As you follow the mighty Connecticut River upstream closer and closer to its source, it becomes much smaller and in some ways more scenic. Of course, the upper reaches are also far less built-up, which helps make it scenic! By the time you get north of St Johnsbury, you could throw a stone across it easily enough, and there are long stretches with no human structures other than the occasional farm. 

But there are still many miles to go before you reach the source. By Pittsburg, NH the great placid river we admired from the Gillette Castle is a babbling stony-bottomed fly-fishing river. And there's still an hour to drive! Fortunately the road is in excellent condition and there is virtually no traffic. It's hard to believe this is the same NH3 that disgorges thousands of cars every rush-hour onto Rte 128 near where I work.

The source of the river is up on the Canadian border at the third of the three Connecticut Lakes. The lake is available, as far as we could tell, by a single gravel boat ramp off a small gravel driveway. The nearest town is Pittsburg, a long way away. It would be a lovely place for a picnic, if there were a picnic table.

There are a couple of picnic tables at Connecticut Lake 2, and Connecticut Lake 1 is downright civilized. They are both lovely as well, but Lake 1 was pretty busy, in a great North Woods kind of way.

Alas! This really is the middle of nowhere, too far north for American markets and too far south for Quebecois ones. If you want an awesome foodie picnic, bring everything yourself; there are no markets for miles and miles. For foodie discoveries, we had to press on to Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.