Food and Fun in Early August

August 2-6, 2023                                                              Most Recent Posts:
Moose River Campground                                           The Turn Signal Saga
St Johnsbury Vermont                                           End of July at Peacham Bog

My favorite things to do are kayaking, hiking and of course reading.  Vermont is perfect for all three.   I continue to be amazed that I am in my 3rd month here and have not run out of small ponds, without power boats, on which to kayak.  Granted rain has made some days a wash out but still, during these 5 days in early August I was able to get out to two ponds and a hike.

NEWARK POND

The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife maintains more than 180 fishing access areas to small and large ponds and lakes.   I know they stock some and perhaps all ponds with fish.  They have a great website which lists all their pond access sites.  It has been my go to for ideas.

On Wednesday I visited Newark Pond.  It is 163 acres and 31 feet deep.  It is stocked with Bullhead, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, and Yellow Perch.

Not sure what these two were fishing for today.

I think I have seen loons on all of the ponds I have kayaked this summer.  It has been wonderful especially when there are chicks.

Both of the ponds I visited this week have small islands in them.  This is where the loons nest.  The islands are posted asking you not to disturb the nesting loons.

This fisherman was hanging out on top of a Beaver lodge.

I thought this was the same Great Blue Heron on the dock and walking around as I paddled by.  How amazing to have a Great Blue Heron in your yard.

He walked off the dock, around a tree in the yard.

Not sure if he was looking for something in the yard or my presence, though distant, caused his stroll but he returned to the dock and flew off.

As I followed him with my camera, he was joined by the Great Blue I’d seen earlier.  There were two, not one, as I’d assumed.

I was shocked when this loon brought the chick so close to my boat.   That is very unusual but perhaps I had floated too close to them with my eye in my wide angle lens camera.  Alone she might have flown but she would not leave her chick.

Another great day on the water.  SO glad I travel with a kayak.

On Thursday I drove to the Groton State Forest to visit one of several state parks there.  I had visited Seyon Lodge on my last trip in 2021 and had stopped at the Upper Valley Grill but found the lunch area closed.  Today I was returning to have breakfast there.

UPPER VALLEY GRILL AND GENERAL STORE

The Grill is about 30 miles from Moose River on the road to Seyon Lodge which is about 5 miles further on.   Being in the Northeast Kingdom means the population and the ponds are quite spread out.  Just the way I like it.  But everything is a bit of a drive.  I limit myself to a radius of less than an hour.

By the time I arrived it was 9:30 and the temperature was 68 degrees.  Pretty close to perfect in my mind.   So glad not to be anywhere further south, not even in southern Vermont.

The little Grille is on the far left.

I asked about the closed sign.  Since the store is open later than the grill they just keep the sign there.  I had seen it when I was here last time returning in the afternoon from Seyon Lodge.  Clearly this morning it was not closed.

You know you are in a great place when it has signs like these.

My breakfast of choice was made even more delicious by home made raspberry jam.

By the time I left, nearly every seat was taken.  I suspect this is a local favorite.

From there, I headed 5 miles on down the road to the State Park.

SEYON LODGE STATE PARK

In the 1890’s J.R. Darling built the dam to create the pond and a sawmill on this location at the headwaters of the Wells River.  After several other owners, Harry K Noyes bought the property in 1939 and made it into his private hunting and fishing camp.

He named it Seyon which is Noyes spelled backwards.   The state of Vermont bought the property in 1967 and developed the current facilities for public use.  The lodge is operated year round as a lodging and conference center.  The 8 room converted farm house will accommodate 16 people.   When I talked to the manager last time she told me it is very popular with clubs and family reunions.  Apparently there is a quilting club that comes twice a year and stays the week-end.   Meals can be provided.

It’s also a popular fly fishing spot for Brook Trout.  You can rent one of their rowboats but they do not allow you to launch your own canoe or kayak here.

It’s a wonderful quiet place to come and sit in the two Adirondack chairs and hopefully the loons will swim close to the shore as they did for me the last time I was here.

I was here today to hike the Noyes Pond Trail.

The bunchberries shone out along the trail.

There were views of the pond at many spots as I hiked along.

Bridges crossed the streams coming into the pond.

It was of course muddy because of the frequent rains.

I spotted this fellow along side the rocks of the trail section above.  I think he’s the first Vermont frog I’ve seen.  Bull frog I assume from his size.  Any herpetologists out there?

26th BIRTHDAY PARTY

On Saturday the campground had it’s TWENTY SIXTH birthday under the ownership of Mary and Gary.  Cake and ice cream for all.  After all this time they are understandably ready to retire and sadly the campground is for sale.

LONG POND

On most Sunday’s I lay low but with the rainy days during the week I have to take advantage of any non rainy day whenever it falls.  This Sunday I went to kayak on Long Pond.    The pond is 103 acres and 74 feet deep with Brook and Lake Trout.  It is 26 miles from me but takes about 45 minutes to get there.

I arrived relatively early but found, unlike usually during the week, that I wasn’t the first person here.   A fisherman was putting his inflatable boat together and was willing to help me take my kayak out of its saddles and set it on the ground.  One nice thing about kayaking on a week-end.

I set out and paddled down one side of the pond, saw this pair of loons quite far away but zoomed in for a picture thinking I’d get better ones later.  Some time later, I saw 3 more loons and even later saw them “running” across the water to take to the air but I was never close enough or fast enough to get a picture.  From then on, I saw no more loons and got no more pictures.  Bummer.

I did see a little microcosm on a fallen log in the water.

Notice two things other than the serene setting.  The sailboat on the left and the dock on the right.

The dock and the house belong to Matt.  He was sitting on the dock with the cabin his grandfather had built in the 1930’s in the background.   This is his family’s “camp” now and he comes up from his home in Connecticut to stay with his family in August and returns in the fall “to close it up for the winter”.

He and his dog were just charming.  His sister came out a bit later to read and his nephew was sailing on the lake.

Here’s a short video of the sailing nephew. 
You can see that he is skimming right along.  It will give you a sense of the wind on this day.

As with Newark and several other ponds, Long has an island and nesting loons.   Based on the number I saw earlier, perhaps more than one pair.

This sign is posted on trees on the islands.  You can click it to enlarge it if you’d like to read what it says.

I was very surprised to see something I have never seen before during any of my pond paddling.  A woman was swimming the length of Long pond which as its name implies is a long skinny oval.  No idea how many miles swimming it down and back would be.   I took a video of her too.   Wish I could swim that well.  And in that cold Vermont water.

As I mentioned, there was only one other car in the small lot when I arrived this morning. This is what the put in area looked like when I returned around 11:30am

Folks were fishing on the left, swimming on the right and putting boats in the water.  I’m not always lucky enough to have help putting the kayak back on the saddles for the hydraulic lift, but I was today.   That’s one of the benefits of coming out on a week-end morning.

Next time I visit Marsh, Billings, Rockefeller National Historic Park.
Have you ever even heard of it?