Echo Lake, NH

I’m staying in a campground near Conway, NH. Echo Lake State Park is located closer to North Conway about 10 miles north of where I’m camping. Once again, I tried using All Trails to send me to the trail head. It sent me to some type of gravel mine Southwest of the camp site. I tried using yet another trail at Echo Lake and got sent to yet another wrong location. I’m learning not to trust the google addresses for the trail heads that AllTrails provides. The trail maps themselves are very accurate.

Using google itself, I quickly was directed to the Echo Lake park entrance.

White Horse Ledge Loop Trail

When you enter the Echo Lake area, there is a 4 USD per day fee. At 10 am, there were only a few cars in the parking lot. I chatted with the person collecting the fees about the trails. He told me his favorite was the White Horse Ledge Loop Trail. He explained the views were better and he just likes hiking this trail. This was the trail I had planned on hiking based on reviews I read.

Echo Lake: Near the trail head

I was surprised that there were so few people hiking on such a beautiful day. I met several different couples that spoke German along the way. They were all friendly and seemed willing to put up with my bad German. Marco and Verbena were a lot of fun to talk to (Hey guys, hope you’re having fun in Boston). They were spending several weeks in the states and had two days left in the area before heading to Boston for their last three days. We talked about a lot of different things including the lack of good bread.

Marco and Verbena: On White Horse Ledge Loop Trail

All the trails are interlinked around Echo Lake. The area has both hiking and mountain biking trails. I didn’t realize this until I started hiking and noticed signs for the bike trails.

The trail to the left is more gradual and has short steeper sections that level off periodically. At the top are spectacular views of the valley to the Northeast. Continuing from the summit it is much steeper with rocks going down. This part of the trail has some areas that are worth stopping at for photos.

White Horse Ledge:

In one area of White Horse, I suddenly noticed movement all around me on the ground. There were tiny frogs jumping across the trail. I reached down and one hopped onto my hand. It seemed to either be frightened or liked the warmth of my hand. It didn’t move for a little while.

Baby Frog: There were many on the trail

The staff member suggested I take the trail to the left and then at the top continue the trail over to Cathedral Ledge. This would bring my milage to a little over 5 miles. This was prefect.

At some point, White Horse runs into the Bryce Path. If you take Bryce Path downwards, you return to the Echo Lake. To the left, upwards, it climbs to Cathedral Ledge. This section is much steeper than anything on Whitehorse with more rocks towards the top. The views are also spectacular, but I would agree with the staff member that the views off Whitehorse are more interesting.

Cathedral Ledge: View West

Cathedral Ledge: East View

If you want a much easier way to Cathedral Ledge, you can take the car (“This Car Climbed Cathedral Ledge”). There is a parking lot about 200 feet from the ledge. You will still need to walk the 200 feet through the woods.

I took the Bryce Path back towards the lake. Near the bottom I got on an unnamed bike path just to change things up. The bike trails are at the lower levels and meander and crisscross each other around the lake.

The trails in the Echo Lake - Cathedral Ledge State Park are mostly well marked. They use different color blazes on the trails. It would be nice if they marked the trail blaze colors on the map, they provide at the park entrance (e.g. Yellow=White Horse Ledge Trail).

Mushrooms

During the day I met a guy in a forest approaching me with arms filled with mushrooms. They were a huge bundle of mushrooms. I asked him about the mushrooms, and he spent a good while talking to me all about mushrooms. He showed me how to find them, on the ground and in old rotten trees. Right where we were standing there were different varieties of mushrooms; some edible and some not. As he explained, not all the edible mushrooms were good to eat, some just really tasted badly. It was so engrossing listening to him speak so passionately about mushroom hunting. A week ago, I tried to register for a workshop in Maine on mushroom hunting, but the class was moved to October.

Risotto: With wild mushrooms

He gave me a huge chunk of mushrooms and told me they would last for the next three weeks. He said to make sure you don’t eat them all in one meal, the message being you may get sick if you’re not used to them.

I made mushroom risotto for dinner. They were so flavorful. He described the taste as smokey, but for me I was getting a peppery citrus taste. I had shared them with someone I met, and they seemed to think they had a little sweetness in the aftertaste.

No Sales Tax

For those who like to go shopping as you travel, New Hampshire has the advantage of having no sales tax on general goods. This probably explains why there are so many shops between Conway and North Conway.

I was happy to see an REI and Eastern Mountain Sports shops on the RT 16. Strip. For campers there is Hanaford’s Supermarket.

Camping Tip: When I started this trip, I had a roll of Scott’s Shop Towels. These are paper towels I purchased at Lowe’s. When I ran out of these, I purchased a “highly absorbent” paper towel at a grocery store. As soon as they absorbed any liquid, they would fall apart. In Conway, there is a Lowe’s, guess what I loaded up on. One of these towels will last me an entire day. I’ve even wiped up some water on a table and put the towel in the sun to dry. It was as good as new. They are slightly more expensive, but many times more effective.

Weather Change

The weather was warm for most of the day. Although the forecast said there was minimum chance of rain, it did rain for about 15 minutes in the forest as I was hiking.

As night fell, the temperature quickly began to fall from the high 60s down into the 40s and into the 30s later in the night. This should help the leaves change to their bright colors.

Off to sleep, with all my layers in the sleeping bag.