The Prettiest Little Notch We’ve Ever Seen

After our Adirondack adventure, we headed east to New Hampshire where we stayed at a beautiful little place called Franconia Notch.

Now, to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure of what geographically a “notch” is, but the best explanation I can procure is that it’s a very narrow winding area through a mountainous region, typically following a river that has dug itself a notch in the landscape. That’s my best guess anyway.

Regardless, Ryan and I were beyond excited about the bright yellows and oranges setting the hillsides ablaze with fall color, and the mountains, including Mount Washington (the tallest point in NH and in the area) made for a very picturesque place to hike and bike.

Not a bad place to camp...

First on the order was visiting the Flume Gorge, a deep canyon with water shooting down its narrow length to the larger river below. The trail along the gorge featured a couple beautiful covered bridges and lots of waterfalls and trees turning golden. Considered a New Hampshire “attraction” hiking the Flume trail cost a whopping $15 per person, making it some of the most expensive hiking we’d done all trip. Good thing it was beautiful…

After the Flume, we biked back along the bike trail to “The Basin,” another impressive water feature of the notch. It would seem in the valley the rock is a very hard granite, so the eroding that takes place by the river is more of a polishing process than a deep gouging process like you see with sandstone. That means that rather than a very deep, wide canyon (like what we saw in the southwest), instead the rivers in this part of New Hampshire form steep, smooth, powerful chutes out of the rock that look enticingly like slides.

The Basin is one such example, with lots of water forcing its way through one narrow channel into the pool below.

We decided to hike a ways up the Cascade river, descending from the upper peaks down to the main river in the notch, when we came across a white water kayak. “What??” we though to ourselves, “No way can someone kayak this river.” It was running rapidly, very shallow, and created huge features like waves and waterfalls as the river water was directed into the granite chutes and over logs and boulders that had been lodged by the last flood.

What was more disconcerting was that there was no kayaker with the boat, which we worried did not bode well for whoever’s boat it may be.

We continued on our hike, taking pictures and enjoying the trees before turning around as dusk loomed. Heading back down the trail, we encountered the kayak yet again, but this time it was higher up the river, and there was a kayaker too.

Sure enough, this guy was going to run the river, which boasted Class 5 plus rapids, almost Class 6 (as in almost off the scale in difficulty), and he was going to do it with a makeshift spray skirt made of a rain jacket and rope since he’d forgot his own at home. Horrified and excited at the same time, Ryan and I asked if he wouldn’t mind us watching and filming. He seemed honored and agreed to letting me post the below on the internet – footage that I believe is certainly YouTube worthy.

First Set (click here if video does not load)

Second Set (click here if video does not load)

Needless to say, we were thoroughly impressed, and Ryan was dreaming of being able to do the same technicality one day too much to my dismay (we’ve only ever white water kayaked once and only on Class 2s). We helped our kayak friend and some other watching hikers down the trail (it was dark at this point) then reconvened at the campground for some birthday cake (it was one of our new found friend’s day to celebrate), making for a wonderful day with great foliage, company, and no fatalities.

Next we’re off to our northern most part of the trip, up in Maine!