After a swim Sunday morning, Henri and clan departed, followed by Strite. Alan and Hardy journeyed over to the Connecticut River. They promised to return "early" in time for dinner. Luckily for me, I've been around long enough to realize that would never happen on an evening as beautiful as this one, so I enjoyed a solo meal on leftovers from Henri's stay and watched the end of Love is a Many Splendored Thing. My, movies have changed. About 10pm, the Explorer came racing down the driveway and out hopped a happy Hardy and Alan. Hardy then proceeded to whip up a delicious impromptu Mexican meal. Dinner at 11pm -- awesome. Both fishermen had success, catching 20+ fish, mostly native bows, browns, and brooks. As the evening came to an end, the sun was descending in the sky with Mt Monadnock looming in the distance and a huge blue heron coasted down the calm river. Gorgeous!
Yesterday was Canadian shopping day, starting off at the farm stand where we got corn, tomatoes, peaches, blueberries and raspberries plus a maple cream pie -- yum! Exiting the farm stand, we just had to go to the Laitrie to sample what Priscilla had advertised as maple-toffee ice cream. It wasn't on the menu but the girls behind the counter knew what they were talking about and Alan and Hardy were soon licking enormous cones. I settled for a bite of Alan's -- delicious but sweet, sweet, sweet. While we stood there licking, a local gentleman came up and started talking to us. He was from Quebec but shopped both sides of the border for the best deals and was familiar with northern Vermont. In fact, he was going to Quimby's for dinner that night to celebrate a friend's birthday who worked at QC 50 years ago! Small world, small world.
From there, on the to IGA for some of that wonderful Quebecois pork, a carton of maple ice cream, and some cheese. We decided to wander the countryside a bit, going over to cross the border at Beecher Falls so we could stop at the farm stand. The country around here is dotted with small, perfectly maintained farms; it truly looks like an idyllic lifestyle. At the Beecher Falls border crossing, we got a very serious trainee who asked us everything and looked at everything. We even overheard him asking his trainer, "The corn is on the cob -- should I inspect it?" Giggle. But they let us back in the country, even though we had tomatoes.
Lettuce, spinach, and shallots at the farm stand and then home for Hardy to make his wonderful pork ribs (recipe on the blog from July 2007) which were outstanding. Following a great dinner of ribs, corn, salad, and tomato slices, we headed over to Quimby's for the annual shareholder's meeting. It was an interesting affair that revealed the complexity of managing a jointly owned property with many different generations of owners and differences of opinion. We're trying to make changes to QC to keep it operational but, as always, change is hard. Finished up the evening hanging with Warren and Boone in Hare's Ear.
Tuesday we waited for the plumber to get here (he was late); he showed up just in time to witness us finishing a spinach-potato frittata courtesy of Hardy (truly, I could get used to this). Then we headed down to the ponds to try out some rods -- me on Pinky, Alan on his dad's Leonard, and Hardy on his grandfather's Phillipson Pacemaker. We all got little native brookies out of the upper pond -- beautiful little fish.
Tuesday afternoon we headed to Lopstick to hook up with Bill for a wade on the Connecticut. After a brief consult, we were off to the trophy section below first dam where water flows were a mellow 150cfs. As soon as we hit the water, the skies opened for a brief but convincing downpour -- we were drenched to the bone. I started off the day with a beautiful rainbow and then continued on to get two more rainbows plus a small salmon. Alan and Hardy ended up with several rainbows each and Hardy hooked a beautiful 12" brookie. All on Caddis with a nymph dropper, fish taking both flies.
About 5:30, we returned to Lopstick to purchase dry shirts and to get cash to buy much-needed sandwiches from Young's. Suitably restored, we entered the arctic waters below Murphy Dam where the temperature stays a cool 53 degrees. Incredibly beautiful evening on the river produced only two fish -- Alan got a fat 12" rainbow on a streamer and Hardy got a small brookie on a dropper off the Caddis. I got nothing but enjoyed the gorgeous evening. As the sun's last rays were disappearing, the adjacent fields were clouded with mist and there was insectlife galore, especially Caddis. This bounty appears to have been ignored by the resident trout below Murphy Dam who must dine on more sophisticated delicacies because there was not a rise in sight.
Finished the evening by a little after nine, arrived back at camp at 10:05pm, catching glimpse of three moose by Priscilla's on the way. Hardy rallied to whip up a delicious pork schnitzel, along with salad, corn, and new potatoes. Finishing dinner as we speak at 11:25pm. Surely this qualifies us for Russian-level sophistication. The laugh is on Alan and Hardy because in fewer than eight hours they will be on the river again for an all-day float with Bill starting at 7:30am. Ha ha ha!
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