Many well-laid plans have fallen apart this year. We aspirationally booked a weeklong Japan trip for spring 2022, but due to ongoing pandemic restrictions cancelled this and went exploring in the Four Corners region instead. In May, a trip to British Columbia was dropped last minute after our new adoptee Phoebe (a cat with behavioral history and a sensitive disposition) went to town on my leg. And in September, we had planned a hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies, but swapped this to a more tame weekend getaway in midcoast Maine after finding out we were expecting. Thus, for the second year in a row, we stuck to New England during peak autumn, taking a four-day foliage trip in Vermont spanning the holiday weekend. We visited Vermont exactly a year prior, but hadn’t spent enough time to truly explore the state’s northern corner, a beautiful region of forest, lakes, and pastoral villages known as the Northeast Kingdom. Since our brief morning in Peacham last fall, I’ve been dreaming of re-visiting this place, and have spent many hours scouting Google Earth and reading guides to get a sense of the region’s photographic opportunities. This trip, our final vacation as a travelling, childless couple, became one of the most memorable fall shoots I’ve ever had - a restful and much-needed creative boost to close out the year.
We leave Boston on Friday afternoon before the October holiday weekend; traffic is absolutely atrocious - essentially bumper-to-bumper from our home in the Longwood Medical Area, onto Storrow Drive, and all the way north to the New Hampshire state line. It’s already pushing 7 PM by the time we leave Massachusetts, and what was supposed to be a three hour jaunt to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont has been drawn out to a five-hour drive from hell. Passing through the White Mountains of Franconia Notch in the rain, we enter Vermont and leave the highway at the gateway town of Lyndonville. We drive along the shores of Lake Willoughby in the dark, reaching our accommodations (a cozy cabin on a hillside in Westmore) after 9 PM. For us, it’s a fancy instant ramen dinner (replete with vegetables and canned fish) before settling in for the night.
In the morning, we pack our breakfasts and head to the south shore of Lake Willoughby. It’s a cloudy, blustery morning; the wind comes whistling across the water, funnelled down the glacial trough between Mount Hor to the west, and Mount Pisgah to the east. Although the sunrise is muted, I shoot two timelapses on the beach here, using a group of boulders are the near shore as a foreground. Afterward, Jane and I drive up to nearby Long Pond, where the morning mist is beginning to dissipate. We shoot another timelapse here, along with several other lovely long shots - the mist clearing along the treeline; Bald Hill looming in the distance; and a pair of northern loons on the water, their signature clarion call a signal that we have come to the northern woods.
After our time beside Long Pond, we explore a nearby trailhead in the woods, admiring the beautiful colors carpeting the forest floor. Back on the road after a breakfast in the car (bread rolls, milk, chocolate, and dried fruit), we head southward toward Burke to explore a number of scenic viewpoints on the crest of Darling Hill. It is mid-morning now, and the sun is shining.
We meander along Darling Hill Road, stopping the car along the way to photograph the lofty valley views to either side. Dappled light is dancing across the ski slopes of Burke Mountain to our east, while to the west, the landscape rolls away clear toward the Green Mountains in the distance. Before Lyndonville, we swing back north and turn off onto Lost Nation Road, a well-maintained dirt road that climbs into the hills near East Haven. The autumn colors are at peak here, the hillside a glowing sea of red maples, birches, and oaks; we get out of the car to take a selfie at a particularly colorful overlook. Afterward, while Jane waits for me on the road, I descend the nearby stream to capture a few long exposures along Jack Brook. Afterward, we continue northward to the town of Island Pond for a refueling stop and a lunch break. We eat at the nearby Kingdom Grille (a burger and fries for me; a French dip sandwich with au jus dip for Jane), and I photograph a loon on the pond surface before we return south to Jobs Pond, a beautiful pond tucked beneath wooded slopes and granite cliffsides.
Here, during a routine battery change, disaster strikes: the battery mislatches and swells inside of my RX-10, becoming instantly stuck inside of the non-functioning camera. We quickly drive back to Ace Hardware in Island Pond, where the store employees kindly give us access to anything we need in the store to pry out the stuck battery. Jane and I hop around the aisles, trying unsuccessfully to McGyver a lever system using superglue, a fishhook, and a pair of kitchen knives. Finally, the cashier calls over a friend working in the construction department. Thanks to Grant and his “redneck ingenuity,” the battery is quickly dislodged. We offer to pay for the tools used, but the friendly folks at the store refuse to take a payment for anything except the super glue (thanks, Ace Hardware in Island Pond!). Having had enough excitement for one afternoon, we head west over the hills, back to our home in Westmore.
In the late afternoon, after a snack and a long nap, Jane and I drive to a hillside a few minutes up the road from our cabin to watch the sunset. We walk out a little distance across an open meadow, where the view faces downhill, opening up across miles of rolling hills and woodlands, westward toward Lake Willoughby and the setting sun. I set up the tripod for a sunset timelapse here, which Jane dutifully watches over as I walk around the meadow, shooting close-ups of the nearby trees and burning-bushes aglow in the golden-hour light. Afterward, we return home, enjoying a peaceful TV night with our snacks and our typical ramen dinner.
