Franconia too

We scoured Franconia Notch State Park. The Flume is a naturally formed crevice in LaSalle Mountain that funnels water in beautiful and interesting ways through centuries old glacial rock – primarily basalt. The formations were spectacular, and also allowed us to a few mile hike in a lovely setting – bonus!

The Basin is another feature in the Park on the Pemigewasset River – Pemigewasset is Algonquin for swift, and this river meets that definition. Henry David Thoreau visited the Basin in 1839 and wrote that it was “perhaps the most remarkable curiosity of its kind in New England.” The Basin is an immense granite bowl, carved out by the Pemigewasset over centuries to form this interesting feature. We stood and looked at the Basin from where Henry David Thoreau did in 1839.

We hopped on the Cannon Mountain aerial tram to the top of Cannon Mountain – about 4,100 feet in elevation. It was a great ride up – the weather on the top was spectacular – we hiked the trail to the overlook – it was spectacular! Interestingly, I thought that the fall colors would be so cool from up here, but actually we were too high up to enjoy its intensity. It was beautiful, but looked more like a multi-colored blanket – you actually needed to be closer to see the definition of the trees and their leaves.

The tram station on the peak had a cafeteria that serves the ski crowd in the winter and folk like us in the non-snow time. We had a couple of yummy sandwiches and I decided to take advantage of the highest tap in the state of New Hampshire – they actually had a local brewery create a signature IPA for the mountain – the Cannon Mountain Ale – so I couldn't pass that up. We bellied up on a couple of tall stools to the window, ate our sandwiches, sipped our ale, and watched the goings on in the Franconia Notch 2,000 feet below.

We visited Boise Rock, where I learned there are really no new ideas – just circulated ones. Named for Thomas Boise, a noted teamster, who in the early 1800’s was sledding through the Notch in mid-winter. Overtaken by a severe snowstorm, he was unable to continue. Realizing he had to take drastic action to survive, he found this rock overhang. In his desperation, he killed his horse, cut it open, and crawled inside the hide to use its warmth to keep him from freezing, and he survived the storm. And all this while, I thought George Lucas had come up with a new and unique idea when Han Solo found Luke Skywalker freezing outside the shelter on the planet Hoth!

While we were here, the Woman’s pen pal through most of her life happened to be in New England. Sarah Swallow lives in Chester England, and Sarah and Robin were pen pals following in the footsteps of their moms, who were also pen pals with each other. Sarah’s husband, Melvin, is an exceptional white water racer in a kayak, and won the international competition that was held in Oklahoma City in September. Afterward, they headed to New England to get with dear friends that lived in New Hampshire. So, they kindly carved out a couple days to stay with us while we were here. We hiked and talked all the while they were here, making sure all our hikes were along creeks that had gorgeous waterfalls at the end – hours of nice walks with plenty of time to talk and catch up, and then with a great reward at the midpoint – what could be better!

We hiked through the Lost River Gorge. Not unlike the Flume but beautiful in a slightly different way. And along the gorge, there were a half dozen or so caves that you could crawl through if you were up to it. Some of the caves were so tight that they even had gauges outside the caves so you could make sure you actually could fit in before you crawled down inside.

We took Sarah and Melvin hiking over the top of Bald Mountain to the rock outcropping known as Artist Bluff. The Bluff is an absolutely special spot – immense relatively flat granite boulders overlooking the Notch from the North. You are suspended out nearly over the I-93 corridor which is smack in the center of the Notch, and you have a panoramic view down the Notch to the South. From the Bluff you nave great views of Echo Lake below, Cannon Mountain and its ski area, and all the Presidential Peaks in the White Mountains that line the Notch. Most of the mountains in this range have been named for former US Presidents.

As we stand there and gawk at the sheer beauty, we are beginning to think that maybe we are in the midst of the peak of the changing fall colors. While only a little time with confirm or deny, it seems like the brightness of the colors have reached an intensity that it seems unlikely could get any better. We shall see.

The next day we dragged Sarah and Melvin up the Copper Mine Trail to Bridal Veil Falls. The Woman and I had hiked the 5 miles up and back a couple days ago, and really enjoyed the trail along the creek – nice forest trail with nearly constant cascading water sounds soothing your journey for you.

It had rained yesterday afternoon – not hard rain but steady. At first I didn't think that it had impacted the creek. But then we came to a spot in the trail that I had a visual image of, and something was wrong.

When the Woman and I had been here a couple days ago, we saw 6 symmetrically placed pipes embedded in a rock face that the creek was flowing around. Some hiker had places a large flattish boulder on the top of each of the 6 pipes so that they took on the appearance of mushrooms. Well, today there were only 5 – odd! Well, on closer inspection, I realized that one of the 6 pipes, along with its boulder, was completely submerged under the swelled up creek. Apparently the water level in the creek had more than doubled due to the rain.

When we finally arrived at Bridal Veil Falls, the additional water volume jumped out like a sore thumb. While the Falls had been beautiful a couple days ago, today they were simply dramatic! The water crashing down through the deep crack in the wall was, again, more than twice the volume we had seen. And the boulder bed that it crashed onto directly at our feet was completely awash where only a couple foot wide stream of water had been there before. So, not only was it a nice bonus for Sarah and Melvin on an otherwise nice hike, it ended up being a total bonus for me and the Woman as well.

Talk to you soon!