13 Falls Campsite (8/13-14/22)

Sometimes you just need a pick me up. This has been a rough summer. It started with a bunch of grand plans about all the places that I was going to go hike. However, gas prices quickly foiled that, as driving to New Hampshire is expensive at the moment. Temperatures then made the situation worse, as the mid-summer heat wave this year made hiking fall somewhere between unpleasant and impossible. As a result, I have been stuck at home for most of the summer, unable to do any real adventuring besides occasional bike rides. Thus, the need for a pick me up.

The weather forecast for this past weekend looked great, with Jefferson, NH, showing highs around 70 and a low of 45, which is perfect hiking weather. It has been a long time since I have gotten out backpacking, so I decided to do a backpacking trip. I didn't feel like doing any serious mountain climbing, so I wanted to pick out a route that would be long but gradual. I also wanted to stay off the Appalachian Trail, as the bubble should be coming through New Hampshire about now, and the campsites would be packed. After checking FarOut, I settled on 13 Falls, the most remote camp site in the White Mountains, nestled in the heart of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, not too far from Owl's Head. I figured that there would be a few people there, but not too many, so it would be a good destination.

As usual, things started to go wrong right off the bat. When I arrived at the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center, it was packed! I have never seen it so busy. I was unable to get a parking space, and I ended up having to park on the side of Route 112 (the Kancamagus Highway), half a mile away from the Visitor Center. I got my stuff together, ate my customary pre-hike sandwich, and started to walk back along the road towards the Visitor Center, nearly getting hit by several cars in the process. Hiking facilities simply cannot handle the traffic they get in a post-pandemic world.

When I arrived at Lincoln Woods, I stopped by the Ranger Station to make sure that my car wasn't going to get towed if it was parked on the Kanc overnight. The ranger assured me that it wouldn't, and he also asked me my destination. I told him 13 Falls, and his face got all serious. He told me that they were having serious bear problems at 13 Falls, and informed me that the bears had actually destroyed the bear boxes there! Bear boxes are large metal containers that are supposed to be bear-proof. I had never heard of a bear even going after one before, let alone actually destroying it. The whole thing made me a bit nervous.

The ranger asked me if I had a bear canister, and I told him that I had an Ursack. He didn't know what an Ursack was. The theme of not knowing about Ursacks was common throughout the weekend, which was surprising to me because Ursacks are pretty common in the backpacking community these days. Besides mine, I have seen a number of other ones. In case you're wondering, an Ursack is a bear-proof bag made from bullet-proof material. Some traditionalists don't like them and claim that they fail, but I have never seen evidence of one failing. Thankfully, mine hasn't been put to the test yet.

The ranger asked me to sign in for my hike, which I dutifully did. I then took the bridge across the Pemigewasset River and started down the trail. I was a few hundred feet down the trail when I realized that I had forgotten to bring my Garmin InReach Mini satellite communicator with me. Considering that it currently serves as my emergency beacon, this wasn't great. However, it was back at home, so I couldn't do anything about it now. I attempted to send a text to Dragonfly to let her know, but I had already lost what little signal there was at the Ranger Station. I was on my own. I hoped that Dragonfly wouldn't worry too much.

The Lincoln Woods trail is one of my favorite trails - flat and easy. You can get some really good speed going on it, and I started quickly. I hiked the three miles until I came to the end of the trail. I think it was the first time that I had hiked the entire trail since my Bonds winter hike way back in March 2020. Yeah, THAT March 2020.

I turned off Lincoln Woods and onto the Franconia Brook Trail, which was also relatively easy. I had decided to take the long way to the camp site, essentially doing a big loop. On the way in, I would take Lincoln Brook up the west side of Owl's Head. On the way out, I would take Franconia Brook down the east side of Owl's Head. That meant that my hike in would be twelve miles or so, and my hike out only eight. I always prefer to have the easier hike on the second day, so I thought it was a solid plan.

I was surprised at how easy the water crossings were. I was expecting fords, and I was able to fairly easily rock hop my way across all the crossings. Mostly, that happened because there has been so little rain this summer and the water levels are low. I listened to a bunch of podcasts, and the miles just cruised by.

Everyone that I passed assumed that I was heading to Owl's Head, so I didn't bother to correct them. After all, who would go the long way to 13 Falls? After a few miles on Lincoln Brook, I reached the entrance to the Owl's Head Slide.

Past there, the terrain got a lot rougher. That part of the trail was clearly less traveled, and there were a lot of blowdowns, and the terrain got a lot rockier. To make matters worse, for some reason the trail suddenly got muddy and boggy. I couldn't really figure out why, because as I said two paragraphs back, there has been very little rain this summer. On the plus side, the temperatures were really good, staying between 55 and 60 all day as I hiked. Those are just about perfect hiking temperatures.

Along the way, I ran into two people leaving the 13 Falls campsite. They warned me about the bear, but also let me know that the caretaker was really good and had chased the bear off quite a few times during the previous night. Before long, I arrived at the fabled 13 Falls that the camp site is named after.

Well, I should clarify that last statement. You would think that the site is called 13 Falls because there are thirteen waterfalls. This is not true. There used to be an old logging camp on the spot a century ago, and the site was called Camp 13. Thus, the falls became known as 13 Falls, and that name lent itself to the campsite.

I stopped at 13 Falls to take some pictures and refill my water. I wasn't sure if there would be water at the campsite, so I also filled my dirty water bag up to ensure that I wouldn't have to trek back for water. I hiked on to the campsite, and got there at the same time as a group of four. The caretaker, Brie, initially assumed that the five of us were one big group, so I had to point out that I was separate. She explained the rules (especially regarding bears) and then assigned us to tent sites. My tent site was immediately uphill from a guy named Doug, and his three friends (George, Andy, and Rick) were all hammocking in the woods next to my site. They immediately warned me that they were snorers, but that was okay with me.

Doug had a nice solo tent from Six Moon Designs, so I figured he was probably someone who had been in the backpacking game a while and knew what he was doing. I know less about hammocks than I do about tents, so I wasn't sure how experienced his companions were. I would soon find out that they were also quite competent.

As I was setting my Zpacks Duplex tent up, Doug mentioned to me that George was thinking about getting one. I invited George over to come take a look at it. The price tag is very high on it, but George was talking about hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2024, so a good tent is a must (unless he was planning on hammocking, which also works).

The tent site I was given was actually slightly too small and narrow for my tent, and I wasn't able to get a good setup, but it was passable as long as we didn't have storms or anything, which there weren't supposed to be. Once everything was set up, I set out to explore a bit. On the way to the site, I had seen a waterfall behind some tree cover. It looked pretty impressive, so I set out to find it. I had to do a bit of bushwhacking, but I eventually came across it. It was worth it, as it was not only an impressive waterfall, but also one you could get right up next to, which would have been really nice on a hot day.

The 13 Falls area itself was pretty impressive. Besides the waterfalls, there were several pools that made good swimming holes, as well as a great water source not far from the camp site. The water source was a rocky area with several streams running down it. It made for a great hangout spot, and most people from the campsite took advantage of it.

Once I finished my waterfall tour, I realized that there was a way to get back to the campsite without bushwhacking. It led me right through the water source area where everyone was hanging out, and before long I stumbled across my new friends Andy, George, and Rick. We chatted for a while, and I discovered that they were all historical re-enactors, which is incredibly cool. They mostly do 17th and 18th century, but some of them do WWI and WWII as well. It's an expensive hobby and I am a terrible actor, otherwise it's the type of thing that I could have fun with. They were telling me that every year they do a canoe trip through Maine in character! How awesome is that?

George also told me something that I found very disturbing. For years, the outdoor gear industry has been divided into major companies like Big Agnes, Outdoor Research, Mountain Hardwear, Patagonia, Osprey, and so on, and small cottage companies like Zpacks, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Six Moon Designs, and others. The stuff you get from the small cottage manufacturers is way more expensive, but it's made with quality materials and quality workmanship, and made right here in the USA. Well, it was. Now Hyperlite Mountain Gear has apparently decided to shift their production from my home state of Maine to Mexico. I am disgusted by this. I guarantee they won't reduce prices now that they have cheaper labor, either. I won't be buying anything from them anymore.

Doug eventually showed up, and the four of them invited me to have dinner with them at the water source. I thought it was a great idea. Eating at the water source would keep our food away from the campsite, and that would hopefully make the bear less of a problem. As soon as we got down to the water and started our food cooking, Doug, George, and I all realized that we had forgotten our spoons, so Doug and I headed back up to the site to get them. Thankfully, that went without incident, and soon we were all cooking our food.

My dinner was Pesto Presto Matchsticks from Outdoor Herbivore. This was the first Outdoor Herbivore meal that I have actually liked. The guys were all impressed by how small a package my meal came in, making it easy to pack and not wasting packaging. My dessert was Strawberry Cheesecake from Packit Gourmet. I don't like it quite as much as their banana pudding, but it's still good.

Rick ended up not being able to finish his entire meal. He thought about dumping it somewhere, but with the bear around, that was a really bad idea. Doug ended up being able to find an extra trash bag for Rick to put his leftover food into. Of course, in the backcountry, all your trash has to be carried out.

We spent most of dinner talking about our various hiking adventures. I talked about The Long Trail and some of my Appalachian Trail experiences. They told me about their various overnight adventures. Apparently they go hiking together once a month, which is not only awesome, but also indicates that they have very forgiving wives who let them do that. Well, the ones who are married, anyway.

After dinner, we headed back to the campsite. Remember, 13 Falls is super remote, and there is no cell signal there. Thus, entertainment consisted of watching people hang bear bags. Brie had helpfully run a thick climbing rope between two trees, and she had taught several people how to use the PCT hang method. She even had an old oil drum that people could stand on to make it easier. However, it was still a challenge to throw your rope up there, and so it was fun to stand around and watch people try. It was almost like a spectator sport.

However, strong as the rope was, it was starting to sag. That's because there were way too many bags on it. The reason for this is because there were way too many people at the campsite. I had assumed that there would be somewhere around half a dozen people there, maybe a dozen, when I first chose the site. Instead, there ended up being 68! It was an incredible number, and some of their stories bear mentioning.

Specifically, there was a Boy Scout troop who had intended to come in the easy way on the east side of Owl's Head, following Franconia Brook Trail. Instead, they took a wrong turn and ended up on the Lincoln Brook Trail, which is the way I came in. I was frankly amazed that they didn't catch the error and turn around, but maybe they didn't have an app like AllTrails or FarOut. I know that for me, I often check my app right after I go through an intersection just to make sure that I am on the right track.

By the time they all finally straggled into camp, it was getting late, and the kids were all worn out. They also added another dozen people to an already overcrowded campsite. They weren't the last, either. People kept coming into the night. Brie was running around like a madwoman just trying to keep up with everything.

As most people began to go to sleep, I stayed up a bit talking to Brie and George. Brie told me that she had actually ended up taking over 13 Falls campsite just the day before, because the previous caretaker had quit on account of the bear. She normally worked in an administrative position in the White Mountain National Forest, but they needed a caretaker on the fly, and she was the best and most experienced one available. It's a good thing she was there, too. Not many other people could have kept their composure as well with all the stress. I know I couldn't have.

As a side note, there is a $15 fee for using WMNF campsites. It's amazing how many people showed up looking to use a credit card to pay their fee. In the middle of the wilderness! At least the WMNF (or AMC, or whoever runs the site) should have raked in more than $1000 in fees that night.

As I settled in to sleep, I heard a loud crash. Everyone heard it, and I think we all assumed that it was the bear. It wasn't. It was the bear line. The stress of all the bags on the bear line had made even the super strong rope snap under the pressure. All the bear bags came crashing down. I figured that I was okay, because my Ursack wasn't on the line. It was on a nearby tree.

However, a few moments later Andy showed up at my tent. He let me know that he had my bag. I couldn't figure out why he did. Half asleep and very confused, I put my glasses and headlamp on and headed back to Brie's tent where the bear line had fallen. A bunch of people were there in the dark trying to figure out what to do. Eventually it was decided to put all the bags into the old oil drum, and Brie would keep it in her tent and guard it if the bear showed up. She was a brave soul. I re-hung my bag near the bear canisters and went back to bed.

A little while later, I suddenly heard a woman scream. After that, there was a loud series of crashing noises, and then a dog started barking. I didn't find this out until the next morning, but that was the only attempted bear intrusion of the night, and it was foiled by a woman and her dog.

I actually slept remarkably well despite the chaos. It was one of the better sleeps I have had on trail in a while. I was at peace. The temperatures were perfect, and it had been a fantastic day overall. I met friendly new people, had a good hike, and then been entertained by bear shenanigans.

The next morning, I got up at 5:30 AM or so. The only other person awake was Brie, so we chatted a bit. I was able to solve the Ursack mystery. The Ursack that had been hanging on the bear line wasn't mine. One of the late arrivals had put their Ursack up on the line. Thus, mine was still exactly where I had left it. Brie had never seen an Ursack before, and now she had seen two.

I also left Brie a tip. I have never tipped a caretaker before, and I guess it isn't common practice, but she put up with a lot the previous night between the 68 people, the bear, and the bags. She thanked me, and explained that in the six years that she had worked as a caretaker, that night was the toughest night she had ever dealt with. I also noticed that Brie and some of the enterprising campers had managed to get the bear line back up in the night. Kudos to them.

After having breakfast (Apple Cinnamon Granola from Happy Yak Express, not super great) and packing up, I said goodbye to Doug, Andy, George, and Rick, and left the site at 7:15 AM. I was excited to try the Franconia Brook Trail down the east side of Owl's Head, which everyone said was easier. Boy, were they right!

I was able to fly down the trail. The trail was either slightly downhill or flat almost the entire way, and much of it was covered in pine needles with few roots or rocks. It was some of the best trail that I have ever hiked. I was able to maintain a consistent speed of three miles per hour, which is an extremely high hiking speed. Normally, you're lucky to break two miles per hour in the White Mountains. I ended up making it out at about 10 AM. Considering how many hours it took me to hike in the previous day, making it out in less than three hours was not bad.

As I said at the beginning, I needed a pick me up. Well, this hike provided it. On the way out, I realized that I was having type one fun, which is rare for hiking. Between the temperatures, the terrain, the scenery, and especially the company, I really enjoyed this hike. It is a hike that I would definitely do again, although I don't know if a second go would be able to recapture the magic of the first. If you ever get a chance to travel to 13 Falls campsite, I recommend it, although I also recommend going up the east side on Franconia Brook and avoiding the bogs. Always remember, you can't take flight until you spread your wings!