Sunday October 24, 2021 was a beautiful late fall day. The last time that I had been to Gunstock Mountain Resort was for a ski trip back in March of 2009. All I had with me for a camera at the time was an inexpensive “point and shoot” camera that only took photos in jpeg format. I wanted to go back with a good DSLR camera and a few lenses. So I packed up my Pentax K-x camera and my three lenses and hit the road.
I took the chairlift to the top and went out on the deck of the summit hut to take some photos.
The view was fantastic!
I went down some of the ski trails to get some different views of the lake. The panorama photo below is looking towards the north end of the lake.
I walked down a couple other ski trails to get some views to the south. Below is a panorama showing Rattlesnake Island, which is one of the larger ones on the lake.
I was riding down the chairlift when I got some photos of the southeast part of the lake near Wolfboro, NH.
Imagine these views in the winter and you can understand why I would like to go back there for a ski trip.
On October 17th I lead an meetup.com group hike to the summit of Mt. Sunapee. It’s one of my favorite hikes and ski resorts because of the fantastic view of Lake Sunapee from the summit and ski trails.
My goal for the hike was to get some late season foliage photos that I could turn into Panorama photos using Adobe Lightroom. The two panorama photos below are from the top of the Skyway Ledges ski trail. I like to stop here for a few minutes and enjoy the view in the winter when I am skiing.
The panorama photos below are from the the top of the Wing Ding trail on the Sun Bowl side of the mountain.
The panorama photo below was shot by turning the camera on its side for a series of portrait photos that I “stitched” together in Lightroom to make a huge panorama photo. I was able to capture both the foliage on the lower slopes of the mountain and entire lake.
On Sunday September 19th I joined a meetup.com group and hiked Mt. Moosilauke (See the Alltrails Page) in New Hampshire. It’s one of the 4000+ footers in New Hampshire and an awesome hike.
This is a panorama shot of the view from the Gorge Brook Trail once you start to get above the treeline.
We got a little higher and I got my 300mm lens out and zoomed in on Mt. Lafayette over on the Franconia Ridge.
It was cold at the top (down in the 40’s with the wind chill) so most people at the summit were hanging out behind wind breaks.
The views towards Franconia Ridge were fantastic even though a few clouds moved in.
This photo is looking towards Lake Tarleton, Lake Armington and Lake Katherine in Piermont, NH
This photo is of Black Mountain to the right and North Haverhill, NH down in the Connecticut River Valley.
This is one of my favorite 4000+ mountains to climb it’s the closest one to where I live. Starting from the Dartmouth base lodge is very cool. my next favorite trail is the Beaver Brook Trail from route 112 in North Woodstock, NH.
Although I had a full week of Scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico, and had some amazing sea life encounters, the Whale Shark snorkel trip on my last day of vacation was one of my favorite days, despite the fact that I got sea sick.
They offer these Whale Shark snorkel tours in several resorts in Cozumel, but the tours actually take place off the coast of Cancun, Mexico. Cancun, Mexico is located on the Yucatan Peninsula, which is a summer feeding area for Whale Sharks. However, it takes some effort to get there from Cozumel.
I packed my gear the night before and got up at 5am to be at the Ferry Terminal at 6am for the 7:15am ferry to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The van ride to the marina in Cancun was a little over hour.
The snorkel tour boats were a lot smaller than I expected. As we headed out to sea, the waves started getting bigger. After about an hour on the water with 4 to 5 foot waves, I started to feel light headed. I tried all the tricks like looking at the horizon and it helped for a while, but I eventually had to admit I was sea sick.
We were about 34 miles off shore when we saw the others tour boats where the whale sharks were feeding. We soon joined them and were able to see some whale sharks near the surface and put a guide and a couple snorkelers in the water. They would swim with the whale shark(s) for a bit then they would get back in the boat. Then we would find another whale shark and put two more people in the water.
When it was my turn, getting in the water and cooling off helped me to feel better. The video below shows both times I was able to get in the water with the whale sharks. During the first swim I found myself between two whale sharks, which was fantastic, but I did not get as closed as I had hoped. During the second swim I was able to get closer and swim beside it for a while, which was awesome.
When it was time to leave, the waves were still big enough I was happy to go back to shore. On the way back a huge rainstorm overtook us. Although it thoroughly soaked us, it did calm the seas down and make the waves smaller. It also cooled me down and helped with my sea sickness.
Before taking us back to the marina we anchored in the shallows off the beach in the hotel zone in Cancun. The water was only about 4 feet deep but we got hang out in the water and drink Corona beer while the crew made ceviche. They used fresh Grouper for the fish ingredient and a jalapeno pepper for the heat. The captain of the other tour boat made fresh guacamole for us.
Now I wish I had taken more photos from that part of the trip, at the time I was happy be feeling better after being sea sick and and drinking a beer off the beach in Cancun, Mexico.
The Digital Gallery Blog 
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