After lunch at the always delicious Dynasty Buffet in Gorham, and a sub from Gorham House Of Pizza for Jaime, we traveled down Pinkham Notch and on over to Crawford so I could make a return trip to Halfway Brook. I first explored the trail-less stream last 4th of July not knowing what to expect and was floored by the numerous falls, but was later informed by the legendary Chris Whiton that there was an even bigger fall upstream. I turned around a little too soon last time but it's okay because we made it to the Lincoln fireworks display in time. For this trip I skipped over the lower falls and made a beeline for the upper portion of the brook. Here's where I turned around last year and even without the larger falls, easily decided this had to go in the new book.
Half an hour further upstream, a very dangerous half hour that involved a giant boulder shifting beneath my weight and plenty of crevices big enough to swallow me whole, I spotted the cascade through the trees. And Oh My God, this thing is enormous. I mean this is on par with the other well known Crawford Notch cascades. A giant boulder halfway up the falls, wonder if that's where the name came from, offered a perfect perch to admire the upper half of the cascade from. I didn't take measurements this time around but it has to be near the hundred foot mark. What you see in this picture is only the upper portion.
Next on the agenda was the nearby Ripley Falls. It was getting later in the day so the parking lot had mostly cleared out, giving me my choice of parking spots at the trailhead. But I think you know I wasn't there to see Ripley, this trip was all about the forgotten Sparkling Cascade. After a grueling bushwhack through pines so thick I thought I was going to need to pull out the flashlight, I arrived at the base of the forgotten fall. For some reason I was expecting a little cascade, but this is Crawford Notch, I should have known better.
A quick stop at Ripley on the way down, just before dark. Oddly enough I only remember visiting this spectacular cascade once before back in 2008, it is one of the only surviving pictures I have from that time period after my computer fried, external hardrive died and the discs my pics were saved on got destroyed by sun damage. It took ten years but I finally made it back.
Souvlakis from GH Pizza in Lincoln for supper but I wasn't hungry enough to eat mine so I saved it for later. I think I'm the only weirdo who gets full off Chinese food and can't eat the rest of the day. But I devoured my TruMoo chocolate milk. We checked into Franconia Notch Motel, I love booking.com, they make everything so easy, and I was asleep around midnight. Next morning I was up early and out the door at 7:00 for Georgiana Falls. Again. Times six or seven. In the past three years I have attempted this one so many times I've lost count but never made it to my destination for one reason or another whether it be time constraints, too much snow or a damn moose who wouldn't get out of my way. There was always something, but today I would make it. And I did. No, not to those Georgiana Falls with the easy trail, not the upper ones with the difficult trail you can see from I-93, not even the ones above that, we're talking about Upper Georgiana Falls, the forgotten part of the brook. The terrain was wild, I expected that from my snow covered encounter, and the cascade was huge.
After all these years and failed attempts, it was worth the wait. It's a good thing I wasn't here a couple days earlier, the water would have been too high to make it to the island in between the dueling cascades. And there were even more above it.
After my ten mile endeavor, I limped back into the hotel room, not sure how in the hell I planned on doing any more hikes after that. But the day was young and the book not complete. So after a quick picnic with sandwiches from White Mtn Bagel, down to Waterville Valley we went. And on up the Sandwich Notch Road which always makes my butt pucker up, I hate steep, winding, dirt roads. And then down to upper Hall Pond where we arrived safely and in one piece, my butthole finally loosened. So much so I thought I had to poop but no, false alarm. I limped my way along the shore and down to the unknown falls I visited late last summer when water levels were low. Unfortunately this part of the Whites didn't get as much rain as the rest of the region so the falls weren't raging but I am NOT driving back up that road in my car so these pictures will have to do and the falls are way too cool to leave out of the book. Yes that is a cave behind the falls and yes I have been in there.
I checked out the very very much lower portions of a couple Waterville Valley brooks but didn't have the strength to do any real exploration. Couple strong leads though. And then it was up the Tripoli Road to the abandoned Thornton Gore Road, which turned out to be nothing more than a campsite, then missing it again and driving by and then turning around and finally onto the real Thornton Gore Road where after a few more false leads in the wrong direction, I made it to a basin known as the Talford Brook Cascades. Beside the falls are the remains of the former mill I was hoping to find, and then the unofficial trail that leads to them. Even found a nice little cascade above the main falls. Not really sure what my expectations were, but these certainly surpassed it.
Before it got too dark I made a return trip back to the forgotten Glendale Cascade. Last time it was a little too sunny so the pictures were washed out and unusable. Not sure if this one will make it into the book but if it does, I'll be prepared.
We tried to eat at Fresolones but after waiting around for a while and not being helped, hoping for buffalo wings, we decided on 99 Restaurant in Littleton. Buffalo wings hit the spot and I managed to stay awake the whole way back to the hotel where I fell asleep at 10:30. I know it's early but leave me alone, 15 miles in one day is a lot for me. The next morning I left early for a return trip to Dearth Brook Cascades in hopes of getting a picture without snow in it but drove right on by, for quite a ways. I finally turned around, made it to the falls, only to find they were dry, nothing but a teeny tiny trickle. So off to the next stop of the day, some falls I visited last year a short ways below The Lost River. Found a quick and easy approach and got to explore a little more but am now fairly certain there is no way to view the lost falls hidden beneath a pile of boulders. Good thing there's this awesome one just a few hundred feet downstream with a cave beside it you can view the falls from.
Checked out of the hotel, revisited a roadside swimming hole for some better pictures, and headed back to Littleton to get some Dunkin Donuts and a lobster roll from Shaws. Best lobster rolls ever just in case you were wondering. Had a little picnic, I ate my souvlaki from the other night and made our way back to Crawford Notch. Amazingly we got a spot at the train depot, a good one at that, and I made my way up Elephant Head Brook on a hunch. My hunches usually almost all the time always pay off, and this was no exception. I left the trail early on and traveled upstream through a feature I later found out was once named the Fleming Flume, I believe. And then I came upon this...
However big it looks, it's bigger. Almost a week removed from the heavy rain, it lost much of its size but the way it narrows through the split in the cliff, it didn't matter, this waterfall is huge. It appears to be what was once known as Fleming Falls but I can't find any old photographs to corroborate. The climb out of the ravine was a little rough and the bushwhack out was some of the thickest I've ever encountered but it was well worth it. The slow going put me behind schedule and I had to scrap the next couple adventures if we were going to make it to North Conway and then to Portland before the mall closed so onto the next quick expedition, Flume Cascade. We see it from the road, but I wanted to see what we were missing from the road. As it turns out, quite a bit.
Despite the diminishing water levels, the upper cascades were still quite impressive. The view from the road is rather underwhelming but up a couple tiers, the action really picks up. And then near the top of the open slabs I came across a true gem that easily overshadowed the rest of this roadside cascade.
After burgers at Wicked Fresh in North Conway, best burgers ever I might add so if you haven't eaten there, go now! I hoped we would have just enough time to get to Portland before the mall closes at 9:00 but we'd be cutting it really close. We made it there at 8:40. I speed hobbled from one end to the other with three objectives, Chinese food from Panda Express, cookie sandwich from Mrs Fields, Masters Of The Universe Scareglow Reaction figure from Newbury Comics. Long line at Chinese food so I hit up Mrs Fields and got my cookie. Still a line so other end of the mall to Newbury Comics where Scareglow was already sold out, kinda figured that would happen. Speed hobbled back to the food court, still a line. Checked out Game Stop for WWE Retro figures, nothing. Still a line but it was 5 minutes to close so I got in line and was the last person served because they ran out of food, I got the last of the orange chicken and honey walnut shrimp, no lo-mein but I did get rice. We don't have a Chinese place in our mall anymore, or a Mrs Fields, or anywhere that carries Reaction MOTU figures so I've been wanting to go to Portland for awhile now. The place was still packed and I mean packed at closing time, on a Tuesday night at that, they should probably extend the hours. Malls dying has to be a myth because the ones I go to are beyond crowded and stay that way from open to close. My food was delicious by the way, I dug in when we got home. And this three day trip wrapped up The White Mountains You Haven't Seen: Waterfall Edition Volume Two with 30 out of 25 hikes. Not bad at all. Most of the cascades I visited I haven't ever seen so much as a picture of. My body's feeling it but this was an amazing trip full of great meals and enormous cascades that not only conclude book two but with the falls I've already found, quite possibly surpass the first book. And now it's time to write them up before I forget.
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