Are the leaves changing colour really worth sitting in hours of traffic to see? When I think 3 day weekend, I can't say "go watch a tree" has ever featured highly on my list of things I want to do. In fact I think it's ranked just below "lose a testicle".

I've never been up there for "leaf season" before, so I'm heading up NEXT week to stay at a friend's cabin. no way I'd go on Columbus day weekend.

Earguy: I've never been up there for "leaf season" before, so I'm heading up NEXT week to stay at a friend's cabin. no way I'd go on Columbus day weekend.

They might be about done by then. Around these parts with the weird spring we had, some of the trees are already done, others haven't started to change. It's not the best year for the full show, but even in a bad year it's worth a drive in the country at this time of year!

Little late... Even down here in southern Ohio and Northern KY the leaves are already changing fast.

/Hard freeze tonight, dunno if that will affect it much as I am told the the change is dependent on sunlight hours, not temperature... but I heard a hard freeze causes quicker cellular disruption which generally makes the leaves turn brown very fast.. with fewer reds.

Stay out of CT, leaf peepers!

sno man: Earguy: I've never been up there for "leaf season" before, so I'm heading up NEXT week to stay at a friend's cabin. no way I'd go on Columbus day weekend.

They might be about done by then. Around these parts with the weird spring we had, some of the trees are already done, others haven't started to change. It's not the best year for the full show, but even in a bad year it's worth a drive in the country at this time of year!

Actually, we're going to southern Vermont. Right now it's ramping up there, in one week we'll either hit peak or miss it by only a day or two. If it's not quite peak, we just head to slightly higher elevations. We'll just have a few days off to be tourists.

I'll save the aggravation and maybe make a trip through the Appalachians and go to the Carolina Renaissance Faire in a few weeks. Prettier there anyway.

I want to go up to the White Mountains on Monday. Looks like the drive back will be hell. Has New Hampshire legalized machine guns on cars yet?

Oh thank god! I was afraid "Leafers" were conspiracy theorists claiming Obama played Hockey for Toronto.

Can someone explain what's so special about New Hampshire this time of year... especially this weekend?  I totally get being into the changing colors of the trees and all, but isn't pretty much everything from Western Pennsylvania/Carolinas all the way up to Maine pretty well forrested?  Other than big cities?  Why New Hampshire specifically?

jimmyego: Are the leaves changing colour really worth sitting in hours of traffic to see? When I think 3 day weekend, I can't say "go watch a tree" has ever featured highly on my list of things I want to do. In fact I think it's ranked just below "lose a testicle".

It's more a matter of a nice weekend in the country. I live on the Jersey Shore and we did the Kancamagus Highway about 10 years ago. Spent the weekend at this adorable bed & breakfast, found an awesome cafe, and did some antiquing. Then saw the Man in the Mountain (who has since fallen off) and saw a moose. It was just a fun getaway.

My mom was going to come for a visit next week, but couldn't because there's not a vacant hotel room for miles for less than $300 a night. Thanks leafers!

Mayhem of the Black Underclass: Massholes on Everett Turnpike who don't know about Exit 11. It opens up to three lanes just before, shuts down to 2 just after, then the oncoming traffic has to merge, all in about 0.2 miles, they think the highway is getting larger, so they spread out, then it chokes up because it's a merge and a merge, it's more bad civic planning than it is the peepers.

Really I had no problems until the choke up at exit 11. It caused a 10 minute slowdown (The horror) so my 25mi/30min commute took 40 minutes (the horror).

Come on up, pay our stupid rooms and meals tax, buy some liquor from the state liquor store, make purchases at the new outlet mall. Whatever.

Well on the bright side for my friend (an a.m. in one of the stores), all those backed up people are getting off at exit 10 to go to the Merrimack Premium Outlets. Apparently it's busy as fark there right now.

I'm waiting til Tuesday to go up and visit. :p

As someone who commutes on foot and drives only when absolutely necessary, I really don't understand why people who drive to work and sit in traffic Every Day find a traffic-laden weekend activity like this appealing.

I was born in Maine and moved away as an infant. Not until I was forty years old did I return to discover the locals considered me one of their own."Born a Maineuh, always a Maineuh."Then they shared their stories about how they hate all the New Yorkers that come up every summer and Fall.

vodka: Are these "Leafers" of a criminal element or something? Gangs? Bringing down local property values and stealing from your economy? Help me understand why I should hate them.

There's a reason W pronounced "terrorists" like "tourist." Ridiculous traffic to do anything, everywhere you want to go is overcrowded, and just a general feeling that there'll be no peace and quiet till they're gone.

Richard Saunders: When I get the urge to watch something change colors, fall to the ground and die, I just choke a hooker.

You sir made me snort and for that I salute you, mr hooker choking dude

But... the NHL is on Lockout!

Oh. You mean LeafERS. Never mind...

This thread is now about the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ha! Sad little man! That's what you think!

Come for our Fall foliage, stay for our tropical planters.

The first frosts haven't hit yet, so the summer plants are enormous and brightly coloured. They seem to have thrived during the drought conditions in early summer, and now that we have had some rain, they are exceptional and the grass has recovered enough to be considered good although not exceptional.

I like those forest floor plants with the mixed colours and frilly leaves--they are varied and attractive and they work well with maples turning bright yellow, red, sort of vaguely magenta, wine, etc.

New England colours are not as bright as they are further North where the climate is sharper and mave suffer from warming and late Fall humidity, but we're just about at the cutting edge of Fall foliage in Eastern Canada, so as the climate warms we get the best of both worlds in the Fall--the frosts hold off, the weather is warmer and sometimes sunny and we get to keep our summer exotics into the season of the Fall glories, with a greener background of lawn and conifer.

It's an ill wind that blows nobody well. At least we get some compensation for drought, heat wave, massive storms, etc., not to mention the growing threat to the Winter ice-skating on the Rideau Canal.

Personally I like the shorter winters and prolongued periods of Spring and Fall weather. If only the Summers weren't getting more prone to heat waves and other extreme weather events like the tornado-like winds that tore a logo off of a downtown building.

You win some, you lose some. The millions saved on snow-clearing will go to cleaning up after floods and other weather events that tend to be less scheduled than seasonal snow.

First? Really?