Picnic Above the High Water Mark - Surry State Park

June 20, 2012

My friend, Jeri, told me about Surry State Park. It was out of the way, small , scenic and, if I waited until the end of the school year when field trips were done, quiet. I waited. On the next available gorgeous day we headed to Surry State Park (near Keene) for a day of picnicing, reading, kayaking and fishing. Anne often says that I don't check things out enough; so when we entered the park and drove across the dam and still could not find how to get to the beach, I was a bit worried. I stopped at a ranger station for more information.

I was sure that when I broke the news to Anne, she would understand and she would not need to remind me about the checking out thing again. It seems the heavy rains that we had read about the week before were actually floods ... just like the ones we had in Vermont. And the floods destroyed the road into the park and the water supply for it. Oops! This would require some quick thinking.






What we needed was  ... water ... sand ... and close proximity.  I headed the car for Walpole on Rt 12.  I would set up our picnic on the shoreline of the Connecticut River behind the dam at Bellows Falls on the New Hampshire side. I had been there before to collect driftwood. What it lacked in ambiance, it made up for with uniqueness. We arrived and the look on Anne's face was not a reflection of my inner confidence.

Sometimes signage is misleading ...

 and, to some extent, non-reassurring.

Nevertheless, if you didn't get too close, the water looked clean. Since the current was too fast to kayak, there was really no need to get that close. We found a sandy spot just off the dirt road and a good distance from any of the trash piles. Maybe after lunch we could combine a short hike along the river with picking up enough beer cans to pay for the extra gas needed to drive this far.  If you didn't look too closely, you might think you were on a beach in the Caribbean.






We ate our subs quickly in order not to attract the green flies from the dead fish carcasses along the shoreline.












After lunch, I explored upriver to the dam. I found ancient aboriginal writings on the stones. I believe this to be the word for "milk".












I also discovered a state-of-the-art playground. But we were both tired form all the excitement.



















It had been a great day despite the misdirection on the start. I had a nagging feeling that something was missing. I couldn't let go of that thought and spent quite a while thinking about it.








And then it came to me ... ice cream ... we found the ice cream truck in a park in Keene.