Purgatory Falls

What a beautiful day for at Purgatory Falls! We started a bit late because there were a lot of shuffling with parking. The lot was full, so we had to find street parking, which took some work as there were a lot of no parking signs. We ended up parking above the signed off area. The trail was very nice. There are a lot of picturesque moments. We made sure to spray down with bug spray, so we didn't have much of an issue with bugs. We approached the first waterfall in about the first 10 minutes and took a great picture there. We proceeded to trek along, while doing our best trying to stay on the trail. Some of the markings are misleading or hard to find, but we managed to do just fine, even if we thought we lost our way a few times. Just before the second waterfall, the fellas got hungry, so we sat down right on the trail, on a nice open spot and had some lunch! Once we got to the second waterfall, most of us traversed down the ravine to view the more intimate waterfall, tucked away in a crack in the earth. We then moved along and began to experience some incline along the way. Finally, we arrived to the third waterfall, much to everyone's delight! We took a few more pictures and afterwards, began to head back. On the way back, we bumped into a group of young men who were desperate for bug spray. A couple of us happily obliged and sprayed down the group. :-D The hike back seemed to be easier, as it is on a slight decline. The weather was absolutely luscious! The sun was warm and the breeze was cool. We enjoyed the cover of the canopy for about 98% of the hike. We were lucky to have some lively conversation with each other, along with the lively songs of the birds in the canopy. When we finally got back to the trailhead, we found that all of our cars were ticketed, in spite of moving our cars to what we thought were legal spaces. Oh well, lol! While we were agitated at first, we all enjoyed the hike enough for it not to bother us... at least not too much! If you head out to Purgatory Falls, be sure to park in the lot, or you may end up owing the town of Lyndeborough $25! Despite that, it was a great hike with a great bunch of guys. Thanks for the memories! If anyone else has pictures they took, feel free to post them in the trip report!

Sunday looks to be beautiful with temperatures currently forecasted in the mid 80s. What a great opportunity for a hike! This is an easy to moderate hike. It should take about 2-3.5 hours. There are lots of views, so it'll depend on how many stops we make to take in the sights and take pictures. This will give us plenty of time to enjoy the hike. The hike according to AllTrails is 5.1 miles. Here's a link: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/new-hampshire/purgatory-falls-via-purgatory-brook-trail We'll meet at 11 and start the hike. Much of the hike will be by water. As a result, it can be buggy. Please BRING BUG SPRAY to have a better experience. I recommend one with deet. Most of the hike will be under the cover of the canopy, but I recommend sunscreen as well. During the hike we'll see three falls, Lower Purgatory Falls, Middle Purgatory Falls, and Upper Purgatory Falls. The first is the most popular. There may be families in the water. We can climb atop the falls to look down from above. We'll spend a few minutes here looking around. We'll then continue along the trail. There will be times the trail gets pretty narrow from overgrowth, but it's easily overcome. Middle Purgatory Falls is a bit harder to get to. We'll have to hike down into a rocky ravine to get to it. Then we'll move on to Upper Purgatory Falls. There's a nice rock landing at the base of the falls. We'll stop here for pictures and give folks time for snacks and lunch. Once we're done, we'll turn around and head on back from where we came. If anyone wants to go into the water while we're stopped at the falls, be sure to bring water shoes.