Tuesday was supposed to be a rainy day but possibly clearing later so we started off by driving out to Rte 118 in search of the Jackman Brook Overlook. On the maps it looks like a roadside pull off with a view over the Woodstock valley and some brooks that cross under the road, joining a little further downhill before flowing into Elbow Pond. We saw no overlook and no brooks flowing beneath the road. A little further down we did find the Warren Overlook which had an amazing view despite the low cloud cover, no waterfalls though.
From there we drove up the Ravine Rd towards the Moosilauke Lodge but the road was closed to vehicular traffic part way up for repairs. So we turned around and drove back down towards Warren where we stopped at a neat little streamside pull off. Dad remembered an old Sanitarium turned nursing home on the side of Moosilauke not far from there so we kept driving and came across the Baker Floodwater Reservoir on Rte 25. We walked out onto the dam for a great view over the water towards an imposing rock cliff known as the Benton Flats I’d never seen nor heard of it before. Quite impressive.
Up the unmarked road, we found ourselves driving around the campus of the Glencliff Nursing Home, searching for the Long Pond Rd that began somewhere up there. It’s been remodeled since its days a sanitarium and looked quite nice but the old buildings around it gave it an eerie feeling. After driving in circles not finding our road, we left the way we came, hit the main road, got some pictures of the Benton Flats and then decided to go back and give it another try. This time we drove around the other side of the building in search of the dirt road and found nothing but an old creepy woman walking along the parking lot that my mom refers to as the goblin lady due to her posture. We thought it was a little odd that she would be wandering around but it is just a nursing home nowadays so maybe she was out taking a stroll. We looped around the building, still nothing, and then a piercing alarm started blaring, like a bomb siren alerting the townsfolk to seek shelter. It has definitely not been updated since the building’s days as a sanitarium. As we got the hell out of there, worried the alarm was because of us circling the building, we realized it was probably for the escaped goblin lady. Something very strange about that place. I’ve since looked it up and it’s not a normal nursing home, it’s a nursing home run by the state for the mentally ill and developmentally challenged. On our way out we found the dirt road we were looking for and left the strange siren squealing in the distance, making up stories about the goblin lady.
My parents had been out to Long Pond before and had trouble finding the road last time as well but we safely made it to the serene pond along the dirt road. We had a nice picnic lunch there as the clouds gave way to blue skies and sun. We walked out onto the fishing docks and over to the dam at the far end of the pond. I found a handful of neat rocks in the water but decided to leave them behind, I don’t really need more rocks, I have way too many as it is.
We stopped at the Beaver Pond at the top of Kinsman Notch on our way through and went off in separate directions to explore the area we’d first explored two years ago. Before going to the falls below the pond I went to check out the small tunnel at the base of the dam but it turns out it doesn’t go in very far and it gets too tight to crawl through. So I went around the shore of the pond to the large rock ledge that protrudes out into it, I’d always wanted to go out there but the last couple times I’ve been, the water was too high to safely cross the stream. With the drought we’re in, I hopped right across it and got to stand on the rock peninsula. The water is a lot deeper than I’d expected and the views from out there were spectacular. Even with the low water level, the falls beneath the pond were still impressive.
Down on the other side of the notch we stopped at a small slab cave that leads to the river. I first found it earlier in the year but it was getting late and I didn’t have much time to explore the area. There was also some nice quartz at the bottom that I wanted a chunk of but didn’t have my tools at the time. So me, Jaime and Mom crawled through the cave to the rocky beach below. Dad has a bad shoulder and wouldn’t be able to rotate it the right way to make it down so he stayed above. At the bottom I climbed up some rocks and across a log, bringing me to a lower chamber of the cave. Past that there was yet another cave with two levels that I crawled through, meeting the biggest salamander I’ve ever seen along the way. What’s cool about all these caves is that just a few miles upstream is the Lost River Gorge, a famous string of caves along the river. On top of that, just a few hundred feet upstream is another boulder cave that a waterfall actually passes through. So I guess that river is just a breeding ground for caves.
Last year, on our way out to some waterfalls and a mine, we stopped at Livermore Falls for lunch. After eating down by a sandy beach, my dad and I explored a bit and across the river we spotted an old dam and the remains of a mill beneath the train trestle. We could hear people over there, families with kids, so we knew it was reachable from that side of the river and said we’d go find it this year. So today was the day. We drove down the road until we saw a dirt pull-off that seemed to be in the right general area. Sure enough, from the roadside parking we could see the top of the abandoned train trestle, popular today for bridge jumping. Of course it’s extremely dangerous and kids die here every year but it’s clearly a hangout. Garbage and beer bottles littered the way down to the stream and completely blanketed the floor of the old brick ruins. I couldn’t find a safe way down to the lower levels of the mill that I really wanted to explore so that’ll be another day’s adventure but I did go out onto the interesting rocks by the river to get a view of the waterfall. Even without much water, the Pemi River was raging in the small ravine, shooting mist into the air. The rock ledges were unlike others you see in the area as they were sharp and jagged, and just a few feet away they gave way to sandy beaches, not the rocky shorelines that border most of the mountain streams here. It was a crazy area I’ll definitely be coming back to.
After our tiny picnic lunch, we were all ready for a good supper so we decided on Brittany’s, the restaurant above CJ’s Penalty Box that we first went to last year on vacation the night before Mom and Dad left. Me and Jaime went back a few months ago on one of our day trips to NH and even though they’re a little pricey, the food is delicious. I had the Stroganoff Burger again and although messy, it is incredible. However, by the time we were done eating it was only 5:30 which is way too early for me and Jaime to call it a night so we drove through the notch and stopped at Echo Lake. It was too cold to hang out for long so we drove down a road we hadn’t been down before into the village of Franconia before heading back to the hotel.
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