BLOG - Waterfalls On A Nameless Brook In Pinkham Notch NH

Not gonna lie, little sore after conquering Moosilauke in the frigid clouds yesterday with my sister and brother-in-law. But not too sore for another hike! We loaded up the cars, took one last look at the small stream that runs behind the hotel and headed down for continental breakfast, I had my waffles today and they were delicious. We took a little stroll through the Whale's Tail parking lot next door for a morning view of the Franconia Ridge, our favorite view of all time.

Since no one was in a rush to leave, we decided to go up the Indian Head tower, way too many stairs for sore legs but nobody was willing to carry me up. The foliage was just starting and oh what the hell, where was this perfect weather yesterday when we were nearly getting blown off a mountain in the clouds? We hit the gift shop after and said our goodbyes, which is when I realized I was starting to get sick, the cold we'd all been dodging since Dad caught it a couple weeks ago, the one my sister just came down with.

Julie and JR headed to VT for a day of historical-esque activities and I made my way through Twin Mountain and up to Pinkham Notch, sucking on vitamin c drops the entire way. Spoiler, there was no avoiding the cold but I put up a hell of a fight and went out with a bang before it got too bad. A short ways south of Glen Ellis Falls, I'd followed an unnamed brook a couple years earlier but turned back a little too soon when I couldn't find a safe way into the ravine above the lower falls, which were quite spectacle so I was fine with it. Looking at my route on the maps, I knew there were more falls upstream. So I headed out on my first real bushwhack in quite some time. 

One major problem, the battery in my gps unit must be close to dead because it was shutting off after a minute or so. Second problem, breathing through a stuffy nose had me taking breaks every couple minutes. But I powered through and followed the brook uphill, sticking to the top of the ravine where it was steep but not the kind of steep you need to hold onto trees to stop yourself from rolling backwards, an obstacle I faced last time around. I got just enough juice out of my gps to know I was in the general vicinity of where I wanted to be, which meant making my way into the ravine.

 

The descent wasn't too bad, mainly because I overshot by about a hundred feet, putting me at the top of the falls when I was aiming for the bottom. From then on out, the adventure began to get a bit dicey with some questionable maneuvering down the ravine. Fortunately I was rewarded with one cascade after another, none nearly as tall as the lower falls but all impressive in their own right, averaging about twelve feet on most drops.

The upper multi-tiered set of falls gave way to sun soaked ledges with gentle waterslides, a nice change of pace after clinging to trees to lower myself down to the next shelf, paired with a couple controlled slides down exposed slabs until catching myself on protruding ledges. My mother would have a heart attack if she saw some of my methods. As would my sister, who explicitly told me not to do anything stupid on my exploration. Come to think of it, my wife wouldn't be too pleased either. Please, no one repeat to them what I just told you.

From there the brook entered an even more narrow part of the ravine where crossing became mandatory if I wanted to continue. I questioned calling it a day but knew I had to keep going or it'd haunt me, like it's been doing for the past two years. So I continued working my way down where I encountered another cascade into a crystal clear pool.

Definitely time to exit the ravine now as the brook traveled down a narrow sluice with high cliffs rising above it. Or, hear me out, I could make my way down the steep, mostly dry portion of streambed that skirts around the sluice. Yep, we're going with that one, and occasionally popping over to check out the ravine, but not getting too close because that is quite a long drop.

The dry streambed was rough going in parts with slick ledges and logs to climb under, over, and sometimes through. I had to contort myself into a pretzel to squeeze through this one, while also climbing up the chute of boulders.

But the waterfalls were worth the risk.

Even when the risk involved small rock ledge shelves with big drop offs, not the environment you want to trip or make a wrong move.

The pool beneath this twin cascade would be the perfect place for a swim, if there wasn't a thirty foot sheer cliff on the other side. Thank the hiking gods my cold hadn't progressed to the sneezing phase, I would have been clutching more trees than I already was.

Another questionable slide down a wet slab on the dry side-streambed brought me to the base of the falls I visited a couple years ago. They might have been closing up the Whale's Tail waterpark when we walked by this morning but I got my own personal waterslide right there in the woods. It was that or climb back up some routes I shouldn't have taken to get down in order to make it out of the ravine, and I was so close. Dry waterslide time!

Out of the ravine with no issues, other than some sticks poking me in the arms and one to the forehead, I made it to the thirty foot falls I'd first come across two years earlier, other side of the stream this time around. They were just as impressive, which is weird considering the drought and how low most of the streams were that I'd passed in the last few days. I'm definitely going to need to make a return trip after a good rain, maybe just to the lower falls, the upper part of the ravine had a few too many sketchy parts I'm not sure I need a repeat of.

Smooth sailing back to the car, picking my way over the gently sloping terrain. I continued down the notch to another pull-off where I spent a few minutes exploring the Ellis River, rock hopping downstream until I got hungry enough to head back up to Gorham. It didn't take long.

I hit the Dynasty Buffet, who'd thankfully reverted back to their old menu. It was phenomenal, the food was hot and felt like heaven going down my sore throat, water on the other hand didn't feel so good going down. Oh but that food, excuse me while I drool over this photo.

Woops, sorry, you caught me still drooling. I popped more vitamin c drops on the three hour drive home but it was useless by that point, I was already sick and deteriorating quickly. Other than that it was a nice drive with the first specks of fall foliage peeking through. Luckily the bad part of the cold only lasted three days, one and a half where my throat felt like I was swallowing shards of glass every time I swallowed. Three days isn't bad, I'm giving credit to all those vitamin c drops and Airborne tablets I sucked on. If you're familiar with my chronic idiopathic urticaria hives saga, yes, I did get a few after the illness left my body but nothing even worth complaining about. Wait, is that another unnamed Pinkham Notch brook just a short ways down the road? Time to start planning my next waterfall adventure.

BLOG - Mt Moosilauke in the Clouds

Home for a week, after a bunch of toy hunting and hiking in CT, and we're back at it on another road trip. The weather didn't look the best but with a storm predicted for the following weekend, we said screw it and headed for New Hampshire. We being just me this time, no wife as she caught the cold my dad was kind enough to share with all of us, but I was meeting up with my sister and her husband at Woodward's Motel in Lincoln. It rained the whole way there which meant no hiking but it's all good, I stopped at a few antique malls along the way and did a little toy hunting.

Made it to Lincoln in time to hit Chutters for some fudge, not just for me, wifey had requested it and I wasn't about to argue when fudge is involved. Then Price Chopper for some supper and over to the hotel. We've been coming to Woodwards since we were kids so it'll always have a place in our hearts.

The rain mostly stopped by the time we finished supper, okay not really but we love walking along the road in the evening there so we went anyway and just got a little wet. We kept the walk short though, just through the Whale's Tail parking lot and around the duck pond at the hotel.

Up bright and early the next morning, we found way more clouds than we were hoping for but stuck to the plan for Mt Moosilauke, a mountain none of us had ever climbed. The clouds looked like they were lifting though. (Future me jumping in here, they didn't.)

A little continental breakfast to start the day and we were off, disappearing further into the clouds the higher we drove. Not a good sign for things to come but man did it look cool.

We took the Snapper Trail up to the Old Carriage Road, overall not too strenuous of a climb, just a regular White Mountains trail with lots of rocks and roots that seems to never end. Not sure why I love it but I do.

Aside from rocks and roots there was an occasional stream crossing, made nice and easy by bridges.

The more elevation we gained, the lower the clouds got, until we could see them blowing past us. Definitely no views today. When we hit the ridgeline I peeked out over a little viewpoint and as we suspected, it was nothing but white as far as the eye could see. It made for some rather haunting photos in the eerie mountaintop forest.

We passed the turnoff for the South Peak, figuring we'd hit it on the way back, and continued along the ridge. The rain from the day before turned the trail into one long puddle with a few dry patches of higher ground sprinkled in. It took some fancy footwork but I managed to straddle, hop and shimmy through thick pines without getting my shoes wet. They both had waterproof hiking boots but weren't willing to give me a piggyback, I'm blaming it on the big breakfast I had.

After what seemed like a never ending stretch of puddles, with wind picking up now that the trees were barely taller than us, I decided to call it quits. I'm not working on any peakbagging lists so the summit wasn't that important to me. I told them to continue on while I slowly made my way back over the long stretch of puddles. Until a group of hikers coming down said this was the first puddle they encountered, meaning I only had one more to. So after showing them where to step, I rock-hopped back across and broke through the tree line, where I was greeted by tundra-like conditions.

The wind was constant and nearly strong enough to knock me over, with visibility so low you couldn't see over the ridge. Had to pull out the jacket my sister made me bring, even though it filled up my entire backpack. It turns out she was right, I needed it. I couldn't see them through the clouds, I could barely see the next massive cairn along the trail.

There may not have been any views, but the experience was otherworldly. I don't do winter hiking so it was nothing like any hike I'd ever experienced before. Watching the clouds whip by, every low lying bush shaking in the constant wind, it was like being in a snowstorm with whiteout conditions. My fingers went a little numb from taking so many photos.

I finally heard their voices on the wind and the summit post came into view, I was practically on top of them before I knew anyone was there. We took a few pictures from the summit before needing to get out of the wind.

I don't think my sweat turned into icicles but it was close. Ice certainly would have made the puddles easier to cross, but I somehow did it again without getting my feet wet. Back at the South Peak junction, I convinced them we needed to do it, just in case it counted as one of the 48 4,000 footers they were hoping to cross off their list, we later found out it doesn't, but the added 0.15 mile climb redeemed the viewless hike.

Although slightly steep in spots and surrounded by creepy woods, it was more than worth the added steps. Especially when we got to the top and the clouds lifted every once in a while, giving us our first partial views of the day.

Oddly enough the wind wasn't quite as bad on South Peak so we decided to eat lunch up there, dropping our sandwiches to take photos every time there was a quick break in the clouds.

With my sweat dried, or possibly frozen to my skin, we made our long descent. Sometimes the breaks in the trees lined up with the breaks in the clouds and we got quick views into the distance. No clue what mountains we were looking at but there were some cool humps before the clouds obstructed them again.

By the time we reached the bottom, 4 miles later, the clouds had mostly lifted. I think had we waited an hour or two after we'd started, we would have had some spectacular views. Oh well, still an awesome and very memorable mountain. We headed back to the hotel, washed up and went out for an early supper at a restaurant downtown they'd recently been to, the Woodstock Inn Brewery.

We sat outside and had fun dropping table scraps for the excited sparrows hopping around at our feet. I got the bbq pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries, it was delicious. The birdies agreed.

Back at the hotel, we hit the indoor pool and jacuzzi while everyone else was enjoying dinner, so we had it all to ourselves, at least for a little while. The pool at Woodwards is where we both learned to swim, this was our first time being back there together since the mid 90s.

The hotel's changed hands and had some updates, but to us it's still our home away from home. We even got to sit outside in the evening, since it wasn't raining that night, listening to the babbling brook as we had some dessert. The perfect way to end a day we'll never forget.

BLOG - Rattlesnake Cliff & Pinnacle Rock in Farmington, CT

Back in CT for the Brimfield Flea Market, which is actually located just over the border in MA, plus Stormville in NY and a few of my regular stops in CT. But what trip would be complete without some hiking? With my sister and her husband off on the same day, we took advantage and headed out on a hike we'd never done before. I saw Pinnacle Rock on the map, as well as the intriguingly named Rattlesnake Cliff, plus the site of a former Cold War base and some boulder caves along the way, we knew we were in for an adventure. My wife accompanied us but sat this one out and caught up on some reading in the car. Perfect day for hiking with bright blue sky, low humidity and a projected high of 74, though they were a bit off as it was actually 82 through most of the afternoon. Still, a perfect day and we headed out on the trail to Rattlesnake Cliff. Right off the bat, there were signs for a very active bee nest under the boardwalk, and oh boy were they active.

Luckily we tiptoed over the hive without incident but they were everywhere. We had no clue what to expect on this hike but I think it's fair to say it was a bit more rugged and challenging than any of us were expecting. You don't think of hikes in this part of the state as being hard in any way, but I was a huffin' and a puffin' and the sweat was a pourin' as we passed directly beneath a couple of massive towers, which I believe are actually for some of the local news networks and radio stations.

Not far past the towers we encountered our first stop of the day; Will Warren's Den. The massive boulders and exposed ledges were filled with small caves and large overhangs we couldn't resist the urge to explore.

I even made my way into a long triangular cave formed between a couple of humungous boulders, deep enough that the temperature dropped a few degrees by the time I reached the back.

A short ways past the caves we found ourselves atop Rattlesnake Cliff, where a sheer drop-off much taller than I'd imagined offered sprawling views over Hartford and the many distant mountains dotting the horizon, including the Sleeping Giant ridgeline.

We enjoyed the unexpected view for a few minutes but the towering oak trees kept dropping acorns on our heads, rather violently. So we continued along the quiet part of the Metacomet Trail, where most hikers turn around. They're right to turn around, it got steep and a little wild beneath the cliff, which is right up my alley.

And whoa, there was even a cave the trail passes through on its steep descent. Any path that takes you through a cave gets my stamp of approval.

After losing some elevation rather rapidly beneath Rattlesnake Cliff, we had to make up for it by climbing the next ridge, home to Pinnacle Rock. After passing under some powerlines, it got steep again and didn't let up for a while, taking us up and down ledge outcroppings along the ridge for the next 0.75 mile. Followed by one final steep scramble up the backside of Pinnacle Rock.

I'd seen pictures but didn't expect the view we got, possibly better than what we saw earlier from Rattlesnake Cliff.

The view of Hartford was missing but in its place was Rattlesnake Mountain with its enormous transmission towers.

Beside that was the UConn Health hospital in Farmington, which is where our mom got her breast cancer treatment a few years ago.

In the other direction we could make out the Lake Compounce amusement park with its taller rides peeking over the treetops. As well as the giant nearby Tilcon Quarry, a cinema, Lowes, Kohls and a number of other nearby buildings with local hills and distant mountain ranges stretching as far as the eye could see.

Just below us were too many mansions too count. Actually they were kind of awkwardly close, like right at the base of the mountain, I could literally see people doing yard work. Julie and JR aren't fond of modern mini mansions but I thought each one was better than the last, particularly the one with the giant wall of windows.

Though we mostly had the summit to ourselves, we could hear a group of rock climbers approaching the top of the cliff, which meant it was time to continue on. On a fun side note, our dad went rock climbing precisely one time with a friend of his back in college, Pinnacle Rock was the cliff he climbed, a fact neither I or my sister knew until he was helping me map the route the night before. Heights aren't his thing so I never would have pictured him clinging to the side of a massive rock wall, at least not without a mysterious, small yellow waterfall below him.

We went just a little further down the trail, on the search for a curiosity I'd seen on Google Maps, what looked like random roads winding up the mountainside. After a little research I realized they were old military roads to what was once a Cold War missile base. We knew we were in the right area by the fence in the woods. And then I spotted a pulled back opening in the fence.

Pretending not to see the No Trespassing signs, we followed a faint path through the woods to a series of old roads, which in all honesty are in better shape than half the roads I drive on a regular basis back in Bangor.

The buildings are long gone, their foundations covered in a thick layer of undergrowth and vines that make seeing any remnants close to impossible. We followed a couple side roads that circled the camouflaged ruins but never caught any glimpses of anything interesting. I bet when the leaves are dead this area would be worth exploring.

We checked out a few more old roads and foundations on the way back but didn't bother searching for the remains of the former hospital, or its noteworthy ledge with all the names carved into it located somewhere in the nearby woods. If I was alone, you better believe I'd be hunting it down but they're not too keen on bushwhacking.

So we made the long trek back to the car. No bee stings from the nest beneath the boardwalk but they were even more active in the afternoon. On the way up we tiptoed over those boards, on the way down we ran. Hey, we all saw what happened in My Girl. On our way to the next hike of the day, we got rerouted into a shopping center due to an accident, which worked out perfectly because we needed some lunch. My first time in a Shop Rite since the 90s. We found some food and headed over to Wadsworth Falls State Park, wrong end of it for the falls but not far from our next destination, and there were plenty of empty picnic tables under the trees.

After a nice but rather noisy late afternoon picnic, it was an extremely busy place, all four of us hit the trail in search of an old pump house along the brook. Found it!

I made the steep descent down to the brook alone and with the water so low, I was able to find a somewhat easy route across. It only involved a little tight roping on a log and one loose rock that was a tad too big to be wiggly. Then a short but steep and very eroded climb up the bank on the other side, but I made it onto the roof of the old pump house, carefully avoiding poison ivy along the way. Sadly there wasn't much to see as it was all boarded up but any chance I get to check out an abandoned anything, I'm going to take it.

A set of old concrete steps climbed the hillside to another trail and a road just beyond it, and if I see a staircase in the woods, it's an unwritten rule, I have to climb it. I'm sure it's legally written somewhere so you should probably climb them too, just to be on the safe side.

I followed the path downstream so I wouldn't need to scale the rather sketchy streambed again, and we met up at the stone bridge we passed earlier that looked straight out of the Shire.

Sadly, no hobbits or faeries, at least not that we saw, but while JR and I were exploring the stream beneath the bridge, a horse crossed over it on the carriage path. To be fair, I couldn't see the rider from my vantage point so there's a strong likelihood it was indeed a hobbit.

While popping touch-me-nots on the walk back to the car, Dad called to find out about supper and let us know he wasn't getting sick like he'd suspected, just allergies. Or so he thought, turns out he did get the long cold that went around the entire northeast and proceeded to give it to the rest of us, luckily not until after our time in CT. When we got home that evening, after supper the four of us played the electronic fishing game I got in a big lot of toys a while back and kept, thinking it'd be fun to play again like me and Julie used to at our grandparents' house. I was right, we had a blast. Not to brag or anything but I won. Twice. Yes I came in last place in most rounds but I did win so there. And the next few days were extremely successful at the Brimfield Antique Show, even if Dad had to sit it out due to being sick. I went alone both days and took my time picking through every box of toys I came across and eating delicious food. No more hives which meant no super restrictive diet, so I ate whatever I pleased and drank Brisk iced teas to my heart's content.