BACKGROUND:
This
short blog posting is merely to document my trek to a spot that provided a view
of several unnamed cascades along a gully that is located near the middle of
the Ammonoosuc Ravine on the west side of Mt. Washington. This place was visited merely on a hunch that
it might be a worthwhile adventure. No
reports had been read of others having ventured to this location. However, it is difficult to imagine that I am
the first visitor, especially since this viewpoint was reached by doing a short
bushwhack (about a tenth of a mile) northward from Gem Pool on the
heavily-traveled Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail.
Actually, the spot I visited and Gem Pool could be
considered as next door neighbors since they are in such close proximity to each other. :-)
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| Google Earth image showing location of the viewpoint in relation to Gem Pool and Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail |
This
trek took place in Sargent’s Purchase, NH in early September 2018.
It was launched from the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail trailhead which is located
off the south side of Base Road. The
round-trip mileage was about 4.4 miles, of which 4.2 miles involved hiking the Ammonoosuc
Ravine Trail to/from Gem Pool. And, the remaining
distance involved a round-trip bushwhack of about 0.2 mile. The bushwhack was launched from the north
side of the brook that drains Gem Pool.
As
mentioned above, no name has ever been assigned to the cascades in the middle
gully of Ammonoosuc Ravine. For my
personal records, I’ve used an unofficial name of “Middle Gully Cascades”. Perhaps someday an official name will be
assigned to these attractive cascades.
PHOTOS:
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The above photo was taken from the bottom of a series of cascades located within a gully near the center of the Ammonoosuc Ravine. If you look closely near the center of the photo (just above the featured cascade), you can see two more cascades higher up on the wall of the ravine.
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This
composite photo shows zoomed views of two cascades located high up on the wall
of the Ammonoosuc Ravine (LEFT panel is slightly zoomed; RIGHT panel is highly
zoomed). These two cascades were not
visited on this particular day. They
will need to be the focus of a separate adventure. :-)
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| Shown above is yet another photo of the lower cascade. It was shot from a perspective that is different from the first photo shown in this posting. |
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| The above snapshot shows the view directly behind the cascade that was shown in the previous photo. In the distance are peaks in the Twin Range, plus a piece of Mt. Lafayette. |
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| And just as a refresher course :-), here is a snapshot of Gem Pool. It was taken just before launching my short tenth of a mile bushwhack to a gully near the middle of the Ammonoosuc Ravine. |
TO SUM IT UP:
Because
of my fondness for off-trail explorations, it somehow seems appropriate to sum
up this posting with one of my favorite quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien (author of ‘Lord of the Rings’) which states “Not all those who wander are lost.” :-)
