I was to get up at 4:30AM, wake Kevin, and be on the road by 5:00AM. I wanted to drive through Franconia Notch as the sun came up. My alarm didn't go off. I woke up at 5:30AM to a bit of daylight and quickly woke Kevin up. We were on the road just before 6:00AM. I hoped to spot some nice barns and great foliage.
Vermont had several inches of rain the day before. The forecast said the clouds would be pushed out with a nice sunny day. This turned out to be TRUE ... SOUTH OF THE NOTCH!! It was overcast north of the notch pretty much all day. The colors were nice but I was looking forward to the sunlight. I thought it would be cool. The temperature peaked at 53 degrees with the wind blowing so it felt cold.
The rivers were really moving, water brown, and overflowing their banks in many areas. We drove to the Canadian boarder and drove the power lines south toward Island Pond. This would keep us near other trails we could 4 wheel on if we wanted to continue off road. Kevin wanted to shoot the .308 so we stopped at a clearing when we were 4 wheeling. He liked it and will use it for Youth Weekend in a few weeks. After 30 miles or so Kevin was more interested in lunch than continuing so we headed toward Derby.
I thought Kevin might enjoy seeing some elk. I would like to say we saw these elk while hunting in Montana like Mike and Ray did last year. Oh well ... We ate at "Derby Cow Palace" where they raise elk in the field behind the restaurant. (Yes ... Elk is on the menu) We watched the elk for some time. It must be the start of the rut as the bulls were bugling at each other and chasing several of the cows around the field. We watched 2 bulls sparring but didn't amount to much. 
From there we headed south to Lake Willoughby. I drove the right side of the lake thinking I could cut down to the water. I couldn't find a road that would do that so we turned around and continued on the left side. It's a beautiful glacier lake! 
We continued toward home stopping briefly at the bridge in Franconia Notch. It was just after 7:00PM when we arrived home. Even with the clouds and cold weather we had a great father/son time. Another spectacular foliage experience in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.Search Blog Archive: October 2011 & September 2009 - for more Fall Foliage.
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