Whitefield, New Hampshire Hike #3: Kedron Flume Loop Trail

After hiking for nearly 4 hours straight the day before checking out Mount Willard and all the falls at Bemis/ Arethusa we knew we wanted an easier day of hiking.  With our legs already sore we looked up a few trails online and saw that the Kedron falls was listed as an easy family hike; just .75 miles from the snack shop.  We thought that sounded perfect! 

So we headed out to park at the historic Willey House and began our hike up the trail behind the snack shop.  

It was fairly easy at first and pretty well marked-- we just followed the blue blazes. 

After we crossed a set of railroad tracks the trail became much more difficult.  Lots of boulders everywhere with steep drop offs on the side.  I jokingly said that the website we read about this trail on must have meant a family of mountain goats as I would never have brought my boys on this trail then they were young.

We finally reached the flume and enjoyed a few minutes reprieve enjoying the sound of the water and checking out the views.

At that point we could have turned back and went back to the truck but the trail did continue on the other side of the flume and loops back around.  We decided to keep going but the trail just got steeper and in spots we were using hands and feet to help us as there were a few places where we were faced with sheer rock faces.  It was a steep scramble in places.  And at one point we knew there was no turning back as we had no idea how we could possible reverse back down one particularly steep part. 

This was not my favorite trail by any means. 

Once we made it to the top of the trail and the Ethan Pond trail junction (which is actually part of the Appalachian trail) we could turn right to Ethan pond or left toward Ripley falls.  We went left and the trail was a nice easy down slope the whole way.

Once we reached flat land and my knees/ calves stopped burning I noticed the sign that said we were only .4 miles from Ripley falls (another place we had really wanted to hike to) so we turned and took a side trip. 

The hike out to the falls would have been easy if we hadn't been so tired.  We agreed to stop and sit by the falls, drink some water, eat some trail mix, and rest a bit.  

The falls were pretty. 

We actually didn't get to rest very long as the bugs came out and I was starting to get bit.  We decided to forge on.  We hiked out of Ripley back to the road and then crossed the road to the Appalachian trail on the other side.  A path to Willey house branches off on the left shortly after crossing a stream and we followed that back to our car.

We saw some pretty foliage and views along the way.

It started to sprinkle for our last 20 or so minutes of hiking and I was incredibly happy to see this bridge and Willey house in the distance.

One last look back before we headed across the street and sat to enjoy a nice bowl of Giffords Ice Cream.  (I got my favorite Maine Black Bear-- vanilla ice cream with raspberry swirls and raspberry filled chocolate pieces). 

Our "easy" hiking day ended up being much harder than we anticipated-- just about 3 hours long, 1,414 feet of elevation gained and a full 5 miles.

I had seen this image on one of my fellow blogger's posts on Friday on our way up to New Hampshire and read it aloud to my husband:

We joked that I am like the kid in Crocs as I rarely hike with anything but my camera and cell phone while my husband always has a pack with water bottles, snack, change of socks, extra shirt &/or rain gear, etc.  

WELL-- this was one of those times where his water bottle, snack, and rain gear came in so handy as we used it ALL during this "short, easy" hike we had planned.  We thought we were going to be back at the car in under an hour maybe 2 tops if we stopped to rest.  We knew rain was in the forecast but thought we'd be back at the hotel before any rain came. 

We piled back into the truck and headed to our hotel just as it began to rain in earnest.  We spent the afternoon watching a movie at the hotel and had a late lunch/ early dinner at the Tavern where we both got the Mountain View Burger and fries. 

It was a good ending to the trip.  Next morning, after breakfast we headed through North Conway, did a tiny bit of outlet shopping (where my husband bought more hiking socks and another pair of hiking boots) before heading home... spending pretty much the whole day in bumper to bumper traffic.  

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