Today was another hike day. Based on the weather which was supposed to be 10% chance of rain until 1200 and 30% after that we ate some oatmeal for breakfast and headed out pretty early…figuring we would get the hike in before the rain started and Connie would work in the afternoon. Alas…our plans were foiled.

Our destination was a small pool about 5 miles away in the park named the Basin. We stopped by and headed out into a cloudy but not rainy day. Here is a small falls right above the pool and another of the Basin itself; which is a small pool about 30 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep.

We then headed up the Basin/Cascades Trail which follow the creek up the mountain side. The first major fall is Kinsman Falls, a very nice 30 or so foot single drop. Here is a straight photo and a couple of HDR versions that Neil got after climbing out to about the center of the stream on the rocks.

We also stopped for a snack after taking these shots as we were getting hungry. Continuing on up the trail it started drizzling and over the next hour or so it got worse and worse until by the time we got to Rock Grotto Falls it was raining pretty steadily. There were also literally dozens of falls, cascades, and rapids most of which don’t have a name so we just snapped some photos and then continued to the next.

Finally we arrived at the other major named fall on the hike; Rock Grotto Falls. This one was particularly nice view even though by this time it was pretty much raining steadily and we were getting wetter and wetter.

Neil took a short video of the Rock Grotto Falls as well.

I added the above video later; Neil couldn’t remember which google account he needed to upload it with.

After Rock Grotto we continued on up another ¼ mile or so and turned onto the Whitewater Bridge Trail. At that point we had 1-¾ miles left on the Whitewater Bridge and Pimm Trails back to our parking lot and it continued to rain harder and harder. We had to cross and recross the Pemigewasset River several times on the way back…lost the trail once where we didn’t think it could possibly go across the river but eventually figured it out…Connie slipped into a mud bog up to her knees…and eventually got back to the car in what by the end was all the way to a real rainstorm. Neil wanted a picture of her climbing out of the mud hole but it was raining too hard to get the Nikon DSLR out and he forgot to being the waterproof point and shoot camera this morni

Other than the rain this was a really nice hike. Almost 4 miles total and about 600 feet elevation gain up to where we headed back down the Whitewater Bridge trail. Unfortunately about ⅔ of the hike was more of the rock climbing/goat scampering variety rather than being a nice easy to walk on trail. We’ve found most of the trails up here in the Northeast are like that.

Connie went in for a shower and started work. Neil went up and filled BAT with fuel for the journey on Sunday and also filled our almost empty propane tank. We’ve had to run the furnaces the past 4 or 5 notes as it’s been getting down into the 40’s and while we’re pretty snug in the bed with our down comforter one eventually has to get up. In the morning the temp inside has been down to about 60 but it warms up pretty quickly with the furnace and electric fireplace going. This was the first propane fill we’ve needed since picking up the rig in June. The bottle has a 9 gallon capacity and indicated a little less than ¼ remaining which would have been about 2 gallons. Neil only needed 5.4 gallons to fill it instead of the expected 7 so it looks like the gauge reads a little lower than actual level…good to know for future reference.

Tomorrow we’re off to the festival and then on a drive to a couple of gorges and other sites to see what we can see…then over to Franconia for Mass followed by a Sunday morning departure for out next stop at the Apple Island RV Resort in Lake Champlain, Vermont.

Cyas.