I haven’t paid much attention to waterfalls this summer because of the drought and all of the dried up ponds and streams I’ve seen, but we’ve had some rain now and the weather people say the drought is easing, so I thought I’d go and see Porcupine Falls in Gilsum. It’s kind of an odd waterfall that I’ve often thought would actually look better with less water falling from it and I thought that the drought might have helped in that regard, so off I went up the old logging road that starts the trail.
Stone walls line parts of the road and speak of the history of the place. When you see stone walls it’s a fair bet that the forest was once cleared, because the stones that make up the walls were cleared from fields, not forests. This example is a tossed or thrown wall, where the stones were simply stacked loosely on top of each other without thought of form or function. Stones broke plow blades and other farm equipment and could harm horses that stumbled over them so the idea was to get rid of them as quickly and easily as possible, and piling them along your property lines made the most sense. Most of the stone walls in New Hampshire are this type.
And this view of what is left of white brook shows just how many stones there are in this part of the country. Though there was a trickle of water in the bed of the brook it didn’t give me great confidence in the possibility of seeing a waterfall.
The old logging road becomes what looks to be an even older farm road, covered with ankle deep leaves. I’ve seen a lot of deer prints here in the past but on this day the leaves made that impossible. You’d think by the way the light falls in this photo that it was late evening when I was there, but it was actually 11:00 in the morning.
There was enough water in this section of the brook to have it chuckling and giggling, as brooks do.
A teardrop of brook foam had what reminded me of a yin yang symbol in it. According to Wikipedia the yin yang symbol in Chinese culture describes “how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.” In other words, a balance between two opposites.
Split pore polypore (Schizopora paradoxa) is a common white rot crust fungus that grows on dead hardwood limbs, especially oak. They start life small and more or less round and then grow into a mass like that seen in the photo. It is said to be very drought tolerant.
The underside of the split pore crust fungus can show a wide variation in its spore bearing surfaces according to my mushroom books, and they can be circular, oblong, angular, or maze like. This example was very maze like. The variations don’t make this fungus any easier to identify.
A bridge over the brook at a point where it widens into a pool gets you to the view of the falls. Though it looks arched in this photo for some reason, it’s really as flat as a paved road.
Someone found some flat stones and made benches out of them. I sat on one for a while listening to the brook and the birds and thought about what a rare opportunity it was to sit in the middle of a brook and stay dry. When the water level returns to normal nobody will be sitting here without waders on.
Here is the view of the pool from the bridge. You can just see the stone benches at the far end. It’s a beautiful place to just sit and soak in the forest.
These well-built stone steps were built by the Jolly Rovers trail crew, which is a nonprofit organization from New York that travels throughout the country creating or improving trails. I’ve seen a few of their projects and they were high quality work so if you’re reading this and need trail work done I’d contact them. Many thanks to them for the great work they’ve done in this area.
Mica glittered on the stones throughout the area. The stones are mostly made up of feldspar, and feldspar, mica, garnet, beryllium and other minerals were once mined in Gilsum. Gilsum has a long history of mining and a geologically famous rock swap is held here each summer and attracts people from all over the world. If you want a good photographic challenge or if you just want to make yourself a little crazy, try getting a few photos of mica.
Finger size black tourmaline crystals were scattered here and there in the stones. I’ve spent many hours breaking stones open with a sledgehammer to find these crystals but there is a certain amount of luck involved, because black tourmaline is very fragile and just the vibration from the hammer hitting the stone can often shatter them into pieces. The examples shown here were all broken.
There is a well-placed bench for visitors to sit and watch the waterfall, but on this day I was the only one interested.
And that was probably because the waterfall was just a shadow of its former self. This photo makes it appear smaller than it actually was but it was still pretty anti-climactic. I think I’ve seen more water coming off my roof in a drizzle, but the pleasing sound of falling water was still there and I enjoyed hearing it.
I tried to make it look better by slowing down the shutter speed but it came out looking like a mass of broken fiber optic cables.
This photo from 2 years ago shows what Porcupine Falls normally looked like before the drought. It also shows how for a waterfall it isn’t very photogenic, and I think it’s because the water comes too fast and furious. This shot was taken in December. Maybe July would be a better time but it’s very dark here even with no leaves on the trees, and I’m not sure my camera could see the falls then. One thing that is very unusual about this waterfall is its tilt. It tilts because it follows the natural slant of the stone, which looks to be about 15-20 degrees off vertical. I don’t see many tilted waterfalls.
A nature hike wouldn’t be any fun without finding an unknown or two and this is today’s head scratcher. It’s a lichen that I’ve been trying to identify for about three years and every time I think I’ve done it I can’t ever be 100 percent sure. The closest I’ve come is the many forked Cladonia (Cladonia furcata,) but I can’t say for certain. It reminds me of a reindeer lichen because it has “that look,” and reindeer lichens are also Cladonia lichens, but the examples in the book Lichens of North America don’t look the same as this one.
The book does say that the many forked Cladonia is very changeable and can look like certain reindeer lichens, and that its appearance can even change from sun to shade. Though it isn’t rare I don’t see it very often. It grows on a thin layer of soil that has formed on stone, and though it was soft and pliable on this day in the past I’ve seen it become quite bristly and prickly when it dries out. This example grows in a spot that might get an hour of direct sunlight each day. If you know what it is I’d love to hear from you.
Young wrinkled crust fungi (Phlebia radiata) grew on a log. They have no stem, gills or pores at this stage but there were larger examples on the same log that had a very wrinkled and fleshy surface that radiated out from a central point. This fungus doesn’t seem to mind cool weather; the two or three I’ve seen have been growing at this time of year. As far as I’m concerned they took this day’s prize for the most beautiful thing I saw. They remind me of shells I might find on a tropical beach. Or maybe the snow flurries in the air today have set me to day dreaming.
If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song. ~Carl Perkins
Thanks for coming by. I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
wonderful and the bench in the woods is very inviting!
Thank you Chris. That whole area is very peaceful.
This was a beautiful walk, Allen. I remember mica in the rocks. There was a lot of granite in my area too.
Whitford Brook near where I grew up had a section with several big boulders where one could walk across the rocks and sit on the big boulder in the middle of the stream, and listen to the water, insects and birds. As children, we were all familiar with the spot and it was visited quite often in summer.
Thank you Lavinia. I think most of the stones here are granite, with feldspar in certain areas.
I would have been at that brook in summer too. It was probably the coolest place around!
Your mystery lichens are fascinating. Sad to say the waterfall so diminished.
The waterfall will come back as soon as we get a little more rain.
We have had so much rain here lately that I am loathe to wish it on other people but… I hope that your drought disappears gradually with rain and not too much snow. It would be nice to see your pools and rivers full and flowing again. The before and after photos of Porcupine Falls was really interesting and rather sad. Two years ago there was a large area of bright green moss at the top of the falls which this year was not obvious.
The forked cladonia lichen and the beautiful wrinkled crust fungus are lovely.
Thank you Clare. We’re getting rain but we need a lot more before the ground freezes so it can replenish the groundwater supply. A lot of wells have gone dry. I’m hoping that it doesn’t all come as snow. If so we’ll be buried and I’ll be spending a lot of time on the roof. The falls sure have changed in those two years, but I think they’ll come back to where they were. I also noticed that the moss had changed. It might have dried out completely.
The wrinkled crust is one of my favorite mushrooms and for now the forked cladonia is a bit perplexing.
Our large pond got extremely low during the early autumn but the recent rainfall has made a big difference to it and it is now only 18 inches below where it ought to be. I had been worried that we had lost all the fish in it – not just through not having enough water but also the frequent visits from the herons. However, I saw a kingfisher yesterday and I’m hoping that means there are still fish in the pond. Unless the kingfisher has finished them all off! I hope you get lots of rain before the freeze!
18 inches is quite a lot of water to make up. I hope it comes in small amounts and I also hope your fish survived. I can only wonder how many we lost.
It’s a worry.
I know what you mean about the low sun. Ours is struggling to get above our hills at all at the moment. You still found enough light to take a delightful selection of shots on your walk.
Thank you. I can’t ever remember having such a time with lighting. It seem awfully harsh this year. And then it was so dark at the waterfall I had to boost the ISO all the way to 3200 just to get a shot.
The waterfall may have been anti-climatic, but the rest of the day sure made up for that! I’d love to sit on that stone bench for a few hours, watching and listening to what was going on around the pool. What a beautiful spot!
I used to be very interested in geology, but we don’t have any rock formations around here, so that sort of died away. It could spring to life if I lived somewhere like you do.
As always, th elite and fungi were both beautiful and interesting. I’d say it was a fine day to be outdoors.
Thanks Jerry! That is a pretty spot and it was fun to just sit on that bench and listen. I heard plenty of birds but didn’t see many.
Maybe once you retire and do some traveling your interest in geology will spark again. I thought I was over it too until I saw all those rocks full of tourmaline crystals. Then I was wishing I had brought my rock hammer!
It was a great day to be in the woods. Most likely that last 60 degree day we’re going to see for a good while!
At least, with the drought, the stream still has water in it and the ponds are full. That’s such a pretty place!
Now that the summer heat has gone here and there has been some low elevation rain plus high elevation snow our small streams have filled up to nearly normal volume.
Thanks Montucky! Yes, that stream at least had water in it, but a lot of them don’t. I saw one today that was so dry you’d have thought it was a trail instead of a stream.
I’m happy to hear that you’re streams are being replenished. I hope you’ll see enough snow to ease that terrible drought. I have a good friend in California and he says it’s really bad.
Such a nice view of the pool from the bridge. I know what you mean about taking pictures of mica. I’ve taken so many pictures of beautiful sparkling mica and deleted all of them because the photo doesn’t capture it. I lost my Canon PowerShot 330 as it fell out of my pocket while hiking on Monday, and I didn’t notice. I really liked that camera, and may get the 360, which is the most recent version. Do you have a recommendation for a point-and-shoot camera? Thanks, Allen!
Thank you Paula. I’m glad that I’m not the only one frustrated by mica!
That’s too bad that you lost that camera. It really took great photos, I thought.
The camera I use for long shots and landscapes is a Canon Powershot SX-40 and it’s a good camera that will also do macros in a pinch, but it’s not a pocket camera. It’s nearly as big as a DSLR. I use an Olympus Stylus TG-870 for macros and it’s more or less pocket size but I’m not thrilled with it’s very shallow depth of field and its poor performance in low light. I think if I were you since you know you’ll like the Canon, I’d go with that one. I tried a Canon Powershot ELPH 180 and it was the worst camera I’ve ever owned, so don’t go with that one!
Thank you for your input, Allen!
You’re welcome!
I enjoyed taking this walk with you in what looks like mild weather, especially after suffering several days here of heavy overcast skies, rain storms, high winds, sleet, hailstones and ice.
Well, at least it didn’t snow. We’ve had most of that here as well along with the first real snow storm. The day I hiked to the falls was probably the last warm day we’ll see for a while.
Well played then. 🙂
I liked the impromptu stone seat. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. It was in a perfect spot!
Speaking of Thanksgiving, thanks for your work on this blog. I’m planning on retiring next March and you have given me quite an itinerary for exploration.
You’re welcome John. I hope you’ll have a long and happy retirement. I have about 5 years yet.
Reblogged this on Poltrack Pix and commented:
“If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song.” – Carl Perkins
A reblog of New Hampshire Garden Solutions
Thank you John!
I, too, love the sound of water whether rushing or trickling. That pool was well worth a sit down.
Thank you Susan. It’s a beautiful spot to hear water.