Crossing the East Branch at the Franconia Brook Tentsite

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 19, 2004
Messages
97
Reaction score
2
Location
Brewster, MA
Does anyone know what the water level in the East Branch is like? How likely would it be to be able to rock hop across the brook between the Franconia Brook Tentsite and the Lincon Woods Trail right now? I did this once before back in 2003 but I'm not sure that it's feasible now. Thanks for any help.
 
Back when the Lincoln Woods trail was closed for a season we made the crossing in normal water flows. We crossed the East Branch just east of where Franconia Brook came into the channel which cuts down the flow considerably. The river is quite wide and shallow in this area and at best we were knee deep. Unlike southern NH and Mass, the Whites have not gotten as much rain this July. Sure there will be a jump up in flow after a heavy rain. Take look at this site and look at gauge which is just down the East Branch. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nh/nwis/...=21&begin_date=2021-07-18&end_date=2021-07-25 It defaults at 7 days but you can change the span of days to longer. Now look at the current flow and long term trend. If the flow runs at or below the trend for summer and you avoid major rainfall than you should be good to go.
 
I did that crossing back on 9/4/16. The USGS 01074520 EAST BRANCH PEMIGEWASSET RIVER AT LINCOLN gauge was only 55 cfs that day according to my notes (it was shockingly low) and the crossing was a dry foot rock hop. There was still a loose line of stepping stones across near the old bridge site. So in the 100-200 cfs it is running at right now the crossing should be pretty safe. I don't go that way often and only did the actual crossing that one time so I don't really have any other info to reference.
 
Top