Exploring North Conway and the Basin

I haven’t had much to do with “real” TV up to this point. I’ve skyped several times with the weather channel but this time I had an interview with CBS Sunday morning (which you can view here) in the Conway area.

Single red leaf amid fallen leaves, Jeff loves leaves — Single red leaf, fern and other leaves that the high winds of this morning have taken off the trees.

This was the beginning of a very busy three days because, after two days with CBS as seen here, Lisa and I drove home only to turn around the next morning and do it over again with the BBC and PBS. But! That is another story…

This article is about the two days with a CBS entourage traveling up to Tamworth NH, North Conway NH, Route 113 in Maine/New Hampshire and home again.

Jeff Foliage being interviewed by CBS with the associate producer, sound and videographer. Conor Knighton interviews me

Monday, October 15th, started at 7 AM in Salem where they (CBS) arrived and filmed me and Lisa around our house. Then the crew followed us up to Tamworth/Chocorua where I made my first stop at Chocorua River Dam Park. The crew (videographer and soundman) would get out of the car and then instruct us to get back in the car so they could get some B-footage (filler) and then when Lisa and I would get out of the car feeling very self-conscious. (Awaiting instructions like look stage left…) Nope, “just do what you normally do” (You mean, avoid the camera like the dickens?)

Neither of us is very comfortable in front of the camera so I did what I always do when nervous, I talk. I told them about this place. There used to be an ice cream shop down on the corner but the wooden dam has been there for over 150 years in one form or another.

Have you stopped at the Chocorua River Dam Park on Route 16? You may have bypassed it trying to get to Lake Chocorua which is just a mile further up Route 16. We parked at the Post Office across the street and explored the park. This is one of the images from the park.

As you can see, the fall colors were nice but we are still a week behind what I was hoping for. Chocorua River Dam Park is a nice place to sit and relax among the trees, benches and the water coming over the dam and watch the stream flowing through the park as it heads to Ossipee NH.

Lake Chocorua

The color wasn’t much better here but I wanted to show them the lake and what can I say I’m an eternal optimist. I visited four days previous, so I was hopeful it might be better. Well I had a cloudy, overcast day that was threatening to rain at any minute. Actually it started to rain 12 minutes after we arrived. Not a hard rain, just a drizzle.

You’ll notice at no time do I go to the producer and say, “It’s starting to rain, can we do this on a sunny day?”. Because I know when the weather gets bad Magic can happen. (I’m not sure that’s always true, but I feel more often than not, it is true).

Small Pond Chocorua New Hampshire with turn fall colors — I found an oak where the leaves were turning red, View this in my gallery

Technical Note

You will notice that in the above picture, there is no sky showing. On a cloudy day such as this, I try very hard to eliminate all traces of a white sky. I took my tripod to its highest level and I used the Oaktree above to shield my lens from the sky. I think it turned out well, Let me know in the comments, below.

As I said, within minutes of our arrival, it started to rain and I will admit I wasn’t willing to admit defeat quite yet. I went over to see what the view of the lake was like. Mount Chocorua was obscured and there was no way to ignore that sky.

Lunch in North Conway

We decided to drive to North Conway and get lunch. We pulled in across the street from the railroad station and we ate lunch at the Stairway Cafe and were lucky enough to snag a table next to a roaring fire. After we ate and warmed up I decided to take the crew over to Maine to see what Route 113 looked like.

See, I still hadn’t shown them any really good color and I was afraid of losing my Foliage Guru status. I won’t detail getting there, suffice to say we did get there. My idea was to go and show them the Basin which is actually on the New Hampshire side of the Maine border

The Basin in Fall Colors

We made the turn onto Basin Rd and it looked nice but green and not what I was hoping for and my mind started thinking of my next destinations where I could try to find some “Peak” fall color. I made the right toward the pond when the landscape opened up and presented me with Peak Fall Foliage.

Basin on a rainy day just off Route 113 — See this basin as a Panoramic image, view in my gallery.

Remember what I said about the magic that bad weather causes? The clouds dropping rain on us couldn’t keep me in the car and when the videographer saw me get out, he also got out. I apologized but put my camera on the tripod and photographed the far shore. This is the one time this season that I felt I had found “Peak Fall Foliage”. The Producer announced that “this would be the spot for tomorrow’s interview!” Little did she know how fickle Mother Nature can be…

The Storm and 16 October

All of 2018 from January to October, I was talking about a slow burn and one thing I said was the one thing we had to fear was fear itself… Nope, that wasn’t it. I was watching out for and worried about wind/rain storms. We had been lucky up through the 13th. That was where Mount Washington got a good coating of snow and many wonderful images of snowliage were being posted to social media (while I was prepping at home) but it didn’t seem to affect the leaves much in the White Mountains.

Then comes the evening of the 15th and into the 16th. We stayed that night in the Kearsarge Inn, in North Conway and you can read our write-up on that here. That evening the winds woke me up, howling like banshees outside the Inn. I estimated 30 gusting to 50 MPH. The next morning I couldn’t tell from our window, how bad the damage was but the trees that I could see had lost much of their leaves.

A New Day at the Basin

The road was closed on Route 113 in Stow Maine and this is where we found the videographer and soundman. (I thought we were early but apparently not) There was no sign of the producer so Lisa and I went around the “road closed” sign to see how “closed” the road was… A half mile up was a good size pine tree across the road so we turned around and joined back up with the crew.

Lisa found that back in Stow there was a side road (113B) and lucky for us it took us past the downed tree and we arrived at the basin. We found the producer there and due to the high winds, she went in search of a less windy interview location with Conner Knighton.

The Basin on the border of New Hampshire & Maine — The Basin on the following day after the storm

Remember what I said about the magic of bad weather? A new day dawns and the whole feel of the place changes. I put my camera on the tripod and was hanging on to it trying to not let it or I, get blown over. The videographer was trying to photograph me but gave up as he couldn’t stay steady enough. Which version do you like better of the Basin? Rainy or sunny?

Don’t believe that it was windy? watch this video that I shot with my camera. Lisa walked around the pond to see what the wind was like on the other side. I was only worried that I would see a bear chase her down and she would never hear me over the wind.

After the Interview and back in North Conway…

Before we head back to Conway New Hampshire to warm up with a hot lunch, here are a few parting shots that I captured around the interview. I figure you have seen my interview with CBS Sunday Morning but if you haven’t, you click the link to see it on CBS’s website.

We did lunch back in Conway at Banners… Sort of. We got our soups and coffee to warm up and the power went out. No power meant no hot food so we left. I got out to the parking lot and the call of the fall colors hit me as there were these fully leafed golden trees glowing in the early afternoon sunlight I once again apologized to the crew and grabbed my camera.

Now before we move on, I will mention how blessed I am to have Lisa in my life. She is a creative artist and she will often spot things that I’ve missed while I’m focused on others. So while I was looking at this old tractor and the colors beyond it…

Farm Equipment left to age. behind a New Hampshire Restaurant (Banners). Today farmers ride nice green or orange tractors with air conditioning and stereos. It wasn’t that long ago that they would have a draft horse hooked up to this and spend the day going around the field sweating to the oldies the old-fashioned way, by humming to one’s self…

Lisa was looking at some other old farm equipment just 20 feet away. She pointed them out to me and with the camera crew in tow…

farm equipment in Conway at the Banners restaurant

Swift River Covered Bridge, Conway New Hampshire

The CBS video went on after the part on my love for covered bridges Actually that happened last and then they cut back to earlier that morning with my fall recall. So I will end this with the Swift River covered bridge.

The Swift River Covered Bridge that I photographed which CBS was photographing me. They followed me around for two days and this was the last stop before we parted ways. Purchase it in my Gallery.

In the CBS video, you saw me talking to a couple about directions, the crew saw what was transpiring with me falling into my natural habit of helping strangers. The Videographer got into position and Connor came in and took over the conversation to interview the German couple so I made my exit, stage left. But that got left on the cutting room floor…

As most of you know I love the fall and sharing it with all of you. I so thoroughly enjoyed this fall foliage experience and sharing it with all of you!

The Routes I was primarily on were Route 16 and Route 113 in both New Hampshire and Maine.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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