Purgatory Falls Nature Walk

This past weekend I had plans with Jaime to hike either Pack Monadnock or Mt. Monadnock. She mentioned wanting to "climb a mountain" a few times, and I was excited that she wanted to do something a little out of her comfort zone. The retail world has eaten up my weekends and her office job sucks up her weekdays (as well as her soul), so finding a good time to go had been difficult. I took the weekend off for my Spartan Race and foolishly figured I would be fit to hike the day after the race. Jaime was rightfully skeptical and asked "Are you sure you can hike after that? I feel like you'll be dead". Nahhhhhhh, I'll be fine, I responded with a wave of my hand.

She was right, and not that surprised when I texted her the night before asking if we could take a rain check.

The race left me bit more battered than I thought, but my muscles felt okay in the morning and I had just enough energy to be bored with sitting around. I had a slow start to the morning, but every time I sat down I felt like I was suffering from rigor mortis**.  Common knowledge said let the muscles rest, but I felt like some light activity would be good and preventing me from stiffening up. Thankfully, Jaime was flexible and agreed to come a short jaunt into nature at Purgatory Falls near my house. She was not fond of the name "Purgatory" for anything, and not surprisingly the myth of the area isn't much more upbeat. It goes as such:

Cookin' in the Devil's Beanpot

Once upon a time (don't all myths HAVE to start that way?) the Devil visited Purgatory Falls, where he made his home to watch over the people of Mont Vernon. Being the devious devil he was, he disguised himself and invited the elders of the town over for a bean supper. The elders anxiously awaited while he stirred his beans, and the Devil unknowingly conjured up too much heat and got his foot stuck in the rocks. He swore and grew very frustrated, and the elders soon realized who really was and fled. He left behind the "Devil's Beanpot", a giant hole in the middle of the rock, and the "Devil's Footprint", a 7-foot long human shaped footprint. Side note: for some reason I could not stop laughing at that old-timey man hanging out in the beanpot. I don't know, it's a slow day at work.

The Purgatory Brook Trail is one that I been on many times over the course of my life simply because it's about 5 mintues from my house. The trail is about 3 miles end-to-end, but for whatever reason I've never done a round trip. The past few years I've stuck to the Lower Falls because it's a very short walk from the trail head, but as a kid I often went to the Upper Falls where the Devil's Beanpot and Footprint are. The trail follows the Purgatory Brook and is quite easy to navigate. The ease of the trail attracts many families and can be crowded on nice days. A note on the trail though - I noticed a lot of the blazes are very faded and many of the areas are well traveled enough that the path isn't always that obvious. It is hard to get very lost, though, so even someone with no experience would find their way.

We set out towards the Lower Falls, and I made the mistake of telling Jaime there were a lot of black bears in the area. She was convinced we were doomed. Thankfully, the only wildlife we came across was a small garter snake, which is not high on the list of animals I like to see but is low on the list of animals that could rip my face off.

Taking a dive

The Lower Falls are a short walk into the woods (maybe a 1/2 mile at most). We spent most of our time at the top of the falls enjoying the sun. Everyone clap for Jaime -insert clapping here-, as she successfully navigated some precarious rocks to get to the top of the falls. She had herself convinced that every obstacle (however large or small) that was not flat ground would leave her on her ass with a twisted ankle, but she made it through just fine.

From the Lower Falls we continued on towards the Bridge (as seen above on the map). The trail followed the Brook and had a couple rocky crossings over small streams, but nothing too intense.

The Bridge crosses over the Purgatory Brook and provides for a lovely photo opportunity, as seen of my feet. We certainly had enough time to hike to the other end and come back, but I suddenly realized how hungry and tired I was. I think I spent the whole time on the bridge talking about what kinds of food I wanted to eat. The exhaustion from the race finally caught up to me, the ache in my muscles was starting to grow, and I was ready for a XL sandwich.

We did about 2 miles round trip, but it was a pleasant and easy nature walk. I want to go back soon and do the whole trail!



**Disclaimer: I know I was not ACTUALLY suffering from rigor mortis, as I was not dead. I felt the need to include that since Jaime yelled at me when I said I was going rigor mortis.

Franconia Ridge Traverse

Before

Once I set my mind on completing the White Mountain 4,000 Footer list, I thought maybe I should start with the smallest mountain - Mt. Tecumseh, 4,003 feet, still 837 feet higher than Mt. Monadnock, the highest mountain I had climbed in years. My line of thought somehow warped into choosing the sixth highest mountain in the state, the highest outside of the Presidential Range - Mt. Lafayette. I had heard good things (and later I would hear some bad things), but 5,260 feet of elevation had me worried. So, I recruited my friend Court who willingly obliged to a day-long excursion. He offered to be my hiking buddy a few weeks ago, and I was stupidly excited since he hiked a huge chunk of the AT ("I must not be THAT hopeless after all!"). I have been enjoying learning things on my own, sometimes the hard way, but I knew I could use the guidance of a more experience hiker. Plus, it would be a great way for me to get to know the guy who's been dating one of my best friends (and Facebook wife) for so long.

So, I chose Mt. Lafayette. My research turned up that it would be about a 8 mile trip up and down, or an 8.9 mile trip for the loop. I immediately started doubting my abilities. The loop consists of three mountains (though I somehow forgot this the day of... read on); the 4,800 foot Little Haystack Mountain, the 5,089 foot Mt. Lincoln, and the 5,260 ft Mt. Lafayette. To do all three is to complete the Franconia Ridge Trail, which links up to several other trails and the Greenleaf Hut along the way. My doubt started to grow as we worked out the logistics, but Court reassured that I would be fine. My NH hiking guide rated the views as a 5/5, and the difficulty as a 10/10. Oh, crap. I felt a little better that Mt. Monadnock had the same rating. But... a mountain 2,094 feet higher than the biggest mountain I've hiked in recent memory? Even more troubling: the elevation gain of Mt. Monadnock is around 2,094 feet whereas this trail was almost 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Even MORE troubling: the site I was using for reference estimated the total time would be 6.25 hours for about 9 miles. I hiked almost 17 miles in 7 hours on the Wapack Trail. In short, I knew I was in for a challenge. 

The night before I'm doing something important or exciting (first day of work, waking up for a flight, etc.) I always have a stress dream. This was no different. I was supposed to be up at 6am, and in my dream I slept until 9:30, Court was calling me to see why I had blown him off, and there was 6 inches of slush on the ground in July. "I'm so sorry, I slept in! It's supposed to be 90 degrees today, maybe the slush will melt!" None of those things happened. I was up before my alarm and we left our neck of the woods at 7:00. It's about an hour and a half drive to the White Mountains region, and after a few minutes of confusion over where the trail head was we parked among a sea of cars and prepared to set off. On the drive up we decided to change our plans from hiking up Old Bridle Path (the most direct) to taking Falling Waters Trail, a friend had suggested the Falling Waters Trail since it had, believe it or not, some lovely falling water and was less steep than Old Bridle.


During

Along the Falling Waters Trail

Hours 0 - 2: We hastily set off to avoid being stuck with a group of about 15-20 people that were converging at the trail head. No thanks. The Falling Waters Trail did not disappoint! There were some sections of high, fast moving water, but I only had a fully submerged boot once. I was carrying a ridiculously large expedition pack provided by my step dad that shifted around a little bit when I was jumping, which did not make for the most graceful leaps. My waterproof boots held up, though. It was hot and humid, and though hiking along the water provided some cool breezes we were thankful for some ice cold, crystal clear mountain water. I hesitated for a moment, envisioning myself bent over vomiting from some bacteria, but my fears were eased when I saw how clear the water was. A water fall coming out of the side of a mountain is about as safe as you can get. My mom still wasn't too happy with that, but I'm here, right?

Trail, or rock climb?

This trail was quite unforgiving, with very few stretches of flat ground and plenty of places to face plant. I wanted to keep a decent pace to prove to myself that I could do it, but also to make sure we were making good time. I'm proud to say that I did quite well! It was not without a lot of sweating and feeling like I wanted to vomit at some points. The trail is riddled with rocks and roots, so almost every step had to carefully placed. We stopped twice, once for a water break / my inability to breathe, and once so I could wrap my knee, which was starting to feel particularly wobbly. Did I mention that I strained something in my knee about a week ago? No? Well I did, and it was feeling particularly unsettled all week. Not very reassuring when you're going to be stepping over uneven rocks for 6 hours. Just before our second pit stop I said to myself "Oh, Molly, you will never hike the AT because this is miserable and why do you want to do this to yourself?" Then I ate a Chewy bar and Gatorade "energy chew" that my parents bought me for my birthday, and I suddenly felt much better. It's amazing what a little gooey square of pure corn syrup will do for morale. We finally started to see some viewpoints when we were almost at the summit (though we didn't know that), and were able to look back onto "'The Old Man In The Mountain' Mountain (RIP)", as I call it, or Cannon Mountain, as most other people call it.

Hours 2 - 4: We popped out to the summit just about 2 hours after setting out. As I mentioned before, I somehow forgot that we were going to Little Haystack Mountain and not Mt. Lincoln. In my head I had planned to do the loop in the other direction, meaning Mt. Lafayette first, and it just slipped my mind that it was three mountains and not two. I quickly realized my mistake when I saw a marker that said "Mt. Lincoln" with an arrow pointing left. I quietly cursed myself as I looked over to Mt. Lincoln, realizing that we had two more "uphill" stretches instead of one. A double-decker PB&J, Dorito's, and astounding views quickly reset my woes, though I had almost zero appetite.

View from the Summit of Little Haystack Mountain (stolen from Court)

Headed towards Mt. Lincoln

Cameras rarely do justice to what you see with your eyes, but the photo I stole from Court's much-nicer-camera comes close. We spent about 20 or 30 minutes at the summit of Little Haystack before heading towards Mt. Lincoln. The trail, though still quite rocky in some areas, was a nice change from the ascent. The rock-lined path across the ridge was easy to navigate and provided amazing views the entire way. We frequently stopped to take in our surroundings, or to await a traffic jam to clear. The path narrows significantly when it enters the trees, so it really only allows for one-way traffic. The ridge walk is almost completely exposed, and it's obvious to see how the weather could change drastically and conditions could become dangerous very quickly. Luckily, we had a mostly clear day (it was a little hazy), and we were thankful for some cloud cover so the sun wasn't beating down on us the whole time.

Looking towards Mt. Lafayette

Linking up the AT

We stopped only briefly at Mt. Lincoln, mainly so I could take my typical "here's my feet relaxing with a nice view" photo, but also because the biggest mountain, Mt. Lafayette, was next. The Franconia Ridge Trail is part of the AT, and I smiled when I saw the white blazes I knew were part of the AT. Huzzah! I started secretly hoping we would meet a thruhiker. 

Success!!

About 2 miles after we left the summit of Little Haystack Mountain we arrived at the summit of Mt. Lafayette. It was crowded and a little noisier than I would have liked, but it was incredible nonetheless. Trees looked like toothpicks, cars were just little blobs of color, even the highway looked majestic. How often can you say nice things about 93? Reaching the third summit of the day was a great feeling, but the impending blisters I was feeling were not. I didn't bother to take off my boots, but I was silently rooting for the liners I purchased from REI to do their job. Basically, the idea is that the thin, form-fitting sock liner prevents blisters by creating a sock-on-sock instead of sock-on-skin situation. My hopes were being dashed as I felt the "hot spots" forming in the usual areas, but I was distracted by a particularly rugged-looking hiker reaching the summit and yelling "Okay, who brought the beer?!"

Looking back to Mt. Lincoln (stolen from Court)

We soaked up the view for a few more minutes before beginning our descent. I realized Court wasn't directly behind me, and when I turned I heard him ask the "where's-the-beer" guy if he was a thruhiker, and he was (afterwards Court told me "that was the thruhiker smell"). My silent hopes of running into a thruhiker were answered! He was particularly cheerful and eager to chat with us for a few minutes. I asked him why he was carrying a beat-up hockey stick with him, and he said his trail name was Puck. Fair enough. He was hiking North - South and had started in Maine 42 days ago. I offered up my uneaten Snicker's, which he humbly accepted after saying "oh... oh man... only if you're willing to part with it". As I was handing it to him, "blue-shirt-man" (nicknamed so because he was wearing a blue shirt) popped out behind us and offered him a pear. We wished him well and started our descent.

Heading to the Greenleaf Hut (small, but visible!)

Hours 4 - 6ish: The first mile or so was very rocky (seems to be the theme, right?), and crowded at times. Every step had to be carefully placed, which was true for almost the entire trail, to avoid becoming a tangle of flailing limbs. My knees were a tad wobbly, my ankles were starting to ache with each step, my quads were getting a decent workout, but I kept up a decent pace. We re-entered the woods where the trail slimmed down to one-way traffic again, and just under 2 miles after the summit we reached the Greenleaf Hut. But, oh, I left out a lovely squander of mine. There's a small lake next to the Greenleaf Hut, and the trail runs adjacent to a muddy section next to the lake. I went first, jumped from one rock to the next, and then thought I was close enough to effortlessly leap to over the last bit of mud to solid ground. Well, I underestimated my ability to jump from a standstill on a rock with an awkwardly large pack on my back. My left foot plunged into the mud up to my sock line, luckily I was able to rip it out before it went any deeper. Court laughed at me as I whacked the mud off on a rock. Thankfully my waterproof boots held up and no mud got through. I immediately praised myself for purchasing gaiters with the liners the day before, otherwise I would have certainly had a boot full of mud. The Greenleaf Hut was overrun with kids, but at least it had a bathroom for those of us without outdoor plumbing. I'm not against dropping trow in the woods, but I'd rather not if there's an option.

Looking back at Mt. Lafayette (left) and Mt. Lincoln (right)

A four mile descent down Old Bridle Path seemed much longer than that, because as I mentioned before I had to really pay attention to each step. I could feel myself getting tired but I knew that if I let my guard down it could end poorly. I was very thankful for my "hiking poles" (free ski poles from the dump) and every stretch of level ground. There were a few times that I crab-crawled down some rocks, because I figured I might as well be on my ass voluntarily rather than waiting for an ill-placed step to do it for me. Thankfully I didn't have any major qualms, but I did get two decent scrapes, one on each leg, from rubbing against a rock. I made a mental note to invest in the convertible pants I had been eyeing during my clothing training at work. Pants are abrasion resistant, my skin is not.

Can you tell which foot went in the mud?

The sound of water confirmed we had linked back up to the Falling Waters Trail, meaning the loop was complete! A short .2 mile walk on mostly level ground took us to the trail head and completed our journey. We walked under the highway and back to our car, where we saw two men trying to fish something out of their car window with their trekking poles. We assumed they had locked their keys in the car, but a few minutes later they told us their father had the keys and was on his way, they just wanted to get the beer that was inside. Fair enough. I peeled off my muddy boots, gaiters, and socks, and cringed awaiting my blister-riddled fate. But alas, the liners did their job and I was blister free! Best $6 (even less with my discount) I've spent. As we were packing up the car, blue-shirt-man, the one that gave Puck a pear, approached us asking for a ride back to a trail head 3 miles down the road. He thanked us several times, saying he didn't want to have to walk three miles after having done 10 miles of hiking. I thought back to the day I completed the last stretch of the Wapack, then had to walk 5.5 hilly miles to my car. I feel ya, bro, I feel ya.

After

The car ride home was quiet, mostly due to how exhausted we were. Sometimes silence can be awkward, especially with someone who haven't hung out with a lot, but the mutual understanding of how tired we were was enough to squash any need to make small talk. I noticed that I still had no appetite, but I made myself eat some jerky anyway. No appetite... but a beer wouldn't be so bad. I stopped at the store on the way home to get myself a celebratory beer. Later I would eat an amazing meal prepared by my mom and then venture out for a root beer float. Hiking is amazing for anyone who watches their calories. I burned around 3,200 calories, and I couldn't eat/drink enough to replace all of that.

I spent yesterday exhausted despite sleeping for 11 hours. I sat at a family friend's kids birthday party slumped in a chair, unable to finish a beer. I did put away three slices of pizza like a champ, though. My shoulders, back, and quads ached. I was doing well right after the hike, but the day after it seemed like every time I sat down it was harder to get up. Thankfully I'm feeling better today, and the only evidence of the trip are a few nasty bug bites and the scrapes on my legs. And some great pictures, obviously.

Overall, this was an A++ trip. The views were unbeatable, it was challenging yet rewarding, and I was able to check two mountains off my 4,000 list. Little Haystack Mountain is not on the list despite being over 4,000 feet; to be on the list a peak must rise 200 feet above any ridge connecting it to a higher neighbor (this disqualifies Little Haystack). I know I'm up for the challenge of the other 5,000 footers on the list, and hopefully the 6,288 foot Mt. Washington!