Day 55 – 65 degrees this morning and sunny. Rob was up at 6:30 – rambunctious kitties – and I got up at 7:15. We left soon thereafter for the Umbagog Lake National Wildlife Refuge to go kayaking on the Magalloway River.
Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge is located on the border of NH & ME, in the 26-million acre region known as the Northern Forest. Umbagog is an Abenaki word for “clear water”. When a dam was built on the Androscoggin River upstream of Errol, NH in 1853, the size of Umbagog Lake increased significantly. Today, Umbagog Lake is nearly 8 miles long & covers over 8,000 acres. Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge, www.fws.gov/northeast/lakeumbagog, (603) 482-3415.h
On Route 16 heading north, approaching the boat launch, there were two grown Moose crossing the road in front of us! YAAA! Got a couple of quick pictures before they disappeared into the woods.
A moose!! Route 16, Umbagog NWR, Errol, NH
It was warming up quickly as we kayaked northeast on the winding Magalloway, and the sun was quite hot, beating down on us. Lovely lily pads with flowers blooming on both sides of the River, clean water, heavily tree’d on both sides, it was a really nice paddle. We saw no one else. After we’d paddled an hour, we turned around and headed back to the boat launch. There were some bugs (don’t know why here and not at the Pond at the campground) and it was pretty warm. 84 degrees back at the boat launch, we turned on the A/C in the car. We drove a little farther north on Route 16, hoping to see more Moose, then turned around and drove back to the campground. It was lunch time when we got back.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
The afternoon was quite warm; we spent it in the screened tent. It’s supposed to be hot tomorrow also, with the possibility of thunderstorms later in the day. It was a good day, and we’re glad we saw Moose before we left NH. Tomorrow we travel into the Maine northwoods country. We’d be surprised if we didn’t see Moose (and maybe Bears) there.
Coleman State Park: 1166 Diamond Pond Road, Stewartstown, NH 03597, (603) 237-5382, www.nhstateparks.org. Check-in is after 1 p.m., check-out is 11 a.m. The Park is located on Diamond Pond Road, 12 miles east of Colebrook off Route 26. The Park is in a remote area near the top of a hill. There is a small playground, a few picnic tables & fire rings, and the wonderful Little Diamond Pond for Day Use. The campground is small with only 25 camping sites. No hook-ups for electricity & water; there is a dump station & potable water is available at water spigots. $25 per night. ATV’s are permitted and although they are rarely ridden thru the Park, they do go by on Diamond Pond Road. Otherwise, when we were there (for 8 nights), the Park was never full & it was mostly quiet. Little Diamond Pond is really lovely & perfect for kayaking. Lots of campers fish there, too. Wildlife is abundant. We stayed at site #13 the first two nights. Then, because the site had been reserved, we moved to site #15. Both sites are large and we’d camp in either again. Other possibilities were #9A, #21, #25, #26, and #17, but we liked #15 and #13 the best (site #15 had more shade). We would definitely stay here again, particularly since even though it was August, it wasn’t too crowded, the bugs were minimal, & it didn’t get too hot.