A while back, Jay and I started talking about the concept of slow fun, and this morning, we started collecting slow fun sites in earnest.
Our home is situated between a river where kayakers speed by when the water is high. On the other side of us is one of the most scenic roads in this area and we watch bikers fly by on their way to or fro somewhere else. It's always seemed to us that when you rush (hafta go fast, hafta go fast) you miss out on everything except, possibly, the sensation of your own speed.
We're devotees of walking and hiking and paddling around the edges of watery places and snowshoeing, exploring our world at the speed of a biological organism.
Slow fun.
Today, we started our new adventures at Spectacle Pond in Enfield, New Hampshire. About an hour or so from here, it's small enough to give you a morning-sized paddle and still leave you with energy to do other things later in the day.
We weren't in the water for more than 10 minutes when an adult loon and a youngster floated by, diving for breakfast. Then another loon called from across the water, a call like no other except, perhaps, the howl of a wolf.
There were all sorts of very cool water plants to paddle through and I got fascinated by the curlicue root systems of the waterlilies. Blue dragonflies escorted us part of the way, and in a shallow spot with a sandy bottom, we could trace the circular rings of abandoned fish nests.
The backside of the pond, where there are no camps or houses, is pine forest right down to the water line. Here and there, a tree leaned out over the stony shore.
Spectacle Pond's public put-in is a bit obsure, just a lip of a place right next to a bridge where the water runs out of the pond. It's located on Lockhaven Road, easily reachable from Route 4. Motorized boats are allowed but only up to 10 horsepower. Looks like the fishing is good. You can traverse the whole perimeter of the pond in 2 hours.
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