New England Waterfalls.

Very busy with writing stuff. Also exhausted from work.

Fill-in blog. Here are a couple of videos of waterfalls I saw when Carole and I last visited New England. Both of these are in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Glen Ellis Falls.

Glen Ellis Falls.

Crystal Cascades

Crystal Cascades.

Joe Dodge Lodge

Way back in 2007 Carole and I traveled to Maine and New Hampshire. The main part of our trip was so that I could climb Mount Washington with Sam Baucom, the husband of one of Carole's best friends, Bobbie Baucom. Like me, Sam is an avid hiker, but since he also runs marathons he's in a lot better shape than I am.

While we were in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, we stayed at a place called Joe Dodge Lodge. We don't have many places like Joe Dodge here in the South. The Lodge on Mount LeConte is similar, as is the Len Foote Hike Inn. However, Joe Dodge is a bit more civilized than those places, in that you can access it via auto.

Carole and I totally enjoyed our stay there. The rooms are very basic...but after a long day's hike, they're more than adequate for a tired body. The best thing about the stay is the food. Meals are mainly served family style in the huge dining room and the quality of the food is exceptional. They also serve vegetarian meals for those who don't eat meat. I wasn't into the whole vegetarian scene when I was there, but the next time we go I'll have plenty to choose from at meal-time.

And we will return. We had such a great time that we want to stay once again at one of the lodges run by the Appalachian Mountain Club up there.

This is the dining room at Joe Dodge. Separated by a short walk from the main part of the lodge.

And the main lodge with the White Mountains looming on the skyline beyond.

Our basic room at Joe Dodge Lodge.

Since our southern peaks don't have a tree-line, you don't see any scenes like this one south of the Mason and Dixon Line.

The Whites!

The first time I was aware of Mount Washington was after I had become an avid backpacker at the age of 15. I’d meet up with folk who were thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail as I section-hiked the AT in my native state of Georgia, and they would tell of the glorious peaks to be found in North Carolina, Tennessee and in New Hampshire. At home, I searched through the vast stacks of National Geographic magazines in my dad’s bookstore until I dug out all of the issues with photos and stories of the Great Smoky Mountains and the White Mountains.

While I early on got to hike the Smokies, the Whites of New England remained out of reach for me as I was generally always too poor to afford to head up there. And on the rare occasions I was able to get to that part of the country, it was either on business or to meet up with family, both of which precluded me from hiking the Presidential Range.




Back in 2000, I realized I’d better get busy hiking the peaks I’d always wanted to see before I got too old to do so. In that year I flew up to Maine and headed to Baxter State Park to climb Katahdin. But it wasn’t until this year that I was able to arrange a hike of Mount Washington, which had become something of a grail for me.

I have to say, straight up, that although I love my native South dearly, and adore our high country, we have nothing like the mountains of New England. While the Whites are not quite as high as our Smokies, or Blacks, they are, without doubt, the most spectacular mountain range I have experienced on the east coast of the USA. Nothing here in the South compares with them, on a purely visual basis, because of the 4,000-foot tree line in New Hampshire, and because of the amazing gulfs, ravines, and cirques gouged into the geography of the Appalachians by glacial activity. It was something, indeed, for this Georgia-boy to behold.




Having now experienced the grandeur and the hospitality of the New Hampshire high country, it’s our intention to return there at the earliest opportunity. I waited 34 years to finally bag Mount Washington. I promise the time between now and my return to that fantastic peak will be brief.

Made the summit!

We just returned from our trip to New Hampshire/Maine.

I managed to summit Mount Washington in really pea-soup thick fog, 40mph winds. Conditions sucked above 5200 feet, but were pretty good below a mile high, so I got some good photos in the glacial cirques.

I'll post more about the trip later. For now, all I can say is that the Presidential Range is so far the most spectacular mountain range I have encountered in the eastern USA.