Home again, home again

Ah, it was good to sleep in our own bed last night, crowded though it was. LB believes his best place is lying immediately next to my head so I had a few moments where I woke up sputtering on fur. Tolstoi took his place next to Alan and Turtle wandered by every now and then. Even amongst all this activity, we both slept well. Now, a day to reacclimate, do laundry, get food, and get ready for the week.

Tolstoi looks great and it appears the meds are helping his irritable bowel syndrome. The others are fine -- needing a good brushing. Thanks to Kim and Aunt Barb for their excellent care. Tolstoi particularly appreciate the rotisserie chicken that Barb brought over!

Friday night we had a nice dinner with Jacques and Jenn, with beautiful lamb and steak from Lobel's and all the best vegetables Vermont can offer -- swiss chard, lettuce, fresh peas. We will miss the produce.

Yesterday, we took Rte 2 down to Burlington which was a marked improvement over 100c, which had been our route of choice. Construction and congestion have made the last half hour of that drive just a chore. The Rte 2 method puts you on the interstate at Montpelier and from there it's a quick 45 minutes to an exit quite close to the airport.

Came home to a note from Hardy with the following recipes. Apparently, he's got his eye on a T3 from the local Orvis store.

Red Beans and Rice

1 lb red beans
1 lb sausage
1 onion
1 bell pepper
Cajun seasoning to taste

Cajun seasoning*

5 T salt
2 T cayenne
1 T white pepper
1 T black pepper
1/2 T garlic powder
1/2 T onion powder
1 T paprika

* This is pretty strong so use sparingly. (Hardy, you'll be happy to know that Camp now has cayenne and cumin.)

Lemon Pepper Pork marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 T cracked pepper
5 cloves garlic
salt

The lake is warming up

Another sunny day dawned here in Averill -- bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds dotting the horizon. The wind is from the north so the weather should hold for tomorrow. With six days of sun, the lake has warmed measurably. I wouldn't call it warm but it's not the frigid experience it was on Saturday, that's for sure.

Thursday brought more Harry Potter (really good), more puzzling, more naps in the hammock, more kayaking, more swimming, more sleeping in the sun. We also took an evening trip over to the Connecticut to Junction Pool. It was a beautiful evening although we never did figure out what they would bite on. Alan lost a bunch on an elkwing caddis but that didn't prove to have lasting appeal. We did see a mink which surfaced briefly on a rock before heading back into the water -- Alan's second of the week and Carole's first.

Back at Camp, we had a late dinner of Solomon's boneless ribs (wishing for Hardy's rub), fresh peas, spinach, and beet greens. About 10pm, headlights flashed in the driveway and Jacques, Jenn, and Bandit arrived to start their week. Late night visiting on the porch took us to midnight and bed.

Slowing down....

Yesterday was our first day without Hardy and we elected to take it easy. I (Carole) woke up and read in bed for an hour -- luxurious. Then spent the day reading, internetting, or puzzling. Alan went to Solomon's for red beans so we could make red beans and rice for dinner, courtesy of Dawn's andouille. (It was yummy.) Alan made one Solomon's worker's day by asking whether they had "Soft Scrub" -- in the cosmetics aisle. Well, it was on the list.... "You don't shop much, do you?," was her question after she stopped laughing.

Upon his return he borrowed Priscilla's station wagon to bring over two kayaks for a couple of days since she wouldn't be using them. We took them out and can both vouch that kayaks use very different muscles than canoes. Yow. I have new respect for Priscilla's arms!

It has been sunny all week and the lake is warming up. Notice I said "warming," not warm. It's brisk, for sure, but refreshing. We jumped in after the kayak ride. Then Alan went down to the ponds to fish. Caught 3 or 4, including one large female brookie that he kept since she had been the victim of a bird attack earlier in the day and was missing a large part of her back. Trout for breakfast -- yum.

I'm in the midst of the new Harry Potter (delivered from Amazon to the Lakeview store -- it is a small world). It's dark.....three deaths in the first 30 pages, two of them major characters. But good.

Goodbyes and Hellos

Last morning with Hardy dawned with Alan running out for more eggs to prepare for "Cajun Breakfast" super-charged by Dawn's andouille sausage. The morning was already too short -- and gorgeous. Yet another calm Averill dawn with colors of mauve and rose.

Following breakfast, Hardy packed up shop and went with Alan down to the ponds for one last casting session. Hardy landed three brookies and Alan had four (such an over-achiever) in the short time before the long drive to Burlington.

As the deadline loomed for departure.....Carole arrived at the ponds with a 10 cast limit, strictly enforced. In this case, training and prior shock therapy prevailed and Alan reeled right up. Hardy, however, was not so well oriented as to how things were going to be and required further cajoling (we don't shock guests--yet). Alas, despite everyone's best wishes, it was time to go and we set off for BTV.

Amidst strains of banjo and fiddle, we sailed southward. Within about 15 minutes, young Reichel was horizontal and snoozing hard. Alan and Carole enjoyed tunes from Mecuen & Salazar and Leo Kottke down into Johnson. Stopped at Edelweiss for lunch -- nice sandwiches enjoyed in one of the loveliest gardens we had ever seen (with a water feature). Sweets purchased included eclairs, ginger snaps, "gnomes--??," raspberry shortbread, almond croissant, and a peanut-butter chocolate cookie sandwich. Hardy was begging surrender as we approached Burlington airport.

Airport logistics worked through, we said fond goodbyes, and waved behind glass as Hardy got onto the plane.

Returning a less traveled route, a bit longer, we still got in in time to take a nice canoe ride around the lake with Priscilla from the Lakeview Store. As we circumnavigated a deliciously calm Lake Averill, we talked and we visited and we looked and we wondered where were the loons.

The answer appeared on our own beach as we returned from the ride -- a mature loon hanging out about 15 feet from shore. S/he didn't bat an eye as the canoe drifted in -- just gave a couple of warning 'coots' -- and ignored us as we first watched in wonder and then (as mosquito feeding frenzy set in) banked the canoe. Such calm, such beauty, hello.

A day on the river...

Monday dawned bright and early with a 7am breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage, courtesy of Hardy. Then it was time to hit the road for Lopstick Lodge and our rendezvous with Bill for a day of wading the Connecticut. For once, we arrived early, before the designated 8:30am time. Bill was waiting and after some brief consultation, we headed down to the parking area directly below 1st Connecticut dam at the headwaters of the trophy section.

At the parking lot, we divied up presentation strategies -- Hardy went nymph, as did Carole, and Alan went for the old favorite, the dry fly. Headed down to the river where we saw several fisherman upstream (who we were told later didn't catch anything). We got back on the path and headed down to Judges and Juries where we spread out onto three beautiful pools. Hardy struck early and got the beautiful -- and huge -- brook trout pictured here. Alan took the first salmon and a couple rainbows. Carole struggled to find her touch, having a hard time sealing the deal with the firm set.

Heading downstream the boys continued to find fish and Carole finally ended the drought with a tiny (but beautiful!) salmon and then a little bit later a beautiful rainbow and another salmon. By this time we were in the upper reaches of Ledges and it was 1:30ish so we determined to quit for lunch.

Lunch was another one of Bill's gourmet feasts. Cheese, crackers, mushroom dip (sorry, Alan), plus then a meal of steak, chicken, roasted veggies, and salad. Dessert would have been apples and chocolate but Carole and Hardy ate all the apple slices as an appy. Oh well.

After lunch, we headed back to the dam parking lot and went directly downstream. By this point, we had all switched to Elkwing Caddis with an emerger for the dropper. Fish were biting on both. Hardy and Alan headed downstream, catching fish regularly, while Carole and Bill concentrated on the top section where Carole finally hit her stride, catching three good fish in about half an hour. Alan found a good spot where he pulled out five rainbows and a salmon. Just south of there was a deep eddie between a rock and a birch tree with overhanging trees. It was immediately adjacent to a good current, making it a great place for a big fish to hang out and feed. Only problem for the angler was that it was an impossible cast. You had to hit an area the size of a pie plate, immediately mend, and then pray. Bill challenged Carole who wisely turned it over to Alan who tried first with the 3 weight and a dry fly and then with Pinky on both dry and streamer (bambino). He managed to interest the fish on both the caddis and the bambino but lost the streamer in the end. The brookie was enormous -- maybe 22 inches. Maybe next time....

To close out the day, Bill took Hardy up to the pools immediately below the dam where fish were seen but not caught. They witnessed a fish suicide attempt when one leaped out of the river onto a flat rock. Not the outcome it intended.

Around 6 o'clock, we called it a day so that we could return to Camp for dinner and then the annual Quimby's shareholder meeting. Thankfully, it was brief and the efforts by one family to call down doom and gloom were foiled.

So ends another great day at Papelousu. Unfortunately, we take Hardy to the airport tomorrow but perhaps one more fishing adventure to Forrest Pond in the am.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

The day began as a "12" on a scale of "10." Lake Averill mirrored the cloudless sky as the sun shone down across the mountains. The first errand of the day was the most important -- get breakfast. An early morning trip to Priscilla's Lakeview Store for eggs and milk yielded a delicious morning repast (sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits) courtesy of Hardy. (Hey, we could get used to this!)

After a cursory review of the NY Times, it was off to the ponds at Little Camp for a casting clinic, courtesy of Alan. He put Hardy on the lower pond and Carole on the upper pond and, alternating between the two, made gentle and less than gentle suggestions about where we were going wrong. He was right just about all of the time and maybe all of the time. I (Carole) made some improvement casting with rods other than my own, moving btw Alan's delicate 3 wt and Hardy's monster 5 wt -- wow what a difference. For his part, Hardy enjoyed meeting "Pinky" -- and who wouldn't since she's an Orvis T3 5 wt paired with a sweet Ross reel.

After an exhilarating dip in the lake, we dined on sandwiches and Sergio's collapse in the British Open (oh, dude, we saw it coming). At 2:30pm, Hardy and Alan headed off to the Connectictut to rendezvous with Bill Bernhardt, great guide and friend, at the Rte 3 rest area outside of Colebrook. Today's float was aboard Bill's new pontoon raft, and after preliminary introductions and setting forth, Hardy and Alan were soon upon fish. Kudos surely go to Hardy for identifying before the float even started that an ant hatch had aroused the curiosity of the fish and this info allowed the fishing team to get started right away. Alas, knowing what the fish wanted to eat was not the same as providing it. :-( Amidst a flotilla of feeding trout, our delicious ant appetizer was repeatedly snubbed and when ordered was taken with way too much delicacy.

There were rare gluttons. Hardy hooked into a beautiful foot-long brown trout that tenaciously fought while Alan snuck a cast into a small eddy and hooked a startling, leopard-like spotted brown. Beautiful fish. But the day belonged to Hardy with a gorgeous rainbow caught just off the bow as the sun was setting over Mt Monadnock. With his line hooked onto the floor clamp, Bill yelled "Set the hook!" Hardy yanked back, falling into his seat, reefing on Pinky, and nearly falling into the Connecticut. Amidst cheers and laughes a beautiful trout was landed in the net.

The setting as the sun dipped below the horizon was typical Norm's. Fish rising everywhere, fishermen casting blindly, bats zooming in and out, and some of the most ferocious mosquitos that Vermont has ever known. But amidst this beauty, and the ending of the day, there was gratitude for some wonderful fish and good company.

Dinner was Hardy's marinated lemon pepper pork and teriyaki pork.

Saturday July 21, 2007

First day at camp! After saying goodbye to Henri, Lisa, Trevor, Pierce, and Avery, Alan, Carole and Hardy headed out for food shopping and general surveillance. A trip to the farm stand in Beecher's Falls resulted in huge bags of spinach and lettuce, along with some beets and baby carrots, all pulled fresh from the ground. We went by Colebrook for the organic market but were 45 minutes too late -- it closed at 11am. After a stop at Ducret's for some fishing supplies, we headed to Solomon's where we "licensed up" (in Bill's terms) and picked up pork ribs, pork tenderloins, and fixings for bolognese sauce. Hardy promised his special ribs for supper.....

Back at the house, we made sandwiches and talked about hiking up Brousseau. It was a beautiful day -- sunny with large cumulous clouds floating by and about 70 degrees. But the ground was wet and we decided the Brousseau trail was likely to be a running stream and so we determined to swim instead. Hardy and Carole piled onto the large yellow raft Henri had bought for the kids and made Alan push us out into the lake. It was a labor of love as the water was cold. Once out, both Hardy and Carole took the plunge down the slide -- yikes! It was....refreshing. And not bad once you were in. Next came a canoe tour around the property. Not much going on in the inlet to report.

Time for the honored Papelousu tradition of casting at the ponds before dinner. Hardy and Alan headed down while Carole washed spinach and lettuce before joining them. Casted until dark at 8:30pm (Alan got four large brookies from the upper pond) and then headed back to grill Hardy's famous ribs, which had simmered earlier in the afternoon, make Carole's famous creamed spinach, and hang out with John and Dawn who had come back from a day fishing on Little Averill. Yummy dinner concluded with strawberries picked from Quebec. Yum, yum, yum.

After dinner, we turned out all the lights and found our way outside to the telescope. Ah, the joys of the country.

Recipe for Hardy's ribs:

5 T chili powder
3 T mustard
2-3 T cumin
1 T paprika
1 T salt
1 T garlic powder
1 t black pepper
1 t white pepper
1 t cayenne

Boil ribs in water with 2 T of the rub mix for half an hour. Leave in water on stove until ready to grill. Grill for half an hour, glazing with honey at the end over a hot fire on both sides.

Averill Arrival July 2007

After evading summer thunderstorms and a dark and stormy drive, we (Alan, Carole, and Hardy) arrived at Papelousu last night about 10pm. Henri and Lisa had hot ziti and mozzarella sticks waiting. A quick meal and then we all headed to bed.

In the morning, Henri and Lisa packed up the clan after a yummy breakfast of toaster waffles and frittata.