon it is so foggy. I ended up having to head back over 7 MILES to an intersection addressed in the directions in the Quiet Water book to follow THOSE directions to the boat launch. VZ Navigator was about a ½ mile off, which would have been fine if I could see, but alas, I could not. So, I arrive at the Pontook Reservoir at what should have been sunrise, but alas, I still could not see two feet in front of me. LITERALLY.
In my 51 year-old brain, I knew it was not safe to put my kayak in the water. 1) I did not know the area at all. 2) There is a dam releasing in the area and while it has an alarm, I have no idea how a water release will affect my kayak. 3) I can not see much beyond the end of my kayak 4) No one could see me either as I have no lights on my kayak. 5) Even if there was a moose two-feet from my kayak, my camera would not capture it as there was NO LIGHT WHATSOEVER. I’m not sure I mentioned in this “take”, but I’m not always the most mature decision maker on the planet. One could say, I’m pretty much in the bottom 10% of the planet when it comes to making good decisions in regards to my safety. I figured it would be out of character to stay onshore until the fog cleared, so I packed my kayak with my two cameras, lunch, floatation device, cell phone with the Map My Run App, towels and miscellaneous other items that I consider important. If I was a thin woman, this would be no problem, but as the age goes up, so does the size of my butt. The point is, packing the kayak is tricky….while I want to protect the cameras, I need to be able to get them out quickly as wildlife has never been very patient with me as I get my camera out from under the protective covering and around my ever-growing thick thighs. I also want to keep my cellphone handy, my Kindle as it has the information of the waterway also needs to be readily accessible. This is no easy task with my thighs..just sayin’. Anyway…. I pulled it off yet again, promising myself to work out more on the elliptical. (Empty promise)
I quickly turn on my Map My Run App and paddle away from the boat launch towards the far end of the reservoir. Now, since I kayak to take photographs this was a really stupid decision as if you can’t see anything! NOTHING. Well, I can see white fog – like I’m in a huge white, puffy cloud. Once I paddle out, I realize how dark it is being surrounded by white/gray fog. The ends of my kayak start to disappear in the fog. It was that thick. Quite scary actually. I certainly can’t take photographs of anything, but I figured – eventually the sun would win and the fog would burn off – it shouldn’t be long now, right? It was after 6:30 AM. I followed my Map My Run App around the outside of the reservoir towards the Androscoggin River. (Away from the dam area as far as I could tell) I cannot stress enough that I could not see ANYTHING. I am basically blind. The only way I knew where I could paddle was Map My Run App told me where the land was, so I could follow the outline of the shore/islands. I paddled around the reservoir for about an hour, then found my way to the base of the river. As I paddled into the river, I saw the sign that said “no swimming”, “danger” – “strong currents”. I still have no idea exactly where the dam is, but I figured it had something to do with the buoys that I had just seen as I came around the end of the reservoir just before I saw the sign. So, I’m heading onto the river and I hear the alarm. I’m sure I turned a nice shade of white despite my summer tan. Keepi in mind, it is still EXTREMELY foggy (cloud of white, remember?), I have no idea where I am and what effect the increase in current will have on my kayak. That got my heart beating a little faster than normal and I paddled my kayak up the river as fast as I could. In the back of my mind I was thinking about how long it would take for someone to find me if I had a heart attack right there. Luckily, it affected me very little and I was able to get up the river relatively easily. I paddled for three hours on the Androscoggin River – in the dense fog. I did get a few fog photographs which are on my site. Nothing earth shattering, but they provide me with a memory at least. I was still taking fog photographs at 10:30 in the morning. I had to head back as I had to watch my grandson at 3:00 and it was a long drive. Just as I turn my kayak back into the reservoir area to head home, the sun breaks through the clouds and it’s a beautiful bright day. Grrrrr. My luck.
On my way back into the reservoir, I was able to photograph a loon eating an extremely large sucker fish. He worked for about 15 minutes on it. I was really worried I was going to have to do a loon Heimlich maneuver - the fish was so large, but he got it down. The photographs are on my site also. This was the highlight of the day.
Once the sun came out, it was hard to pack up the kayak and head home, but alas, the chance to be with Stetson (grandson) for a few hours had an allure of its own. So, I left yet another area without much of ANY photographs to show for my long drive and long kayak ride. My claim to fame this trip was the somewhat repulsive shots of a choking loon. Woohoo!
In case you did not pick up on it - NO MOOSE SIGHTINGS! I still had hope and a few more good weekends to kayak. The power of positive thinking!!!
My next trip was down the Magalloway River in the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge (Maine/New Hampshire) 😊, but that is a story for another time.....