BLOG - Rock Hunting at Home

    I was off today but Jaime wasn’t so I took the opportunity to do some lawn work. This was my last day off before my parents come to visit and our schedule is pretty packed so I won’t have time for much of anything this coming week. After mowing the lawn and weed whacking I realized I probably should have been wearing sunscreen, I’ll regret that in the morning. Afterwards I went to visit Jaime on her lunch break. I was planning on going to the thrift stores but we thought we were a little short on money so I just went straight home, a little down about being broke. But I checked the bank account and got happy again, we were perfectly fine, it was just that when she looked yesterday all the bills had come out at once and our paychecks hadn’t gone through yet. So that put me in better spirits and I dug my metal utility cart out of the shed. Rock hunting time!

    I specifically got the cart for collecting big rocks and to help move the trees I transplant. We only ended up using it a couple times last year before my friend moved out of my guest room and decided to hate me. No big loss, but I did lose my rock hauling partner which makes it a lot harder on me because these aren’t small rocks we’re talking about. In the new part of the trailer park, they cleared out a huge area to expand but couldn’t fill the lots they already had so left it open after cutting down all the trees and moving the boulders. All the bigger rocks got pushed into giant piles making it convenient for me to take them.

    On my first trip up the closest pile to the road I found a good sized snake skin and thought to myself I wouldn’t want to move a rock and find him underneath it. The first rock I spotted has a flat bottom and rounded top so it’ll rest perfectly on the ground, but it was about 150 pounds and lived at the top of the pile. All my weight lifting has clearly paid off because I was able to not only lift it but walk down the precarious pile and then throw it the last few feet over the pricker bushes. While up there I found a long somewhat skinny rock with a flat side that was clearly too heavy to move. Somehow I managed to dead lift it out of its hole and carefully slide the 200 pound rock down the pile and then pick it up again to put it in the cart. And then one more small one to help balance out the cart that I was barely able to move.

    I sweat profusely the entire way and had to stop for multiple breaks in order to keep myself from passing out but I made it up the small hill and then down the other side, all the way back home. Three tenths of a mile never felt so long. That’s kind of far now that I think about it, I didn’t realize when I started but I just measured it on good old Google Earth. No wonder I had to sit down after.

    I put the rounded rock with the flat bottom in its new location beside the walkway and decided to redo a retaining wall with the longer rock. The wall keeps falling down so I figure if I replace eight basketball size rocks with one giant rock it’ll hold up better. So the eight rocks that once made up the retaining wall got placed in the empty cart and brought to the back of the lawn where I’m in the process of making a rock wall to hold back the enormous patch of weeds no one is able to mow. Most of those weeds are bigger than my baby trees with trunks an inch in diameter and thorns that easily pierce through work gloves. Slowly but surely I’m fighting to take the land back.

    I told myself I was done while using all my strength to pull the first load back but this is me, let’s face it, I knew I was going back for another. This time I remembered to bring my camera in order to document it for the blog, something I’m still getting used to. The snakeskin blew away and almost fell down a hole between rocks but I was able to retrieve it for the photo. Then I spotted another nice flat rock that would be perfect for the other half of the redone retaining wall, big but definitely moveable unlike the giant boulders I really wanted. So I moved it and what was underneath but the snake I didn’t want to encounter, and its equally proportioned friend. I apologized profusely to them for disturbing their spot but if I put the rock back down it would crush them so I held it up until they both slithered off. I didn’t have a free hand to grab my camera unfortunately but they didn’t seem too mad as I held the rock up, no threatening poses or anything, they just sat there at first and then slowly went off into a hole. I felt even worse for moving their rock when I went back up the pile and one of the snakes was in the same spot, just with no rock above it. I considered putting it back but it was too heavy to carry uphill. Not only is it uphill, it’s a pile of unstable rocks with gaping holes between them and no safe place to stand, so climbing up it in the first place is kind of stupid. I did manage to get to my camera in time to get a picture of the returning snake.

    While getting my second rock of the trip, a large round one near the bottom of the pile, one that I believe we attempted last year before getting the utility cart, I spotted a bald eagle flying overhead. He soared right over me. I wasn’t quick enough to get an up close picture but did manage to get him flying between a couple trees. I can’t say I’ve ever seen one of those around here before, they really are majestic creatures.

    In order to even out the load I grabbed another smaller rock, maybe bowling ball size, it did its job to balance the round rock. Just before leaving a couple of curious yellow birds landed in a tiny tree right beside me to see what I was doing. One of them was maybe four feet away, I thought he was going to land on my shoulder. They moved around a lot but I was able to eventually get a couple pictures but they had already moved on from me and went to some bigger trees not too far away. We always wondered what bird made the annoying chirp, now I know, it’s the cute little yellow ones that hover in the air almost like humming birds.

    This cart load was slightly easier to pull home, about a hundred pounds less. The flat rock finished up the wall of the garden in front of the deck, now it just needs to be redone. The others went to the stonewall in the back of my yard which is coming along nicely, it’ll end up being bigger than I’d originally intended.

    So luckily the sunburn wasn’t bad, it had turned into a tan by the next morning. My arms were a little sore but not bad, the only muscles that actually hurt were the ones I used pulling the cart of rocks, right around the elbow. Could be worse. My reforestation and rock gardening are fun but its time for me to get back out on the trails.

BLOG - Third Day Trip To NH (Chipmunks & Waterfalls)

    We set out early this morning knowing we were going to NH but not really sure what hikes we wanted to do. I’ve found so many off the beaten path places that look promising we knew we wouldn’t have nearly enough time to even scratch the surface. With yesterday’s heavy rain we figured the waterfalls would be impressive and knew we had to visit a couple. By the time we hit Gorham we both needed to find a bathroom so we made our way down to the Pinkham Notch visitor center at the base of Mt Washington.

    While in the area we decided to check out Thompson Falls. A while back I came across an old painting of the falls and have been wanting to see them in real life ever since. We started at the Wildcat Mountain parking area and followed the mostly flat trail out to the falls where along the way we got to see a daring chipmunk leap from one boulder to another across a stream. The waterfall was amazing, I can’t believe I’ve never been there before considering the ease of the trail and its short distance to the road. The rain really made the river swell, most of the pictures I’ve seen of Thompson Falls weren’t nearly as spectacular as  we saw today.

    I decided to cross the brook to get a view of the falls from the other side, where Benjamin Champney had done his painting from. With the water level being higher than normal I wasn’t able to rock hop my way across but did find a convenient log downstream that I successfully tight roped across. Above the falls there were some more neat little cascades, especially with the high water levels. There was even a small side brook that fell between two boulders creating a sort of cave that made for some awesome pictures.

    Down the road a ways we turned off in Jackson to check out the roadside falls along the Ellis River. I also knew there was an underground mine tunnel in the area that’s on my list of places to find. I hadn’t anticipated searching for the mine so didn’t have a detailed map of the area but figured I could pull it up on Google Earth since it was already loaded, just to a different part of the map. And of course the map was loaded to a point right before the mine so it was too blurry to make anything out. I went searching anyway and quickly found a maintained trail through the woods presumably made by the locals. It lead past some clear signs of old civilization. There was what appeared to be an old stone well surrounded by small stone structures that looked like they once housed natural spring water.

I almost missed it but there was also a wooden structure with a stone foundation. I took some pictures of the inside but it was too muddy to go in. After scouring the hillsides with no signs of the abandoned mine I gave up my search. Now that I can view the map I can see I was right around the corner from where the mine should be located, maybe 100 feet or so. I’ll definitely be going back to search for this one again.

    Starving, we cut across the Bear Notch Rd up to the Kancamagus Highway and made it to Lincoln just before White Mountain Bagel closed at 3:00. Jaime got her favorite sandwich there while I got a Souvlaki from GH Pizza. The last two times we went I got one to take home and eat cold so I wanted to have a warm one, the way it was meant to be.

We went to my favorite picnic spot at Fay Forest along the river to eat our delicious meals and were visited by a chipmunk and then a red squirrel, both who posed for pictures. The chipmunk got so close I could have reached out and touched him, at one point we thought he was going to climb up Jaime’s leg. I think if I had food he actually wanted he would have eaten it right out of my hand. And as soon as the chipmunk left, a red squirrel took his place, getting close but not nearly as close as the chipmunk. I love little tree rodents so it was an excellent and very entertaining lunch.

    From there we headed into Kinsman Notch so I could check out another waterfall just a mile or two up the road from Waternomee Brook which we explored a couple weeks ago during drier weather. I knew the falls would be raging today and wanted to check them out. We’d been to Clough Mine Brook one other time last Spring but only took a couple pictures from the pull off. This time I wanted to follow the brook up to some rock slabs known by bushwhackers as the Waternomee Waterslides.

    The brook was incredible with one cascade after another, zigzagging their way down the mountainside. Most weren’t huge, maybe six foot drops or slides but they were all spectacular in their own way, certainly worth the trip, I even got to see one of them through a small cave. Then came an amazing ‘z’ shaped waterslide that cut through a ledge, unfortunately some of the view was blocked by a recently fallen tree, but man was this one something special. I figured I’d turn around here but could see some light up ahead and decided to go a little further. There were quite a few blowdowns along the brook as the terrain got more treacherous the higher I got, erosion flanked the narrow streambed making travel a little more difficult. I kept telling myself I’d turn around at the next cascade, hoping to find something noteworthy to turn around at, the peeing tree would work. With the high water levels, the brook came pouring over a rock that a large funny looking tree was growing out of. I’d turn around at the tree.

    And there they were, the Waternomee Waterslides, pouring down a hundred foot ledge in the open sunlight, splashing into the small pool below the slanted wall of rock. I made it. Seeing something like that is awe inspiring when its on a path but when you stumble across it along a trail-less brook its something entirely different. To think that a waterfall this size doesn’t have a path to it is just insane. It literally took my breath away. Might have found a cool rock at the bottom of the falls that I would add to the collection of stones I planned on bringing back. I’ve been good lately but the large lumpy red rock was something I just had to have.

    I carefully made my way up the rock slab, trying my best to avoid the trickles of water that strayed away from the main fall. The view opened up as I got higher, closing in on the cascades at the top of the waterslide. It reminded me of the Basin Cascade Trail where the water just keeps tumbling down flat rock ledges with no real end in sight. I stopped just shy of the top, knowing I would see something above that would beg me to continue on. But I was gone long enough and very slowly made my way down the dry portion of the waterslide, cutting across it side to side to alleviate some of the steepness.

 

 I grabbed my red rock at the bottom and started my descent. Down a little further I stopped to examine my other cache of rocks, deciding to leave the two smaller ones behind and only grab one from that stash. So with a ten pound rock in each hand I carefully made my way down, opting to bushwhack rather than rock hop in order to save time. I took a step, no different from any other step I’d taken, only this time my foot didn’t land on solid ground. A thin layer of soil covered a gap between rocks and my entire leg disappeared into the forest floor. My outer thigh smashed into a rock, stopping my leg from going in any further. My natural instinct was to pull it out as fast as I could just in case there was an animal in the now exposed hole that wanted to eat me, but I could tell by the pressure that yanking it out would break a bone or two. I was able to turn my leg and pull it out with nothing more than some scratches and bruising, that could have been a lot worse. I did manage to hold onto both of my rocks and my bladder, didn’t even come close to peeing myself. Checked the backside, yep, good there as well, and I carried on, knowing that my knee wouldn’t be feeling too good come morning. I was right but it wasn’t that bad all things considered. I turned back after a few steps to photograph the hole and almost couldn’t find it, you would never suspect it was there, the ground looks perfectly normal. The pitfalls of bushwhacking.

    I knew that was about it for me for the day, it was starting to get late anyway. We checked out the next pull off just a stone’s throw down the road which had a neat waterfall coming down beside an enormous boulder with caves in it. There’s another stream just a few feet away as well, both of which I plan on exploring at some point, a kind of two for one deal. The area was too broad and dark for the pictures to really come out though, but I have a feeling there’ll be some interesting cascades up higher. I haven’t been disappointed by Kinsman Notch yet.

    Closer to town we stopped at a pull off we’d noticed last time and went down to check it out. The ledges and giant boulders offered no safe way down to the stream, until I noticed a cave. Between the ledge and a boulder was a passageway to the stream, a fifteen foot cave that lead right down to the water. Me being me, I had to crawl through it, winding up at a small rocky beach on the shore of the river. The cave was made up of an awesome looking quartz that really made me wish I had my chisel and hammer with me. Its not often you get to crawl through a cave that leads down to a river. It was something straight out of Lost River which is fitting because its actually on the Lost River, just a few miles downstream.

    We gassed up and made our way back over the Kancamagus, stopping at Sabaday Falls along the way. When we stopped there a month ago it was raining and we were exhausted after a long day so Jaime didn’t go to the falls. This time she was determined and made it without any trouble. We got some cool pictures, she even accidentally found a setting on the camera that will really come in handy, the colors are so much more vivid now. We were even able to accurately capture how green the pool below the falls was.

Jaime requested we go back down Bear Notch Road the way we’d come so we could stop at the view points along the way since we didn’t have time on our way through before.

   The goal was to make it out of NH before dark due to some construction that makes driving at night rather difficult but we were hungry and decided to stop at our favorite Dairy Queen. Sometimes we’ll have a craving for Dairy Queen, not the three we have here though, specifically the one in Bartlett or North Conway. I washed up my leg in the bathroom which burned like hell but the cut wasn’t too bad, I did notice I was starting to limp though. I could feel my knee hyper extending as it slipped into the hole but somehow contorted myself to stop it before too much damage was done. We ate in the lower parking lot looking over the lamps and picnic table before starting our journey home.

The section of road that was all torn up and under construction was horrible but the rest of the trip wasn’t bad, except for the fact that we were both dead tired. Jaime was asleep before I even hopped in the shower. I was out not long after. Another terrific day in the mountains that feel more like home than home does.

BLOG - Second NH Day Trip (Noble Falls)

    Yesterday was supposed to be gorgeous, and this time it actually was, so we decided to make a day trip to NH. We’d been planning on going back since a few weeks ago when two of the places we wanted to eat at were closed for the day. So we got up early and left the house around 7:00. We took the same route as last time to Gorham which takes just over three hours, neither of our stomachs were doing too good so we had to stop for emergency pooping along the way.

    We got some Gatorade at the Gorham Walmart and attempted to find Alpine Cascades but came up empty handed. I know where it is on the map despite its lack of a trail but finding the best way to it is what’s difficult. We can walk along an old railroad bed turned ATV trail if we have to but it's in the direct sunlight for over a mile plus it's all on crushed gravel and dirt which my ankle doesn’t appreciate. I thought I found a more direct, wooded route but we couldn’t find the road we were looking for because there were no road signs. We were okay with that because it was really freakin’ hot and being out in the open sun wasn’t sounding too appealing.

    So we moved on to Littleton to get Jaime’s birthday fudge since they were closed by the time we got there last time. We got a pound and a half which should last us awhile. I went to a consignment shop and a thrift store but the antique place I really wanted to go to wasn’t open, they have old maps and post cards which is actually the best way to find out about abandoned trails.

    From there we went to Lincoln to get lunch at White Mountain Bagel. They’re a bagel place that makes amazing sandwiches with so much meat you can barely fit it in your mouth. Jaime of course told me that I shouldn’t have a problem with it because I love putting big meat in my mouth. We took them to the Fay Wayside picnic area to eat along the river, one of our favorite places to have a picnic.
 

    Not wanting to stray too far from Lincoln since we were determined to eat at Black Mountain Burger for supper, we’d decided on searching for a waterfall on Cannon Mountain but wanted something smaller first while digesting our delicious bagel sandwiches. Since Jaime didn’t go up Waternomee Brook with me a year ago she wanted to do that. It appears to be nothing more than a random brook that passes under the road but just a short ways up are actually a number of stunning cascades. Of course they were much better when I did them in the Spring of last year but it was still fun as hell. Jaime enjoyed climbing up the rocks of the steep brook. The black flies were horrible but that’s to be expected this time of year.

    When I last visited the brook it would have been impossible to climb up it due to the insane amount of water. This time it was low enough to climb up right alongside the falls. I got to scratch another item off my bucket list by sticking my head under a waterfall to cool off. I’ve always wanted to but never really had the right opportunity or safe place to do it. It was as refreshing as I’d always imagined it to be. On our way back down I found a beautiful quartz rock by the waterfall and got some pictures of it posed beneath the fall before taking it home, my only rock of the trip. See, I’m doing much better, only one. The crystals in it are so thick they look like glass.

    The main fall which slides down a steep rock for about thirty feet wasn’t nearly as intense as it had been last time but that gave me the opportunity to explore. I actually got to go up the ledges that the water covered in the Spring which was pretty cool, there was even a view from the top. The brook continues on up the side of Waternomee Mountain but we stopped there since the water level was so low, but I’ll be traveling up it further next Spring. While I was exploring Jaime took off her shoes and stuck her feet in the pool below the falls and relaxed before making our descent.

    It was starting to get late so we scrapped the idea of searching for an abandoned mine and headed for Cannon Mountain. What was once an extensive bushwhack to a recently rediscovered waterfall  has turned into a short hike along a trail after a photographer realized the locals had a path leading to the forgotten Nobel Falls. The directions were right, you would never imagine there was a maintained path there. I think it's used by skiers during the winter months but it makes for an excellent hiking trail that leads directly to the falls.

    Noble Falls, now known as Bridesmaid Falls to the backcountry skiers, has got to be one of the most majestic I have ever seen. The fact it isn’t on any maps or trail guides is astonishing. Even in the low water it was incredible. Out of nowhere the small stream pours over an enormous rock cliff. The ledge is so high its not really possible to capture it all in a picture. Not only that, there’s actually two waterfalls, one on each end of the cliff. I got to touch it, both of them, but wasn’t able to wet my head like I did at Waternomee. The sandy pool at the bottom would be perfect to splash around in though. I’m still amazed at how incredible Noble Falls is, just wow.

    Through research I’d learned that there was actually another waterfall just a tenth of a mile or so downstream, so downstream I went in search of Plimpton Falls. But first there were some really cool rock formations along the riverbed I had to check out. At one point a slab of rock jutted out over the brook like a plank on a pirate ship. I can’t wait to see these lower falls in the Spring or after a heavy rain.

    Getting down to Plimpton Falls was easier said than done. Tenth of a mile doesn’t sound so bad on paper but when its straight down with no trail whatsoever, it gets a little tricky. I could tell there was something special down there because I stood at the top of it and watched the water disappear over the edge. Using fallen trees and their comrades who had yet to succumb to gravity,  I carefully lowered myself down the steep ravine, catching glimpses of the falls from beside it.

   

    Although not a sheer drop off a ledge like Noble Falls, the water cascaded down steps, one after another after another for what must be a hundred feet or more. Its hard to believe there can be two such unique waterfalls just a few hundred feet from each other with no real trail to them. Its really a shame more people don’t get to see these. The mosquitoes were swarming me so I didn’t stay long but I did manage to get some good pictures of me with the falls using the timer on my camera. Not wanting to leave Jaime waiting I hurried back up the impossibly steep slope. Every step was bringing me back two, sliding down the dead leaves and loose dirt beneath them. So instead I leapt from tree to tree, holding on tight, getting my footing, and then launching myself up to the next one. It worked but man did that tire me out. I think I almost passed out at one point but couldn’t let myself because Jaime was still up ahead of me and if I fell it would have been a long way down. I made it up rather quickly and stopped for a drink, then proceeded to swallow a fly during all my huffing and puffing. I hope he died a slow and painful death for discomfort he caused me.

  

  We certainly earned our supper at Black Mountain Burger, which was delicious like always. I got a new one this time, a Thai burger with peanut slaw on it, it was certainly interesting. Jaime got the Brie and Bacon with maple mayonaise, one of our favorites. The buffalo mac and cheese balls were incredible as well.

    Before heading out we stopped at GH Pizza so I could get a Souvlaki to go which I had tonight after work, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I also stopped at Price Chopper to see if they had anything good to bring back with me, I only got a package of blueberry muffin tops, the place looked pretty well picked over after the holiday weekend. We ended up leaving town at 8:00, made it down the Kancamagus before it got completely dark, oh and Jaime saw a moose along the way, and were home just after midnight. No rain at all so despite the construction areas on the way back it was smooth sailing, nothing like last time. Jaime even slept a bit on the highway. I wanted to but waited until we got home. Another amazing day that only makes me want to move there more.