New England Adventures

I’m a little behind on actually processing and posting my photos, but I have been doing a lot of hiking and shooting in the past few months. So, going back to August 7th when A and I went on a mini road trip to Ausable, NY, about an hour and a half away, to visit this spot on the Ausable river. 

Often refered to as the Grand Canyon of the east, the gorge has been open to the public as a tourist attraction since 1870.  The gorge itself is approximately two miles long, with walls ranging from 40 -100 feet tall, and was carved by the fast flowing waters of the Ausable River as it makes its way to Lake Champlain over thousands of years. 

Rainbow falls, one of the best known sections of the Chasm, can be viewed from two different locations along the trail. First from the base of the Chasm where the tour begins, and again from the top of the chasm at a veiwing platform at the end of the tour.

We took the river trail with a tour guide that takes you through the lower levels of the chasm, the inner sanctum, and crosses a couple rope and board bridges, and gave a brief history of the area. There had been a heavy rain storm a few days before we went, and our guide told us that the river had risen so high after that the paths and ladders we were walking along had been underwater. Due to the danger of the high water and fast moving river, the package we had is not always available.

The Elephants head, another very well known feature of the chasm located in the inner sanctum, and the one I remembered from visiting as a kid in the early 90′s.

One of the bridges we crossed with our guide. It moved, a lot. 

The stair case leading down into the Chasm to begin the adventure tour. My knees were not impressed.

After passing the Elephants head and crossing a second bridge, the trail becomes self guided, sending you up to walk along the cliffs near the top of the chasm.

This post is getting long, so there will likely be a second part featuring the areas around the top of the chasm, and some smaller gorges near by. 

This was a place that has been on my bucket list for years, but i was always hesitant to go knowing its not cheap and and often crowded with tourists, and I knew my chances of being able to bring in a tripod and get the shots I wanted without tourists in my frame holding up phones would be slim. 

Due to Covid and social distancing however, I got my chance this summer. The number of peple allowed in at once was extremely limited and we only saw a handful of people in the three hours we were there, and reservations had to be made ahead of time.  I knew that this would make it the perfect time to visit as a photographer and am happy to have gotten my chance. 

In a normal summer, they have weather dependent rafting packages on the days where it is safe to tube down the lower parts of the chasm, as well as a more advanced adventure tour featuring climbing sections and more bridges than we were able to cross.

I was working on something a little different today. A friend of mine asked for my help with a piece of wall art to go over his bed in place of a headboard. He wants to feature the silhouettes of the largest mountains in Vermont, layered on top of each other. The final image will be painted directly onto the wall, using the image I’m creating as a stecil that will be projected. 

Finding images of the mountains seemed like it would be easy enough at first, but a couple minutes into a google search I was proven wrong. I realized there would be an issue of scale, and accuracy, and came to the conclusion that there had to be someway to get accurate and consistent elevation profiles of these peaks. 

My search led to Google earth Pro, a Topographical map add on, and a tool that measures the distance between points on a map (with an option to connect points into a longer path) that also, as a convenient bonus, creates an elevation graph. 

I figured out a workflow of locating the peak in Google Earth, finding the path that hit all the highest points over the peak, and then throwing a screenshot of the resulting graph into photoshop. Things got messy (and a bit ugly for a bit) while I worked out how to adjust and align my layers with really sloppy masking to see if this process will even work.  

As much as the colors hurt my brain, (yes, the colors I chose my self... I know...) It was enough to figure out that it would work, and redrew all the peaks and colored them in with varied shades of green, as the final peice will be. 

I started this project with an obsession for accuracy, lining up all my graphs along the 3500′ elevation line so they are arranged how they would actually look on the gound, if you lined them all up nicely with the tallest in the back. Of course that’s not how geography works, and when you account for the actual arrangement of these peaks and the compass direction you would have to stand in to see them at these angles, and the hundreds of miles between, and probably the curvature of the earth... but I hope you understand what I was going for. 

The result is not quite the messy jumble of peaks and lines I was expecting, but still too cramped for the space we are trying to fill. 

Second version, where we forget that actual measurements and elevation lines exist and space things out a bit, letting the mountains social distance a little more.  There will likely be lots of tweaking with the arrangments and spacing in the next couple months, but first impression is that this is the winner. Or at least some variation on ths will be the winner. 

And because this was the origional idea (based on a t-shirt he has of the tallest peaks in the world) and its really easy to slide things around now that I have my layers built into photoshop, I had to do the stacked version.  It’s alright. 

Two sunsets specifically, both with my new precious Nikon D750. I don’t think you all understand how long I have been drooling over this camera. 

First up, the Winooski River delta on Lake Champlain. (Yes, that spot again... its convenient from my house.)

And further south on Lake Champlain, at my Aunts camp on Long Point in Ferrisburgh. 

The May new moon is here (ofiicially at least) , and I somehow lucked out and got clear skies again tonight. I’m heading out in a few hours to a new location in central Vermont that I’m hoping will work out, but until then, Monday nights adventure. 

I dragged a friend with me to the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Swanton, Vermont.  This is the same place I visited during the day a couple weeks ago,  and posted about it here. 

This time, we walked out the rail trail off Tabor Road that looked like it ended at a pond, so we were expecting some kind of clearing, or viewing area, but the trail just ended. Rather abruptly with a sign announcing ‘end of trail’.  Instead of at the waters edge, we were still in the woods, and the ground was squishy so we were probably at the edge of marshland. It was also 2am, and not the time for bushwacking. (near water, carrying camera gear...) 

Despite the dissapointing ending, the trail did run through some sections of open fields along a raised gravel path that I assume once had train tracks. there are also sections where the trail is a mowed path through the field. The secong half however runs through denser woods, with no views of the sky. I’m sure during the day there are lots of birds to be seen though. 

After leaving Swanton, we returned south toward home on Rt. 2 through the Champlain Islands, making a second stop at Alburg Dunes State Park on the way. By this point, it was close to 3:30AM, and the end of my shooting window before dawn. We started seeing pink skies on the horizon marking the start of sunrise about 30 minutes after this shot. 

Warren Falls

Route 100, Warren, Vermont

I visited this waterfall for the first time yesterday, and realized I have probably driven past this place many times without paying attention to the sign. Officially, its a viewing area, which usually means there is a bridge, or railings, but here it just meant a spiderweb of ‘trails’ along the edge of the river with places where you could climb out onto the rocks.  

Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, Swanton, Vermont.

Shot April 29, 2020, when it was apparently a very good day to be a turtle chilling on a log, facing the sun.

This is a very easy 2.3 mile loop trail that follows the Maquam Creek and goes through wetland areas. About a third of the trail is on raised wooden boardwalks to keep the land protected and offers great views of wildlife as the trail winds through. I saw lots of garter snakes, ducks, turtles, heard lots of geese, and spotted a heron in the distance.  

I hiked Mt. Laraway in Northern Vermont this past Sunday, (May 3, 2020) and lucked out with perfect weather.  It was the first day temps got over 70F this year, and I ended up a little sunburnt, (though I burn easily so thats not surprising). Of course we have to pay for it now with rain and temps back down in the 40′s. 

This trail started in Johnson, Vermont, with a trail head nearly 4 miles down multiple dirt roads, and I headed north on the Long Trail for 2.2 miles, with 1600ft of elevation gain to this look out. The trail runs along a stream with dozens of tiny waterfalls along the way, and several places where the trail crosses the stream. 

The last half mile was more dificult when the trail essentially becomes ‘just walk in the stream bed.” It’s still early enough in the spring that there was still a good amount of ice and snow on the trail and made navigating the water and rocks more dificult. You could argue that I fell in the stream at one point, but only one foot got wet so I’ve decided it doesn’t count.

I didn’t go all the way to the summit because it was Icy and I had read that it was treed with out much of a view, so the over look was my turnaround point. The 180 degree views from the cliff, facing south-west with views of Mount Mansfield and Sterling, and a glimpse of Lake Champlain. 

Hello friends!!!  I know its been a long time since I have posted anything on this tumblr, but I’m back! Is anyone still here? 

My last post was a bit of a downer, explaining why I hadn’t been posting much, or even shooting much.  Ok, shooting anything.  I feel terrible for how long my camera went ignored.  (insert anthropormorphic frowning camera??)

I’m happy to share however, that with the current pandemic situation (yes, this will be happy...) and my temporary lay off from work, I have the time and energy to hike and shoot again. 

So, question to all my lovely followers.... What do you want to see?  Just final images? Full trail write ups and hike reports like I tried to do in Acadia? Tutorials on my post processing work flow? Let me know!

In the meantime, heres a shot from Sundays hike to the summit of Laraway Mountain on the Long Trail in Johnson, VT.  More to come from this location...

So as I I’m sure some have you have noticed, It’s been a while since I have shared any new work here.   I had a hip flexor injury last spring that took FOREVER to heal, made me unsure about hiking this summer since I didnt want to risk re injuring it, and unfortunately, it has led to a lack in motivation when it comes to my photography.    Its not the first time I have gone months without picking up my camera, and I am hoping that the motivation will return soon.  It always has before, and sometimes its good to take a little break from something and comeback with fresh creative energy. 

I am planning on keeping this blog (assuming my main and other side blogs dont get me deleted...).  Knowing that I have followers helps keep me motivated so I can share new work with all of you. 

Just in case however, I want to share where else you can find me. 

Redbubble - https://www.redbubble.com/people/kyleugalde

Instagram- Username kyleugalde

online portfolio - https://kyleugalde.myportfolio.com/