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California dream'in of New England Fall Foliage
Lessons learned by CA photographer, making plans for "09"
by Jeff "Foliage" Folger
Backlit maple leaves
Single red leaf
Red leaves against white bark
One-half mile north of N.H. Route 16 at Conway Village over the Swift River
How's everybody's plan for fall foliage going?
So far, we've had to think about what you want to see, where you want to see it and having a backup agenda in case you?re not finding the elusive peak. Also, I've mentioned a little about lodging and how you should plan for this real early!
In talking to Jimmy Caputo, a photographer out of La Verne, California (www.papergiraffe.com) I may have overestimated the difficulty of finding a place to stay at night. But I would say it depends on what your comfort level or needs are. (Read on to see how he did it and decide if you would have been happy).
Jimmy contacted me several times during the 11 days he was in New England. If you think I do a lot of miles during the fall foliage season, keep this in mind, he was only here 11 days and he did 6400 miles. And even with all that mileage I don't think he felt he really found that elusive peak color!
(Jeff Foliage) What was your goal/plan for finding good color?
(Jimmy)"I studied the past color forecasts and results, as well as the current year forecasts and reports. I knew I wanted to spend eleven days there and I was going to try my best to catch peak as it made it down to about Stowe! That way, during my stay, I could chase peak around the New England states. I also felt that this plan would give me the ability to catch areas that were a little before peak as well as a little past peak. Not to mention, I felt it gave me a good cushion if I miscalculated my timing and location of where I thought peak would be when I arrived. I had never been to New England so this was all new to me. I scheduled my flights to arrive on the 11th of October. I thought I was on top of my game and guess what? About nine days early, it started to peak fast and that made me decide to jump on the phone and change my booking to a next day flight. Like $400 extra!"
(Jeff Foliage) What sorts of places did you choose to stay in? Did you have reservations on all the days, certain days or did you wing it every day?
"Kate and I landed in Boston at 4 in the morning, got a rental car and drove north. We had no reservations. Mostly, We took each day as it came. I just knew I wanted to get up into Vermont and New Hampshire. We started my touring in Woodstock, Vermont. We just spent the first day exploring the Woodstock area. Come that evening, We went to like ten motels or B&Bs and no rooms were available. We did find a room at a Motel 6 in White River Jct, though it was horrible and We would never recommend it.
Later that night, I checked hotels further away and found that a lot were available, just that the Woodstock area was booked. The only night we made a reservation ahead of time was in Acadia. I knew it would be crowded. It was the holiday weekend. I found a nice motel for around $70 a night and ended up hanging around a couple nights."
"After the first night, we would chase where we thought color was and shoot pictures all day. I used the "find lodging" button on the GPS around five every afternoon and called all the close ones. We stayed at little Mom and Pop motels. Tiny rooms, but often in awesome little areas. The cost was about $49 a night, some as much as $80 and some as low as $32. They were perfect. We don't have places like that in California. If you pay less than $100 for a room it's going to have a dead body in it. LOL!"
(Jeff Foliage) What did you take away from 2008? ?
"I learned a lot about how to plan my New England trips on my first trip, as well as how to photograph it. I took some cool pictures last year, but nowhere near as nice as I wanted. I didn't get any foggy mornings because it warmed up. This year I will be better prepared."
(Jeff Foliage) What was the funniest thing you found in New England?
"I was going to build a site on the moose gimmick! New England does a good job planning a way to make all the tourists believe there were moose everywhere up there! There are signs everywhere warning of them along the road. Also, there were t-shirts and souvenirs in every store and gas station. You know how many moose we came across? None! We are starting to think we were the center of a prank! Ha ha.?
Did you know that Yankee is up on Facebook and Twitter? Well, click on the links and you can get your updates all year long!
Yankee on Facebook and Yankee on Twitter.
I hope to hear from you throughout the summer and if you have any questions please feel free to ask them here in the comments section or over in the foliage forum and I and the other forum regulars will do their best to answer them
Reader Comments
Comment from Jeff Folger on June 21, 2009
recent foliage forum entry I'm still up in the air for any formal plans in 2009. I would love to hear what everybody else is doing though. I've got the blog going early so if you have any thoughts on fall and you want to put them in the comments just go to the main page and click on the blog [www.yankeefoliage.com]
Did everyone know that Yankee is now up on Twitter and facebook? You can now get tons of tips and info from following them on Twitter and/or Facebook. [twitter.com] and [www.facebook.com]
Jeff
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