Well, Thanksgiving has passed into the rearview mirror and Christmas is coming at us fast. I’m looking at several thousand images, of which, some would be considered “peak fall foliage”… But the the majority of these images that those that are “just” nice but help me to tell a story.

How did your search go? Were you successful? Did you find Peak? Did you discover new locations?

How Accurate were Jeff’s Guesses?

I made a whooping Four forecasts this year between January and August.

In January I thought that we might head into an ENSO-neutral weather pattern but as of December, we are still in a La Niña weather pattern. (FAIL) The spring and summer were supposed to be above average temps and this proved true. (WIN)

During the spring through the summer, rainfall was supposed to be average and wasn’t, it depended on where you were in New England. (WIN/FAIL)

Finally, I said the Spongy Moth and other pests were going to be a pest to us again this year and unfortunately this again proved true (WIN) Not sure if this counts as a win… 🙁

By mid-August, the hot temps had broken and I was looking to see if the temps would do us a favor and drop off… But what had me and others worried was drought was rearing its ugly head. Southern New England (MA/CT/RI) was parched as also parts of Maine.

And as far as Hurricanes, we didn’t really see any real storms till mid-October and even then it wasn’t a big one… So since I didn’t talk about it and it didn’t happen then it’s a win… Note to self, no more talking about hurricanes and maybe they won’t happen…

Right now I see the fall colors coming in strong in early October like we saw last year. But will the color progress south nicely this year? Time will tell…

Jeff Foliage

The Foliage Results?

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I think I came out about average and that is pretty good. What caused me and others some difficulty was that the temps did drop off, especially in VT/NH/ME. The temps seemed like they got cold enough and with these low temps they “SHOULD” have started early fall colors showing up by 25 Sept… NADA!

We were all looking at the approaching fall colors waiting for the first images of peak fall color to be found and… we… kept… waiting.

On 25 Sept in Western Maine, I found “barely” turning color during a day trip in the Eastern White Mountains. Evan’s Notch was 93% green so far.

Remember this!!! Even the mighty and powerful Arboreal Oracle will get disappointed with what he is finding. It’s NOT just you! It’s all of us who feel this way. You need to push past this and keep searching which is what I did. You may be wondering why I wasn’t hitting my Plan B’s? “Jeff always talks about those plan B’s”… Well Lisa is my plan B guide and she had gotten sick so I was winging this weekend alone…

First Meaningful Fall Colors 6-8 Oct

I came up through New Hampshire and caught 89 off of 93. The Springfield exit (mile marker 38) is always a place I try to stop and today it was very colorful.

My plan was to loop up through the NEK (Northeast Kingdom) and over into Carrol NH. I will say it was hit or miss in Vermont on the 6th. Stratford was so-so and Groton was close to being there, I spent the day looking for great fall colors but it wasn’t there yet. Was I worried? Yup, I thought that by now it would be perfect!

Well, October 7th broke and I had seen the reports of rain overnight and assumed the worst… Well, I got outside and the ground was dry so I rushed into Crawford Notch. I was on the move from 6 AM and I didn’t stop for coffee or breakfast until later that afternoon. Here is one image from one of my hundreds of stops.

I think you can see why I didn’t stop for coffee or breakfast. A perfect sky and incredible fall colors wherever I pointed my cameras.

To see more about how this day went, here is a foliage report from 7 October. For the final day of this trip, I left the Allegory Inn in the rain heading back to Vermont. You can read much of it in my articles from 2022. The early morning clouds broke open while I was near Danville Vermont on Route 2. And with the light hitting the hills, I had to launch my drone.

I was heading across Route 108 to head down through Smuggler’s Notch and Stowe. I saw the clouds coming back in up ahead of me and the gray cotton obscuring the mountain tops revealed that it was snowing up there I drove faster to get to the notch.

I was seeing great color along Route 108, so once South of Jeffersonville Vermont, I launched my drone yet again.

In the links I’ve posted, you’ll see a bit of what the drive brought me. While there was quite a bit more this day before I drove home, I’m going to turn to the following weeks that followed.

Skip Ahead a Week and we found???

The colors were more developed in some areas but we had strong rain showers mid-week so we didn’t know if we would find it up on the trees or on the ground. Yes, even Jeff has these negative thoughts but it doesn’t hold me back. We hit lots of covered bridges and a few new ones. I finally got around to the Willard twin-covered bridges in N. Hartford Vermont.

We drove over lots of backroads as we headed north to Burke where we were spending the night at the Wildflower Inn which I had passed before when I photographed the view from Heavens Bench. We’ll have an article on the Wildflower Inn in our places to stay soon (I hope)

One thing I noticed I had to move my feet this trip to position the fall colors so as to not show the holes in the canopy. My images may be wonderful but the colors were not perfect like the week prior.

Fall Colors for the 3rd week in October

Well, that ended my love affair with Vermont and New Hampshire. We are now moving into Massachusetts and points south. Peak like we saw up north has changed at this point. The bright reds have been exchanged for more oranges and yellows and a few of the oaks are starting to turn.

The Hairpin curve above North Adams in the Berkshires is always a fun drive but I have been wanting this image for a while and we got here with perfect conditions. BUT! While we started in Massachusetts we did get down into Connecticut this weekend and I knocked out a few more covered bridges.

We found that the drought and insect damage had taken their toll on Connecticut but!!! We still enjoyed what we found and so many new places have been located I can write about them here in just one article… Hint, sign up for my blog so you don’t miss any!

4th week in Oct searching for the fall colors

Some of you might be wondering if I didn’t go back up to check if there were any late colors. Well, I thought about it but I’m not the young Arboreal Oracle I used to be, and Lisa and I have to put our energy where the best colors are likely to show up…

So this week we are exploring Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. We left out Salem on Route 114 to 62 and meandered our way through lots of little towns, like Maynard, Southbridge, Stockbridge, and Concord. The morning sun was just clearing the trees on this foggy morning and I pulled into the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and I decided to stay… for a little while at least.

It had been foggy all morning long and I stopped to explore because as ALL of you know!!! Fog is one of those short-lived atmospheric things that can help you create wonderful images. If you are lucky and you slow down to really look around, you might find something special.

In Connecticut at North Woodstock, I found a really interesting church, and remember what I said about moving your feet if you have bare trees?

That is all it takes to create a better picture, just move your feet and see if you can reframe the image.

Closing out the fall colors for 2022

Well, this is Christmas Eve and I’m listening to Walking in a Winter Wonderland and according to my countdown counter, we have 272 days until the first day of autumn in 2023.

Remember the possibilities for this next year’s autumn season are endless… So I hope you will join me as we go through each of the seasons that follow and we can get out once again in the fall colors, smell all the wonderful autumn smells, drink everything pumpkin spice, and curl up by a nice cozy fire with someone special.

Don’t have foliage? Come to my blog and let you borrow mine! 🙂

Jeff Foliage Folger

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

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