CRAWFORD
NOTCH & PINKHAM NOTCH
It
was still cloudy first thing Friday morning.
We had breakfast and discussed our options for the day. I wanted to climb a mountain, but I was
feeling rundown from being sick. Plus,
low clouds were still hanging on, and they weren’t expected to clear until the
afternoon. We decided that the best
approach would be several short hikes. I
suggested that we start with a waterfall or two. If the weather cleared (we were skeptical),
we could do an easy summit in the afternoon.
We
drove north on I-93, then east to Gorham, and south to Pinkham Notch. We parked in a huge parking lot at the AMC
Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. This is the
trailhead for the Tuckerman Ravine Trail – a popular approach to Mount
Washington. The wind was so strong that
I struggled to open the car door. Just
for laughs, we checked the posted forecast for the summit. It called for whiteout conditions, with
extreme winds, sleet, and freezing rain.
And this was the nicest day of the week!
We
hiked the first ½ mile of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, as far as the Crystal
Cascade on the Ellis River. It was a
surprisingly busy trail, despite the horrible weather up high. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to reach our
destination. I imagine that the Crystal
Cascade barely gets noticed by hikers determined to summit Mount Washington,
but I thought it was the prettiest waterfall of the trip. It’s highly photogenic, and I was glad that
we caught it on a cloudy morning. The
sun came out shortly after we left – a rare success for me in terms of timing
clouds.
We
headed south from there, and completely forgot to stop at Glen Ellis
Falls. I guess we’ll save that one for
another time. We drove to the community
of Glen, then headed west and back north towards Crawford Notch. Our next stop was Arethusa Falls. We parked at the first lot next to the main
road, below the impressive Frankenstein Cliffs.
It turns out that we could have driven up the hill to another parking
area by the railroad tracks, but we didn’t figure that out until we had walked
up there.
We
crossed the railroad tracks and followed the trail to Arethusa Falls. After a short distance we reached a spur
trail down to Bemis Brook. This trail
provides an alternate route, as the spur trail and the main trail make a loop. We followed the spur trail to the creek and
continued upstream to the small but pretty Coliseum Falls. This waterfall tumbles over many little
ledges before a long, low-angled slide.
We
continued upstream from there to Bemis Brook Falls. Here, the creek tumbles over four successive
drops totaling about 20’. There is a
good view of the waterfall from a trailside bluff, but I also scrambled down to
the base for a different perspective.
From
there, we followed the “trail” up the slope to regain the main trail. This stretch of trail is horrible. It’s an incredibly steep boulder and root
scramble. Going up it is terrible, but I
think coming down it would be even worse.
We
regained the main trail, and the rest of the hike was straightforward. We crested a ridge and reached a junction
with a trail that leads to Ripley Falls.
We continued ahead there, descending to Bemis Brook at the base of
Arethusa Falls.
At
160’ high, Arethusa Falls is thought to be the highest waterfall in New
Hampshire. It’s an impressive sight, and
a popular destination. There were quite
a few people among the many rocks and boulders just downstream from the base,
and more climbing around near the bottom of the waterfall. Despite this, I managed to get a few good
photos of it. There was some nice fall
color next to the waterfall, which added a lot to my photos.
We
took the direct route back to the car and contemplated how to spend the rest of
the day. Ripley Falls was nearby, but
the clouds were finally lifting, and I was itching to climb a mountain. Unfortunately, it was already mid-afternoon,
so I only had a few hours of daylight to work with. Luckily, we were close to Mount Willard. The hike is only a little over 3 miles for
the round trip, and the peak is well known for great views.
We
drove up to Crawford Notch, which had the best fall color that we’d seen. We parked at the train station, and I grabbed
my gear. Christy’s foot was really
hurting, so she decided to skip this one.
Instead, she drove north to the next little town to catch up on work.
It
was getting late, so I set a brisk pace.
Early on I passed a young Asian woman that had stopped on the side of
the trail. She started walking as soon
as I passed by, and she kept a brisk pace, too.
Unfortunately, she was playing some incredibly annoying music. A few minutes later I reached a side path
down to the Centennial Pool. That was a
great excuse to let her and her annoying music go
by. The Centennial Pool was surprisingly
small for a named feature. In fact, it’s
a stretch to call it a pool at all. It’s
fed by an equally small waterfall. On
the upside, it was completely free of annoying music. It also reeked of weed, so clearly someone
else had really enjoyed the spot shortly before I arrived.
I
hung out for a few minutes to eliminate any chance of catching up with the young
Asian woman with bad musical taste again.
Then I resumed the climb. There
were quite a few hikers on their way down, which pleased me greatly. Every person I passed was one less person
that would be on the summit.
When
I reached the summit there was one family, a guy, and of course the young Asian
woman with bad musical taste. Thankfully
she had turned off the music. I explored
around the summit, taking in the various views.
Meanwhile, I noticed that she was now wearing a dress and engaging in
various poses in front of a camera on a tripod.
Fascinating.
The
family had several cute kids that talked very loudly. While I was taking photos from the edge of a
cliff, one of the kids loudly asked the universe if I was going to fall and
die. So that was amusing. I took that opportunity to check on the young
Asian woman. She was still posing for photos, but had somehow changed into a different dress. Fascinating.
I can’t believe the kids didn’t have anything to say about that.
The
kids eventually ran out of things to talk loudly about. The young Asian woman with bad musical taste
ran out of dresses. The other guy ran
out time, I guess?
Incredibly, I found myself on the summit all by myself. And it was great! The view south was fantastic – waves and
waves of mountains under waves and waves of clouds. It was the perfect end to our week in New
Hampshire.
I
made great time on the way down and met Christy back at the train station. From there we headed for Pittsfield, MA. Our primary goal along the way was to find a
place to eat. Unfortunately, it was a
Friday evening in the heart of fall foliage tourist season. Despite the hideous weather forecast, the
first two places we stopped were packed.
We continued down the road, and stopped at a Mexican place in Littleton,
which was surprisingly bad. I didn’t
realize there was such a thing as bad Mexican food, but they managed.
It
was dark when we left, and late when we arrived at our hotel in
Pittsfield. Thankfully, I got a great
night’s sleep. We got up early Saturday
morning, and I was ready to knock out hikes in my last two states, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Back to New Hampshire
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!