Updates from Yankee’s Ultimate Fall Foliage Road Trip
Why should out-of-state leaf peepers have all the fun? Two Yankee staffers are hitting the road this fall — and inviting readers to follow their adventures.
Sleepy Hollow Farm in Pomfret, Vermont.
Credit: Mark FlemingYankee Fall Foliage Road Trip Updates
Day 1 | October 1, 2018 Fryeburg, Maine
Maine’s Fryeburg Fair can be a humbling place. On day one of my weeklong foliage journey with Yankee’s senior photographer, Mark Fleming, I was confronted head-on with a sobering fact: I’m really a lousy anvil thrower. I learned this just after lunch, under overcast skies and amid the ever-present smell of fried everything (dough, fries, and Oreos, for example), as a small crowd gathered to watch a group of men take turns throwing an 18-pound weight. I had watched with interest and a bit of overconfidence as a series of 20-somethings barely managed to hit the 25-foot mark. When my name was finally called, I picked up the anvil. My confidence didn’t dip a bit. I got a small running start, hit the line, and let it rip. And it was at that precise moment of release that I knew my arrogance had been unwarranted. The chunk of iron didn’t gain much ground clearance and toppled just a short distance in front of me. “Seventeen feet,” the announcer called. A few sympathy cheers emerged from the crowd.
Yankee’s deputy editor Ian Aldrich winds up for
Credit: Mark FlemingCredit: Mark Fleming The ensuing lineup of competitors only hardened the blow. An older man pretending he could barely keep his balance when he picked up the weight blew past my mark. So did a man who looked several years older than him. The only reason I didn’t finish dead last was because the 81-year-old from Rhode Island appeared a little tired from his drive to Maine. So began my day at the Fryeburg Fair and my weeklong journey with Mark Fleming through the New England autumn. The day got better, to be sure. I got to eat a pile of hot fries, won a stuffed turtle at a water gun competition, watched a beautiful 18-month-old bull take top prize in a cattle show, and witnessed a few veteran woodsmen expertly chop down standing logs so that they landed with a precision on small pumpkins. You’d be surprised at the thrill of seeing such skill. I know I was.

Fair fun in Fryeburg, Maine.
Credit: Mark FlemingCredit: Mark Fleming

The Fryeburg Fair has been a fall Maine tradition since 1851.
Credit: Mark FlemingCredit: Mark Fleming And I suspect there will be even better days to come too. Our trip will be an exercise in all things New England autumn: a haunted corn maze, a townwide fall festival in a postcard-perfect Vermont town, a hike in the New Hampshire White Mountains, and one amazing pumpkin celebration on the Maine coast. We’ll drive through notches and along country roads. I may even enter a pie eating contest. And yes, there will be foliage. It’s early October, we’re up north, and the colors have already started to show. I’m looking forward to all of it. But boy, I wish that anvil had sailed a little farther.
Day 2 | October 2, 2018 Bethlehem, New Hampshire
A soggy morning had given way to a soggy afternoon by the time we rolled through Bethlehem, a small town in the western section of New Hampshire’s White Mountains region that has become acclaimed over the years for its preponderance of antiques shops. Mark and I were on our way to Littleton for a little beer and a lot of pizza at Schilling Beer Co., but our dinner plans got postponed when we passed Hundred Acre Wood, a sprawling showcase of self-described “antiques and fun junk” that spilled out of two barns and into the yard it shares with a large farmhouse on Bethlehem’s Main Street. “We gotta stop,” I told Mark, turning the RV around. This was, after all, a day for discovery. Thick clouds had shrouded the mountains and a cool rain had tempered any excitement to find big foliage color. On an early-morning scamper up Mount Willard, I’d found the peak socked in by low-hanging clouds. About an hour before, at the nearby Omni Mount Washington Resort, guests had milled about the grand foyer, clutching coffees and peering out the big windows as they waited to reboard their tour bus for a trip to Mount Washington’s peak. Many wondered if they would get a chance to take in those famous views.
Taking in the view at the Omni Mount Washington Resort.
Credit: Mark Fleming











Mark Fleming: An award-winning photographer and director, Mark has spent nearly two decades in the photography industry. A graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology’s photojournalism program, he served as director of photography for Down East before joining Yankee in 2016 as senior photographer. A self-professed geek, Mark loves History Channel documentaries, keeps back editions of National Geographic for reference material, and can quote nearly every line from Jaws. He makes a point to try any local beer he can get his hands on and attempts to mitigate the resulting calories by dodging traffic on his road bike.
Follow Mark on Twitter @mfphoto and on Instagram @mfphoto. 


