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Tir Na Nog, advertised as the biggest Irish bar on the smallest island in the world, is named after a mythical Irish island where Oisin, a Celtic hero, lived for 300 years in eternal youth with his fairy love. Divers come for the extensive coral reefs, which are inhabited by manta rays, bumphead parrotfish, pipefish, moray eels, turtles, and the occasional black- or white-tipped reef shark.

\"I've fished streams where I could jump from one side to the other without difficulty,\" [John A. Viar] said, \"but nearly all streams in New Hampshire hold fish. Small streams are an underused resource in most of New England.\" I have been fishing the small streams of the White Mountain National Forest for a decade. The other day I got out my gear and headed for the Baker River. Go to any fly-fishing website and you won't find the Baker mentioned except in passing. Yet it, like many small rivers and streams in New Hampshire, is a delightful, stony brook in its mountain stretches, a bright, shimmering band through fragrant pine forests. It is a classic trout stream, complete with overhanging cover, pale white rocks, and sufficient deep pools and cut banks to make most casts pleasantly hopeful. Eventually it broadens and joins with the Pemigewasset River in Plymouth, emptying finally into the Merrimack River watershed. But in its headwaters, not far from Dartmouth's Mount Moosilauke Ravine Lodge on Route 118, it is a tumbling stream that carries snowmelt out of the mountains. \"You can find fish from 4 to 8 inches in most of our streams,\" Viar said. \"But you won't find a brookie with a more striking appearance anywhere than our native wild fish. They are gems. And cooked up on a campfire, they're hard to beat.\"

The Moose River bow trip is well known among New England paddlers. Picture a longbow on a flat surface. Imagine kayaking down the shaft of the bow, turning at the tip, and then paddling along the string until you arrive back at the bottom of the bow. Rare among river trips, it doesn't require a second car to transport boats and gear. Begin at Attean Pond and return there in three days. No way back but onward. In order to claim the entire adventure, you must begin at Attean Pond and portage 1.2 miles to Holeb Pond. Most boaters prefer to forgo the portage, beginning instead at Holeb Landing after paying an outfitter to drive their vehicle around to the Attean Landing parking lot. That may be a Moose River trip, but it's not a bow. I happened to leave out the portage element when I originally described the trip to my son. Besides, how hard could a 1.2-mile portage be? A word of caution: On many canoe and kayak maps, the word \"rips\" signifies a long, shallow section of quick-moving water. On the map issued by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands covering the Moose River bow trip, the rips more closely resemble tricky drops - particularly Spencer and Mosquito rips. With boats full of valuable equipment, it is questionable whether running them is worthwhile. You will need a permit if you want a campfire at night. Call the Maine Forest Service at 207-827-1800.

Kevin Rafferty, the twentysomething manager of the Cinnamon Rainbow Surf Co. in Hampton Beach, claims the resurgence of surfing has a lot to do with wet suit technology. He also points out that women are surfing in greater numbers, too, joining the men all winter long on the southern swells that break up and down New Hampshire's coast. [Mike Paugh] and Linda Paugh, owners of Zapstix Surf Shop, a few miles down the road in Seabrook, agree. This spring they marshaled Article 57 through the Seabrook Town Meeting to make sure Seabrook Beach remained open for surfing. A small contingent in town wanted to outlaw surfing and reserve the beach for swimmers. Now, youngsters can attend evening surf camps, offered by both Cinnamon Rainbow and Zaptix surf shops. And adults can sign up for private or group lessons, during which instructors teach water safety and the basics of surfing. The sport has grown so rapidly in the past few years that the classes are filled quickly. Rafferty says veterans are returning to the sport because they find it easier on their joints and muscles than land-based exercise.

Among fly-fishers, the Kennebago region is legendary. Named for the \"sweet flowing waters\" by the Native American nations, it was a destination for early fishermen, who hiked in from Rangeley in search of brook trout weighing 6 to 8 pounds. A nine-hour hike brought them to a log cabin at the head of Kennebago Lake, where they slept on pine bough beds and captured brook trout larger than any on record. Sports editors insisted that the fish must be lake trout, or toque, and the confusion continued until a specimen delivered to Harvard professor Louis Agassiz proved the fish to be a true brookie. Afterward, the chance to angle for such an enormous trout proved irresistible. In 1913, a train brought \"sports\" from Oquossoc to the foot of the lake. Grant's Kennebago Camps, providing log cabins, three meals a day, and vintage Rangeley boats, was built in answer to the demand in 1905. For 10 years, my friends and I have traveled each spring to Oquossoc to spend a week casting over the Kennebago, the Little Kenne bago, and the Kennebago River. We have made short day trips to the Magalloway and Rapid rivers, both spectacular trout waters in their own right. President Eisenhower fished the Magalloway and President Hoover cast for brookies on Kennebago Lake. The Rapid River, setting for the memoir \"We Took To the Woods,\" by Louise Dickinson Rich (Down East, 1980), is a wide, handsome river, as wide and as versatile as the best Western rivers. Maine Turnpike to exit 11 (Gray). Go north on Route 26 through Poland Springs, Norway, and South Paris. At Bryant Pond, take Route 232 to Rumford Point. Bear left onto Route 2 and travel one-half mile, turning north on Route 5 to Andover. Follow the signs for South Arm. Telephone from Andover and the Lakewood Camps boat will be at the camps' private dock at South Arm to ferry you the 5 miles to Lakewood Camps.

[Carter Peck] is \"on belay\" (belaying being the process of paying out rope to the lead climber, or taking in rope for a follower, while he climbs, and of preventing rope from being paid out if the climber falls), which means his safety is in [Justin Hast]'s hands. At intervals of five to seven feet, Peck snaps onto preexisting bolts, the rope trailing behind him. He is \"on lead,\" responsible for stringing the top rope that Hast, a less experienced climber, will depend on that day. It is poor mountain etiquette to grab the hardware, or the rope, because the object is to climb rock, but Peck doesn't need help anyway. Although he can fall the \"reach\" of each section or, said another way, as far as his last connection to the mountain this climb is not particularly challenging for him. If his equipment holds, the maximum he can tumble will be a dozen feet or so, and then Hast will catch him on belay. A good route through a climb anticipates where a climber might fall if he \"peels off\" the rock. Equally amazing, perhaps, is the growth of climbing at Rumney. Compared with the better known Cannon and North Conway climbing destinations, [Rumney], or Rattlesnake Mountain, is a climber's climbing spot. According to \"Rumney,\" the definitive Rumney guide written and self-published by Ward Smith, the big Rattlesnake rock faces escaped assault until the 1960s. Then George Wendell and his son climbed a three-pitch (or three-stage) line up the Main Cliff. They did not return to climb other walls, however, because, in the spirit of the time that championed conquest of the highest and hardest, they found the smaller walls too insignificant to bother with. Gradually, sports climbing following a prepared line of waiting bolts gained popularity. Sports climbing appealed to a wider audience, concentrating, as it does, on physical gymnastics more than technical proficiency. \"In the mid-'80s,\" [Chris Buckley] says, closing the trunk on his rope and harness, \"sports climbing became generally accepted and it made the sport much more accessible to a wider range of climbers. It was a perfect fit for Rumney, where schist is the dominant rock. Granite is harder. If you use traditional equipment on schist, you risk it pulling out. Sports climbing made sense for Rumney, and it led to a boom in climbing\" in this areag a hammer drill, he pounded them into the rock and often glued them with a bonding material. Over the years, he has designed routes and lines that others can follow.

A poem is presented.