Nubanusit Lake, Spoonwood Pond

[John P]

The anchor's weighed, and the journey's made!

This was a last voyage on October 27, before cold weather arrives. Another solo excursion, with my single-seat canoe. I have canuded here before, but this time it wasn't warm enough, though I did show how it ought to be done a couple of times.

Nubanusit lake and Spoonwood Pond have an interesting geography. As you can see on the map,  they almost meet at two points. At the northeastern end of Spoonwood, there's actually a dam, where water from Spoonwood pours over into Nubanusit. At the southwestern end, there's a carry trail a couple of hundred yards long (though shown in blue on the map, as though it were a stream!) This makes it possible to do a trip in the form of a loop, down one lake and back through the other.

	Here's the map; the squares are 1km, so you can get an idea of the scale. I started where the road passes by the extreme southwest end of Nubanusit Lake.		The launch point, a little private beach with no-trespassing signs, but on a weekday in October I doubt if anyone cared.		Off down the shore of Nubanusit Lake.
	Around the point, and facing the sun.		This is the dam where water pours over into Nubanusit Lake.		After hauling the boat onto the dam.
	Another view while properly dressed!		Dead leaves in the water, and some which soon will be.		Looking down Spoonwood Pond.
	At the start of the carry trail back to Nubanusit.		Again, we can do this in the right costume!		A view down the carry trail.
	On the way home, a view of Harrisville, New Hampshire. Yes, sometimes New England really does look that way!

               

[jbeegoode]

These photos look like something that they turn into jigsaw puzzles. It looks beautiful and peaceful. The lake has buildings and roads near it. I'm assuming that on warmed days, that there are boaters and hikers on imagined trails along the shoreline. Is that the case? The POND...they don't grow "ponds" that big around here...doesn't have those man-made attractions. Is there seclusion at the pond? It is all too naturistic to waste it with a horrid swimsuit.

Yup, I just made up a naturist's word.
Jbee

[John P]

These photos look like something that they turn into jigsaw puzzles. It looks beautiful and peaceful. The lake has buildings and roads near it. I'm assuming that on warmed days, that there are boaters and hikers on imagined trails along the shoreline. Is that the case? The POND...they don't grow "ponds" that big around here...doesn't have those man-made attractions. Is there seclusion at the pond? It is all too naturistic to waste it with a horrid swimsuit.

Yup, I just made up a naturist's word.
Jbee

That's a very perceptive response, JBG. Sadly, yes there are far too many power boats on Nubanusit Lake, especially up near the launching area at the northeast corner--see the map. I've taken my little  boat there, but mixing with the water-torturers doesn't have much appeal, and I don't need a ramp, so now I go down to the south end. I don't know about hiking trails, but people do often bring canoes and kayaks to Spoonwood Pond via the two ways in (no access for anything you can't carry, fortunately) so in warm weather nudity requires good luck, or some discretion, or a fairly brazen attitude. But on a weekday near the end of October, I didn't see anyone out on the water at all. And as for the terminology, I don't know what size a "pond" has to be before it turns into a "lake"!

There are signs on Spoonwood Pond telling you that camping is only allowed by permission of a conservation organization called the Harris Center. In spite of being near Harrisville, it's apparently named after a cat.
http://www.harriscenter.org/

They say they'll let you camp there if you have a $75 membership, which seems a little steep, though if one had a group one might split the cost and think it was reasonable. But no fires allowed! There wouldn't be any need to tell them about one's naturist tendencies.

And here's a coincidence. A few years ago I used to meet a naturist who actually owned a share of a house on Nubanusit Lake, along with some siblings or cousins. He came to the Naturist Gatherings and I also saw him at parties run by friends in New Hampshire. I suggested that he might invite naturists up to his place, but he wasn't keen on that idea; he said it might upset the neighbors. I asked him if he went skinny-dipping there, and he said he did, but he didn't care to push their tolerance. In fact he said he'd had some dealings with the local police, apparently not because they'd come to arrest him, but he did say they made it clear that they knew he liked to be naked. I think he didn't want to risk any difficulties with the neighbors or his co-owners! But that guy (he was well up in years) moved away in order to be nearer to his children and grandchildren, so I've lost that connection.

[nuduke]

Well the opportunity to be skyclad may be a bit limited, John P, but what a beautiful place.  Such places are precious.
John

[jbeegoode]

I just got intrigued by my sense of user friendly naturist habitat. I looked more closely at the map, hen looked up google satellite. There appears to be lots of open forested land all around. There are several small lake/ponds with no apparent trails or use. For instance next to Spoonwood pond, there is what looks to be a nice place and not any tough slope to get through to it and a creek. There is growth in some, some more than others. This information leads me to questions like: mosquitoes problems?
Why is there not development there?
Does the water warm up?
 Camping?
 Backpacking to a secluded, serene, solitude on a body of water?
 State, Fed, or private lands?
What would keep someone from bushwhacking across, under this thick canopy?

Please, remember that I'm over thirty years from that kind of territory and most of my experience was in Virginia and Michigan as a youth. I remember slippery leaf covered slopes, and cold deep water of Lake Gogowac, near Battle Creek, or the warmer waters and mucky swamps off of the James River. I'm planning to do a cross country tour during the next couple of years.
Jbee

[John P]

So many questions, JBG! To answer in general terms, there are lots of places in New England where you can make your way through wild forest for miles--as Thoreau said, "no man's garden, but the unhandselled globe". (Hmm, spell checker objects to a word there.) Sometimes it could be National Forest, or state forests, or there's a fair amount of territory owned by nonprofit foundations too, such as the Harris Center. Bodies of water are harder to find, and most of them are pretty badly handselled. As you can see on the topo map, Nubanusit Lake has houses on it, though not a huge number and all along one side. I'm afraid the norm is for any body of water capable of floating a duck to be a magnet for development, and the places that have escaped tend to be in state parks, with trails around them and often ramps from which power boats ravage the silence. I agree that there's some exploring to be done around Spoonwood Pond, but if one has already driven 2 hours up from Boston, and then paddled a boat for an hour, with the prospect of the same to achieve in reverse, one doesn't tend to do long shore-based side trips. If we're willing to travel farther, like to central Maine or the Adirondacks, there are chains of pristine lakes with carry trails between them, and campsites waiting to be enjoyed.

Yes, the water gets to be very comfortable for swimming by midsummer. In most locations, I don't find mosquitoes to be a problem--the worst I've experienced was in Colorado! My avatar picture was taken at Ledge Pond in the Adirondacks, which as I recall we got lost reaching and then again on the way back. Here's another one from Junior Lake, Maine, on a trip my wife and I did. Notice that the boat's full of all our camping stuff.

If your travels could ever bring you this far, of course we'd be happy to see you, and we'd make an effort to show you a good naturist time!