We had an amazing three day weekend in New Hampshire with some truly incredible finds that will all make their way into my upcoming White Mountains You Haven't Seen book. We stopped in Grafton Notch along the way where I visited Mother Walker Falls once again and used my new water shoes for the first time. They're great, these things make stream crossings in high water so much easier, no more rock hopping for me.
A couple years ago when we were in Grafton during the spring we heard a loud brook roaring through the trees but couldn't find it. This year we did. I walked down the road following brooks until I found it, then brought Jaime along. And oh my god was it worth the wait. I mean wow.
After bushwhacking up the brook a ways and finding multiple other cascades, I stumbled upon an abandoned trail for the descent. The ledges on the falls were open and offered a great view across the notch as well. Someday I'll have to continue following it up further than the mile I did today and that was one steep mile.
We planned on doing another hike once we hit Franconia Notch but it was raining and I was really dehydrated from a day of hiking and driving. From the hotel we could hear fireworks going off over at the Indian Head hotel so we drove over and got to see a fireworks show with the Franconia ridgeline in the background, my favorite view ever. I didn't feel too good due to the dehydration but the next morning I was back to normal and headed out in search of a cascade and a balancing boulder.
There were numerous cascades, none of them large by any means but they were gorgeous and I spent a solid hour and a half exploring the area. Aside from the falls there were also numerous boulder caves, none of which were easy to get to but the wet rocks from last night's rain didn't help matters any. The balancing rock itself was far more impressive than I'd expected. This is hands down one of the coolest places I've visited, on trail or off.
For the afternoon we hiked out to Bridal Veil Falls which we had tried to do years ago but never made it so this was our first time checking out the falls. They were much more spectacular than I'd expected and despite being the very end of June the brook was raging. I also tried out my brand new hiking gaiters that arrived in the mail the day before we left. I've always had issues with getting half the forest stuck in my shoes which isn't the most comfortable and I just learned about hiking gaiters. They work! They really work. I love these things. Not a single stick, pebble, pine needle or leaf in my shoes. It's a dream come true.
Bridal Veil Falls was the main attraction but thousands of people see it every year, what I was really looking for was the abandoned Holden Falls. It surprisingly wasn't hard to find and was much bigger than I'd expected and bigger than it looks in photographs.
After over 12 miles of hiking and getting wet in waterfalls, I was done for the day. My body was a little sore the next day but I never let that stop me. So early the next morning I put on my water shoes and headed up the river behind the hotel in search of Boyce Brook. I had no idea what to expect, all I could find out about the brook was that it was once home to the Lincoln reservoir. The stream was extremely cold and difficult to cross due to its temperature and high water level but I made it to the tributary brook and followed it up. There were no cascades but I did find the abandoned reservoir which had a ten foot man made fall at its outlet, which for some reason reeked of sulfur.
After checking out of the hotel I followed a brook near Artists Bluff. The falls along the brook were nice but nothing too impressive, really no different from any other random brook in the Whites.
What really stole the show here was a cave beneath some of the enormous boulders that have fallen from the mountainside and are resting against one another.
From there we headed over to Crawford Notch before the rain hit where I searched for a couple of brooks that show up on maps. Where they do not show up however is in real life. Unfortunately it took over a mile of bushwhacking to find out the brooks do not exist except maybe during spring melt-off but the two dry brook beds showed no signs of having any water in them any time recently. Jaime picked me up down the road so I wouldn't have to bushwhack all the way back to the car, I love our walkie talkies. We ate in North Conway at a burger place which was delicious. We did a little shopping as the rain hit and ended up driving home in it the entire way. But it was worth it for an amazing weekend.
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