Laurie and I went to New Hampshire from Wednesday night until Friday night. We left when she got out of work at 5 pm. After a couple of stops and finding a site, we had the tent up before 10 pm. We knew Thursday would probably be a washout. Our best case scenario was that it would start to clear up Thursday afternoon. It didn't. It rained almost continuously until Friday am. This only gave us Friday to enjoy the foliage in what will most likely be the last trip of the year.
We started Friday morning in Crawford Notch doing a short hike to Ripley Falls. It is only about twenty minutes each way. The falls is roughly 100 feet in height. It is a very easy hike and the reward is well worth the effort.
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| Ripley Falls |
After we left Ripley Falls we did one of the most popular hikes in the Whites, Mt. Willard. Mt. Willard is a small mountain with a huge view that looks into Crawford Notch. The hike is 3.2 miles round trip. It has an elevation gain of 900 feet. As hikes up mountains go, it is very mild. The slope of the trail is very consistent the whole way up. There aren't any steep sections. It is very popular trail with families with kids and dogs. It was still extremely cloudy when we went up. I knew we wouldn't see the higher peaks over 3800 feet, but I knew we would have a good look down into the notch.
We made it up in less than an hour. We had our lunch on one of the big rock slabs looking into Crawford Notch. Even though we are past Columbus Day, and the weather was raw, there were quite a few hikers. I bet we saw 40 or more people and at least eight dogs. There was plenty of room at the top so the people didn't bother me. Just getting out on a hike after dealing with Thursday's rain made me happy.
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Pearl Cascade is five minutes from
the Mt. Willard Trail |
When we got down we went back to our tent site to pack the tent. We didn't do it in the morning because it was wet and we wanted to get an early start. We had a porcupine that had been hanging around our tent site for two days. He was there Thursday afternoon and he was there right before dark when we came back for the night.
When we left on Friday morning, I suspected he didn't go far but we didn't see him. However, when we got back to the site to break camp, there he was again eating leaves and grass. He was around so much that Laurie gave him a name, Boris. He had no fear of us at all. We could talk at a normal volume. As long as I stayed eight feet away, he would keep doing his thing. If I got within eight feet, he would slowly sounder a few feet away. Do you realize how close to a porcupine eight feet is? Although he had no fear, he did not make the best photo subject. He mostly kept his face down while feeding. When he did lift his face, he had a big brow of quills right over his face covering most of it. Still it was only the third porcupine I have ever seen. It was nice to have Boris around camp.
After we packed, I took Laurie on a wild goose chase looking for two backcountry ponds. We couldn't reach them because the fishermen's trail we followed petered out and became a swamp. We stepped in ankle deep mud and got wet feet. Lets just say if Laurie's looks could kill, I would not be writing this right now.
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Upper Hall Pond where we satarted our misadventure
looking for the mountain ponds. |
The one positive of the "hike" is we saw a pileated woodpecker and heard/saw loons. We also saw a salamander, the first of the year for me.
All in all, even though we only had the one day and the weather was less than perfect, I'm glad we went to NH one more time for the year.
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