Shannon Brook Trail, Brook Walk,
Whitten and Settlement Loop

Submitted by Pat

Stats
Date: April 8, 2017
Weather: Sunny, 30s
Miles: 6.3
Time: 4.75
Trails: Shannon Brook Trail — Brook Walk — Whitten Trail — Settlement Loop

Nancy and I meet at the Village Kitchen in Moultonborough for our usual pre-hike breakfast. We talk about our week and today’s hike. The temperatures are in the 30s with a brisk wind that makes it feel much colder. Nancy listens to me vent about my difficulties last week at work. Then she blows my mind with the story of her Golden Retriever named Karma falling through the ice at a local pond. Karma was unable to get out because the ice kept crumbling under her scrabbling paws. Without hesitating, Nancy surged into the pond, up to her knees until she was 5-6 feet away from the shore and fell into a hole that brought the water up to her neck. Karma finally got out so Nancy turned around and got herself back to shore, which she did, fully clothed, iPhone and all. Very scary for both of them and scary for me hearing the story after the fact.

We decide, once again, to try for Mt. Shaw and Black Snout. We walk a short way up the Lower Bridle Path before we put on our snowshoes. Someone has been through before us, leaving snowshoe-shaped divots in the partially frozen snow, which we have to maneuver around.

I am in the lead and it’s not long before I start sweating and breathing hard. I take off my gloves and my outer layer, take a couple of puffs off my rescue inhaler, and continue on. Nancy is struggling right off the bat, saying she’s really breathing hard and asking me if I’m breathing hard too. I tell her that I am and we rest for a few seconds as the sun peaks through the clouds and the wind roars through the high branches of the trees.

It isn’t until we’re on the Upper Bridle Path, close to the Oak Ridge Cutoff, that Nancy stops and calls out to me. She says it feels like there’s an elephant sitting on her chest. It’s hard to breathe and all her energy is being sapped by her breathlessness. She says she can feel her heart racing, but doesn’t think the problem is with her heart. She wonders if her response to the intense exercise is being caused by the drops she is taking for the diet that she started last week. I don’t feel hopeful about bagging those two peaks and am very concerned about Nancy. I suggest we turn around and she balks. As I speak to her, I become even more convinced that it’s not worth putting us in peril by pushing on. She really doesn’t want to turn around, but I insist, eventually telling her that I am not going to hike any farther. Period.

I suggest we go down, see how she’s feeling, and perhaps finish hiking the network of trails that are lower down. She wants to try and go on, but I feel her breathlessness is so out of the ordinary that I don’t want to risk it. I really don’t care if we go directly back to the car, at this point, but she’s pretty stubborn when she sets her mind to is so we set off down the ridge.

It takes no time to get down to the junction of the Turtleback Mountain Trail so we turn left and cover the section of this trail that we haven’t hiked yet. Last week’s rain has washed away a lot of snow so we walk on bare ground some of the time. We follow the trail until we meet the Shannon Brook Trail and turn left. It’s an easy walk until we come to the beginning of the Brook Walk. We both thought the Brook Walk would be an easy, flat trail, but no – it surprises us by leading down to a stream where we encounter a boardwalk and a 50-foot waterfall, a beautiful thin line of clear white water. It’s quite stunning. There had once been a bridge across the top of the waterfall, but two strong storms washed away all the bridges that were part of the original Brook Walk.

When we step off the boardwalk, we encounter a section of steep, uphill climbing on ice and soft snow. The trail leads to what was once called Bridal Falls, a multi-tiered cataract that looks like the back of a bridal veil. On to the next waterfall where we have to traverse steep terrain on a sharp angle. Not the trail we expect, but the beauty of the falls and the sound of the fast-rushing water fills the forest. We are all alone, no human sounds but our own. Perfect. When we hike out of the ravine, we follow a path that leads us back to Castle in the Clouds.

I’m pooped and Nancy is still feeling tightness in her chest, but we decide to also hike the Whitten Trail and the Settlement loop that we bypassed last weekend. We walk up Cold Spring Road, carrying our snowshoes. It feels good to be free of them tugging at our feet, though we put them back on as we tramp the .2 to the Whitten Graveyard – we stop and visit with Sallie, whose tilted gravestone was the largest remaining stone in the cemetery.

Continuing on, we turn right on the Settlement Trail. I’m leading and encourage Nancy to go at her own pace. I know the slight uphill climb at the beginning of the loop is exacerbating her chest tightness so I slow my pace. The loop itself is very short and we’re walking down Cold Spring Road before we know it.