On Saturday morning, Nick and I met up with our friends Aaron and Ethan to head north to White Mountains of New Hampshire. On the way up, it was obvious that the rivers were swollen from all of the rain we had through July. I have never seen them this high, this late in the summer. We stopped at our favorite pancake house for breakfast before hitting the trail.

It was a short drive to the Lincoln Woods parking area and trailhead from there. We had a lot of camping and fishing equipment to pack. Nick and I were both bringing conventional fly fishing gear and our tenkara rods. Several of the small tributary streams are perfect places for the tenkara style of fishing and I was looking froward to that. After assembling our gear and doing last minute checks, we hiked the 3 miles up to our campsite.

The trip up went really fast! We scouted the camping area and found a site with a picnic table! A luxury in the woods.

We set up camp and then suited up for a hike up-river to find some wily trout. This section of the Pemigewasset is mostly Brook Trout. The river was flowing fast with extremely high water. I caught 1 smallish 9″ brookie on a rod with one of those reel things attached (a little tenkara joke). It took a cast across the raging current to get to where the fish was in the calmer water on the other side. It was a tough day of fishing, with that being the only trout caught. My son caught something about 2″ long that we did not get a close look at. I suspect it was a fingerling Brookie.

I was looking forward to Sunday when were planning to fish one of the tributaries that I knew was ideal for tenkara. Unfortunately, my son had tucked his Iwana into his wading belt and lost it. We looked everywhere so he must have lost it in the stream when we aborted a crossing – the water was too deep and swift.

(sorry, the lens was a bit steamed up!)

Here’s Aaron in his natural habitat:

After a few hours of fishing and exploring the river and a tributary, it was time to head back to camp and make dinner. (note to self; ALWAYS bring water where ever I go!)

Aaron and Ethan made some fantastic pasta and tomato sauce. I made a peach/berry cobbler in a boiling bag! It was pretty good.

We lounged around camp, talked and prepared for the next day’s fishing. The weather held out and it was a nice, cool and dry evening – perfect sleeping weather. After hanging our food in a bear bag, we hit the sack.

The plan was to walk back to the van (3 miles) and leave the packs there. Then, hike up the other side of the Pemi since we could not cross. At 3 miles, the Franconia Brook runs in to the Pemi via a series of plunge pools carved into the granite. This is perfect tenkara water.

The next day, we packed quickly and headed down. The hike went quickly. We packed lightly – no waders or boots – for the 3 miles up to Franconia Brook. I only brought my tenkara rod.

At about 1 mile in, I stopped at a small stream to try my fly at a brookie I saw luring. No luck, so we headed up-stream. Somewhere along the way, I broke the tip on my Yamame – about 1/2″ below the metal tip. I had only brought my Yamame so I needed to figure out a fix while we continued the hike up.

When we got to the trailhead to the tributary, we stopped for lunch and I pondered my rod tip. Being a rod builder, I analyzed the damage and had an idea. I grabbed the stub of graphite sticking out of the metal tip with my hemostats and pulled it out. I then reinserted the rod tip in to the metal tip. The fit was a bit loose but workable. Now I just needed some way to keep it on. Some hikers walked by so I asked if they had a bandaid for my fly rod. They did! Here is the result, you can see the short broken tip stub to the right of the repair. The bandaid seemed to do the trick. 

We continued the short hike up to the plunge pools to do some fishing.

Aaron and I had success catching the small brookies living in a deep pool. There were some larger fish deep down – I’m guessing 20′ or so – but we couldn’t get anything down that deep. The brookies were fun and really beautiful. Ethan caught a nicely colored brookie too. Nick was not having good luck. He had a fish strike his fly at least 20 times – different flies and 3 different rods too – take the fly below the surface, and then not hook up. It wasn’t the fly or hook, it wasn’t the technique, it was the fish. It was one of those days.

Ethan had a little boo-boo on the rocks and used the little piece of left-over bandaid to stop the bleeding.

At the end of the day, I caught 6 brookies in the big yellow-green pool. Aaron got a good photo of me, the fish and my Yamame. I’ll add it once he sends it to me. EDIT: and here it is:

It was a great weekend of backpacking, fly fishing and friendship!

This weekend we took our first ever family backpacking trip! I planned for a moderate 5 mile trip in to the Pemigewasset Wilderness Area in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I helped everyone get packed on Friday and we all hit the sack for an early 2+ hour drive.

We managed to hit the road at 5:30am and headed for the hills. A quick stop for coffee and off we went. Nick, John and I have a favorite little breakfast place in Lincoln called Mr. W’s House of Pancakes.

Since this was our exit for the Kancamagus highway, it made perfect sense to pay another visit! One interesting thing about Mr. W’s – they have a safe built in to the wall with a booth right in front of it! The building used to be a bank. The breakfast was, once again, excellent and in short order, we were on our way.

The drive to Lincoln Woods Parking lot was short. We geared up at the van (make sure to buy a parking pass – or better yet, an annual pass) and were ready to hit the trail at 8: 45.

Mia was ready to go!

We started on the Lincoln Woods Trail (aka Wilderness Trail). The “plan” was to take a break at Franconia Falls (3.2 miles) and then cross in to the Pemigewasset Wilderness and head to Bondcliff Trail (4.7 miles). Reports suggested that there were several back-country camping sites about 7/10 of a mile up Bondcliff Trail.

Crossing the bridge to the trail.

Our first break on the trail.

On the way up at mile 3.2, we decided to take the Franconia Falls spur. The falls are .4 miles up the trail. We stashed our packs behind a log and headed up. Franconia Falls is popular spot on hot summer days and is beautiful.

	The colors are amazing – crystal clear and turquoise water, gold and red rocks and blue sky!
	There are also lots of interesting features like this hole carved out by a rock.

And of course, there were wild Brook Trout and Elizabeth swimming in the deep pools!

Elizabeth could not resist sliding over the falls. Nicolas and John joined in the fun. I got some great videos of all of them going over the falls.

After taking a nice break, we headed down to get our packs and hit the trail.

At 4.7 miles, we reached the Bondcliff trailhead. Sadly, when we returned the next day, someone had stolen the Bondcliff Trail sign! We chatted with several hikers who had passed the trailhead because the sign was missing.

Here I am taking a break.

The Bondcliff Trail was a lot steeper. The plan was to find a backwoods camp site close to the river. Despite several descriptions, we walked right past it! After an exhausting hour of hunting, we finally found it and set up camp.

Mom taking a break!

Elizabeth and Mia liked their new home away from home.

Mia had a long day! Her pack had a leash, snacks, her food and a water bowl in it. Not too much for a little dog to carry.

Mom, Elizabeth and Mia took a long nap while Nick, John and I pumped 11 quarts of water. Then I made dinner for everyone – Mountain House Beef Stew with cheese and little bagels. The MH Beef Stew is really good! Jetboils are wonderful stoves. I used the large pot and boiled plenty of water for the cooking and cleanup. As it started to cool down, I made hot chocolate and cleaned up, hung the bear bag with all the food and then we hit the hay for the night. Mia spent the entire night licking every part she could reach – making a huge racket. Next morning I made breakfast – freeze dried eggs with bacon for John and Mom and oatmeal for everyone else. Hot chocolate too, of course. We then packed all our gear and hit the trail for the walk out. Everyone was looking forward to visiting Franconia Falls again. This time, I promised to take a ride down the plume!

The kids are rested up and ready to go. Mom was a little less enthusiastic!

Remember that earlier photo of Elizabeth by the Bondcliff Trail sign? Here she is next to the missing sign on our way out. Hard to believe that someone would take a trail sign.

Just a 100’ from the Bondcliff Trailhead (on the Wilderness Trail) is an old railroad trestle. Apparently the bridge has a bit of interesting history – it is a historic site and therefore can not be destroyed but it is also in a designated wilderness area and therefore must be removed!

On the way down, we stopped at Franconia Falls again. Everyone rode the chute over the waterfall! The videos are below to prove it.

Elizabeth over the falls.

Nick over the falls.

John over the falls.

Eileen missed my first ride and I had to go again to get a video! That water is ICE COLD brrrrr!

and then Eileen takes her turn!

All in all, we had a great weekend of backpacking. Franconia Falls was the highlight of the trip.

Nick, John, Mia and I did a 3 day, 20 mile backpack trip in the White Mountains.

On day 1 we started at the Rocky Brook trailhead  and hiked in 5 miles to set up our base camp just as it started to pour down rain. Nick cut his finger preparing kindling for a campfire. We ended up eating stew prepared on our JetBoil – I cooked in the rain while the kids and Mia stayed warm (and dry) in the tent. On the next day we did a 10 mile round trip to summit Mt Washington. It was bitter cold and windy at the summit but clear. Then a storm came sweeping in just as we started our descent. Just before reaching timberline, we got hailed on, then sleet then snow and rain.

It was a long day but we made it back to camp safe and after a hot dinner, went right to sleep. The next day we packed up and hiked the 5 miles back to the car. It was a great trip!

See the photos.