Adventures in the White Mountains

The spectacular view from Cathedral Ledge

Exploring Diana's Baths

Last Friday we headed up to New Hampshire with a few friends to celebrate the end of school and arrival of Spring. Brandon, the team leader, decided that we were going to drive to the White Mountains, summit Mt. Chocorua , and then come home. The only problem was that he didn't really know where Mt. Chocorua was, nor did anyone else. We were lost. And it was sad.

Our waterfall lunch spot, hidden off of the trail

In a moment of despair, I (JR) spotted a hopeful sign: an Ohio license plate. I figured that nice people from Ohio would be able to help us find the mountain, so I knocked on their window. They rolled it down, and it was then I realized that they weren't from Ohio -- they were British! They were an old couple from the north of England and they couldn't believe that a bunch of Americans were lost. Thankfully, we had an Irishman and Aussie (Stewart and Arthur) with us, so it was a total national humiliation. We all chatted for a bit, they gave us a map, and we headed back the way we came.


Soon we pulled off for a path that would lead to the mountain. After about an hour of hiking we came upon a series of beautiful waterfalls, where we stopped for lunch. We scrambled up a large bolder and ate in the sun with some of the spray from the waterfall cooling us off. It was great.

After the waterfall we continued up the path and our team leader Brandon spotted a snake! It was sunning itself and we all stopped to admire it. It was the first snake that Stewart had seen in the wild. We kept going and going over tree roots and up and up and up until we were tired. Then we stopped for a chat. The top of the mountain was still a long hike away, and we were nervous that we wouldn't be able to make it up and down before dusk, so we turned around. On the way down Grumpus found another snake! I was so excited because Mumpus has found so many snakes in the past and it was the first one I found. But the snake wasn't the end of the adventure -- it was just the beginning.

At the top of Cathedral Ledge

JR and everyone resting at Cathedral Ledge

Armed with the map the British gave us, we headed into Conway in search of Diana's Bath, which someone had told us was an amazing set of pools and waterfalls. We had to ask for directions several times, but eventually we snaked our way near the Bath. Unfortunately, neither the map nor the directions were very good, and we ended up driving to a place called Cathedral Ledge. We could see the climbers from the bottom, way up high on the open rock face- true toughs -- and we kept driving towards Diana's Bath (or so we thought) and went up a huge hill. When we got to the top there was a dead-end -- definitely not Diana's Bath -- but it was an amazing scenic overlook.

We jumped out of the car and headed toward the edge, which had a great "Do Not Throw Objects Climbers Below" sign on it. It reminded me of the "loving life, please stay away from the edge" signs that are prevalent on Chinese mountains. The view was great, and the Fletcher folks, being international policy nerds, pointed out Bretton Woods and were all very excited (for those who don't know, this is where the international monetary system took shape). We also met a really nice couple who told us that hang gliders liked to run off the ledge a few hundred yards away and coast head down to a golf course in the valley. We headed over to the ledge and marveled at the beauty of the valley. Stewart, who has a history of vertigo, took another step towards overcoming it as he crept close to the edge.
We piled back into the car and continued on our quest for Diana's Bath. When we finally made it, it did not disappoint. We got to the first set of waterfalls and baths and we wanted to explore, so Allie led the way across the rocks and pools to the other side. It was great jumping from rock to rock, over the rushing falls, but not everyone was so happy about making bigger jumps across narrow rapids. Eventually, we decided to go back, but finding an easy path back wasn't so easy.

Leann trying to decide whether or not jumping here was a good idea (it wasn't)

We found a crossing, but it required jumping across a 3 ft. chasm about four feet above the rapids. Most of us got across, but Leann and Olya, feared that they could not make it, and the team was split up. We continued on two paths up the Baths looking for a place to cross without the jump. We headed further and further up, trying to stay together with our team split on two sides, and eventually, after some heroic jumps and no serious falls, the team was rejoined. Having conquered the baths, we headed back to the cars and started on our journey home.

Dinner at Flatbread in Portsmouth

Starving, we decided to stop halfway home in Portsmouth, NH for dinner at the Flatbread Co. which had fantastic flatbreads, beers and homemade sundaes. Also, it turns out Portsmouth is super cute (we will back for another adventure soon). Alas, the city closed by the time we finished dinner at 10:20pm. (We barely made it into the garage before the iron gate came down!)

We finally got home at 11:30pm, after a truly wonderful 15 hour adventure. We were happy to share an adventure with friends, and as we got into bed we started thinking about the adventure we were going to have the very next day... (to be continued soon)