13 Falls Backpack

Hi Blog!  Now don't worry.  Even though this entry is called "13 Falls Backpack," it doesn't mean that we fell 13 times.  Thirteen Falls is the name of the campsite we stayed at on the banks of the Franconia Brook in the Pemigewasset Wilderness of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  The Franconia Brook just happens to cascade down the mountain side in a series of 13 falls at that location.

We saw so many frogs every day on each hike that we thought of calling this blog entry something like, "Frogtopia," or "The Day Was Froggy Withal."  But we decided that no one would be able to imagine the wide variety of colors and sizes of frogs we saw, and we decided instead to name it after 13 Falls, which is one of our favorite spots in all the White Mountains.  We had visited 13 Falls on a day hike down from Galehead Hut when we did a hut-to-hut hike through the Pemigewasset Range of the White Mountains in 2004, and we had promised ourselves to return and spend more time.  This was our chance to really get to know that beautiful place.

We started our backpack on Sunday morning with a walk up the Lincoln Woods Trail and Franconia Brook Trail which start at the Lincoln Woods Visitor's Center and run along the banks of the Pemigewasset River before turning north to follow Franconia Brook up to the campground. Here you can see the Pemi River with the mountains in the background.

The trails runs along an old logging railroad bed. Some of the ties are still intact. Just off the trail is Franconia Falls.  This is a favorite summertime destination.  You can see the kids lined up to try one of the many fall-slides.

We soon leave the Pemi River and head uphill along the banks of the Franconia Brook.  Here an eager beaver has created a beautiful pond for himself using the banks of the railroad grade as one side of his pond.  We looked for a long time, but didn't see a single moose.

As we hiked up the trail, we met Mike and Leslie (no - not Dave's sister, Leslie, and her husband, Mike) but another Mike and Leslie - a dad/daughter combo that likes to backpack together. They, too, were staying at 13 Falls. After a beautiful 10-mile walk in the woods, we finally arrived at the 13 Falls. It didn't take us long to drop our packs, set up the tent and soak our toes in the brook.

On Monday, we left our tent at the 13 Falls Campsite and hiked up the Twin Brook Trail to the Galehead Hut.  We stayed in this hut in 2004 and 2006.

While resting on the porch enjoying the view of the valley below, we heard lots of whoops and hollers as a troup of boy scouts came marching up the trail.  We learned from the scout leaders that there were 10 in the group.  We also learned there was another group of 8 more about a 1/2 hour behind.  Wow, 18 boyscouts.  I think it's time to finish lunch and hit the trail back to camp.  By the way scoutmaster, where are you taking the boys today?  His response - 13 Falls Campsite! Yikes, our nice quiet campground in the middle of the Pemigewasset Wilderness is about to be invaded by 18 scouts.

Before we left the mountain, we took this photo of the valley below.  If you look really closely, you can see our tent down there.  :)

We got about an hour or so head start down the mountain from the scouts.  We staked out a corner of the kitchen, took a swim in the brook and waited for the show to start.  We honestly didn't think we would have "camp tv" in the middle of the wilderness, but you just never know.  As it turns out, we not only had the 18 scouts, we also had a group of 8 campers from a youth camp down the road - 2 leaders and 6 more 14 year old boys. No sooner did the camp group get settled, then three 20-somethings also showed up looking for a tent site.  Luckily, the caretaker was able to put them in an overflow area, which was actually better than being surrounded by teenaged boys! All kidding aside, the boys were great.  We talked hiking and gear and scout projects. The only downside, they all did get up at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, so there was no sleeping in for us. We waited for them to hit the trail at 7:00 a.m. before heading to the kitchen area for breakfast.

Tuesday morning, we followed the Franconia Trail back down the mountain and then crossed the Pemi River to our next campsite. The photo below shows Kathy trying really hard not to slip on wet rocks while wearing very loose fitting crocks.

 When we arrived in camp, we noticed only one other backpacker - nice!  Since we got in so early (thanks to the scouts), we set up the tent and bear-boxed the food and headed out for a day hike along the Pemi Eastside Trail.  It was impressive to see how much Hurricane Irene changed the whole river valley. There were boulders the size of buses just tossed downstream.  The whole riverbed is scrubbed clean.  The rocks almost look like someone polished them.  It will be several years before the plants, bugs and fish come back.

That afternoon, we came back to camp and settled in for happy hour when we were visited by several very inquisitive chipmunks.  They were braisen little buggers.  Here is one checking out Kathy's pack.

Just around supper time, we heard them. The unmistakeable sound of squealing teenage girls! We were in for another invastion. Only this time, it wasn't quite so bad - six girls, two dogs and one set of parents. The parents were bringing up the rear.  The parents stopped and chatted and gave us a couple of bananas.  We think they felt guilty in advance for all the noise they knew the girls would be making that night. It turned out fine. Mostly it was happy noises. Actually, I think it was us that woke them up nice and early when we headed for the bathroom building and started the two dogs barking.

We finished our backpack on Wednesday morning by walking out the Pemi Eastside Trail. At one point the road was completely washed out and the 20 foot culvert which the stream used to run through was washed downstream 100 yards and wrapped around some trees. Folks in camp showed us some photos of the flooding that hit this area, but it is hard to imagine the kind of force it would take to cause that kind of destruction.

If you want to see some more pictures of our trip, here is a link to our Flikr site:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/scranton21/sets/72157630535271042/

Bye Ho!