Not Every trip is a winner- New Hampshire Waterfall Misadventure

I accept that not every fishing trip, weekend getaway, or vacation will be better than the last. There are an infinite amount of things that are out of your control. Among these of course are car issues, the weather, and traffic. Laurie and I went away for a night in New Hampshire. My car ran just fine and we only got stuck in a little traffic, the weather...well.

For years I have wanted to go to New Hampshire to see what waterfalls look like from spring runoff of melting snow. I clearly knew that melting snow would not only swell waterfalls but also make the trails muddy. To prepare for that we brought extra socks and my box fan to dry our boots at night. I expected to see snow at higher elevations, I did not expect to see snow in the valleys...well

We reserved a motel for Thursday night. The original plan was to stay there Thursday. However, if the weather was nice (dry and any night time low above 30 degrees) on Wednesday night, we would go up Wednesday after we got out of work and sleep at the one year round campground on the Kanc...well

We were not so lucky. The weather called for all day rain on Wednesday. Thursday morning rain then drying out in the afternoon to partly sunny.  Friday morning was going to be nice, but rain was moving in during the afternoon. Basically, we had from Thursday at noon until Friday at noon to enjoy the waterfalls. Truthfully, I was okay with that. I did a lot of planning for the trip including a driving route and trail research. I had a list of five hikes (anything more than ten minutes from the car) that ranged from two miles round trip to four miles. I had hoped to do four of them, two each day, a morning hike, lunch, then an afternoon hike.  Knowing we only had twenty four hours, I hoped we could do two and maybe three of them.

As weird as it sounds, I don't like going away when things are really good around here. For example,

Crystal Cascade, Pinkham Notch

I would never take a vacation from September 10-20 because of albies. Likewise, I don't leave stripers and birds in May. So I mentally prepared myself to step away from what has been great birding to visit these waterfalls. This may sound ridiculous, but I don't want to think about what "I could be doing" instead of what I am doing. I just reminded myself it was one weekend and many of the birds are yet to come. Since spring waterfalls have been on my bucket list for a decade, this was easier than I thought.

However, when I knew that Thursday morning would be a washout in New Hampshire yet in Mass it would be clear. I realized I was going to waste a morning I could be birding to sit in the rain. The storm was clearing on a path almost completely going south to north. Knowing that it would be crappy out, I asked Laurie if she'd go to Plum Island with me birding on our way to NH. This way, I'd get my birding fix, and we wouldn't be wasting the morning. Also, Newburyport is an hour closer to NH, so once done, we'd only have a two hour ride.

To keep this from getting out of hand long, I'll summarize Plum as quickly as possible. We got there at 9 and planned on leaving around noon. The birding was pretty bad because of the weather. It stopped showering roughly 10:45. I saw three new species for the year, Merlin, purple finch, and Black Bellied Plover . By far the best bird was the Merlin. We only saw about twenty species.

Glen Ellis Falls

We left Newburyport at 12:30 and after a couple stops at drug store and candy shop for Laurie's fudge, we were hiking before 4 pm. The goal was to do the easiest hike on the list: Waterville Cascades. It is roughly a mile each way. At the end is a series of waterfalls. This hike gives a lot of bang for a buck. We put on our boots and went up the hill. Almost immediately we encountered a snow patch. I didn't think much of it and we moved on. As we went into the woods the snow patches got bigger and closer together to the point we were walking on snow and ice constantly.

As you might imagine, a woman who really doesn't love hiking anyway was none too thrilled to be slipping on ice AND postholing in the snow. At some points we were falling through the snow over a foot deep. She wanted to turn back, but I realized that if our easiest hike was going to be this hard, then my other hike plans were shot too hell. So we pushed on. It rained on and off for the hour we trudged through the snow making things worse. We crossed a snowmelt brook that soaked our feet all the way through. This was the last straw for Laurie. I knew the waterfalls were only a couple hundred yards away, so she waited for me while I went.

 Leaving Laurie meant, I was going to get a picture of the first waterfall and rush back to her. There wouldn't be any lingering, or exploring the other falls. Come hell or high water I wanted to see a damn mountain waterfall. I went down into the valley where the snow got much deeper. I post holed a few times where my leg fell in all the way to my crotch and I had to roll my way out.

Here's the worst part... the highwater stopped me! After all that, there was brook I could not cross just ten to fifteen yards before the first cascade. However, it was just a little to wide to jump. If I was alone and it were 1 pm, I might have done it. My feet were soaked anyway. I knew crossing that river would take too much time of our vanishing daylight. I turned around, rushed back to Laurie, fell into more snow drifts, got to her, listened to her complain, and finally at 6:45 got out of the woods.

Snow and ice covered trail at Glen Ellis

I quickly want to point out, that we were in no danger from the elements. Although the water on our feet was cold, we built up some sweat hiking. It was sixty degrees and when it wasn't misting on us, felt like a nice day.

After this disastrous hike, we went to our hotel room. Luckily, this was the best part of our trip. He stayed at the Day's Inn in Woodstock. Ive stayed a Day's Inns before but this was the best. The room was spotless. It had a really nice indoor pool and a hot tub. I think we were one of three guest rooms sold for the night. We went for a swim and sat in the hot tub for an extended period of time.  We went back to our room and watched the Sox and the NFL Draft.

After our continental breakfast Friday morning, I knew any big hikes were out of the question. I was hoping to see a couple of the close to road waterfalls. We drove up Crawford Notch to Silver and Flume Cascades. These are true roadside falls. They were full of water, but I was none too impressed seeing a waterfall from my car.

From there we drove to Crystal Cascades in Pinkham Notch. The drive toward Pinkham was pretty much snow free and I  was feeling pretty good about our prospects. Then...as we reached higher elevations we saw more and more snow. When we got out of the car at the Tuckerman Ravine trailhead, there was snow right at the beginning. However, it was packed down from so much use so it was easy to climb. Crystal Cascade is only 10 minutes up the trail, and was easy enough to get to.

Then we went to Glen Ellis Falls. I knew the stairs down to the fall would be slippery so I told Laurie it might be tough.

Common Mergansers swimming in the little
open water at Saco Lake

She chose to sit it out. Sure enough the stairs and ice were slippery (but doable) I got  some pics, but it was cloudy and the falls were spraying mist everywhere. The pics suck, but the falls was fun to see.

After we left there we just worked our way back to the Kanc. We stopped at the roadside Lower Falls and Rocky Gorge.  We walked up to Falls Pond and got a picture. The ice is starting to break up on the mountain ponds but they are still mostly frozen.

Falls Pond and other mountain ponds are still ice covered

After those two roadside falls, we headed home encountering rain about an hour from Lincoln until we got home.

As always, when I go to New Hampshire I try to learn from my experiences. I always try to improve on ways to make a trip better. Obviously, I learned some important lessons on this trip.

Assume there is still snow and ice on the ground at the end of April.

The Day's Inn was very nice.

Honestly, if I'd have been alone AND had my snowshoes I could have seen the waterfalls that require hikes. I really wanted to go out to Arethusa Falls. It is the largest waterfall in the Granite State. I couldn't ask Laurie to do anymore hikes after Thursday. She was (rightfully so) miserable. Seeing snow fed waterfalls was a bucket list item of mine. Although I saw a couple, I missed four of the hikes I want to do. Therefore I'm not crossing this off the bucketlist. I don't know when, but I will be back.

Other hikes we had planned- Bridal Veil Falls, Arethusa, Fletcher Cascade, Basin Cascade Trail.

Rocky Gorge, Kancamangus Highway