SPNHF: Lost River Workday


Lost River in North Woodstock, NH sits on land owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests who bought it in 1912 to protect it from logging. The trails and buildings are currently leased and operated by the White Mountains Attractions Association. Each year, in the week before the gorge opens to the public, volunteers from the Forest Society spend a day getting the gorge, gardens, and Ecology trail ready for visitors.

We start the day with a quick huddle to divvy up tasks, and I attempt a group photo. Somehow the photographer often ends up missing from the shot (completely accidental, honest), and this year I outdid myself: two tripods with no heads. Classic.

I usually tag along with the crew that heads into the gorge. Some folks sweep or blow the boardwalks clear, while others tackle ice and snow packed into the caves.

Past years have had us hauling out fallen branches and doing cleanup in the parking lot after storms, but this year the lot was unusually tidy.

The gardens are a whole-day job for a few volunteers — cleaning beds, laying fresh mulch — though they rarely need new plantings.


Another small team keeps the Ecology Trail in shape, trimming branches and repairing the hardware cloth on the boardwalks so people don’t take an unexpected slip when things are wet.


One of my favorite signs of spring is the hobblebush starting to flower; I usually share a photo of what I jokingly call the Grogu plant.

(One of the funniest things about this is that I've never seen the Mandalorian)

Down in the gorge some of the caves are ready for visitors, while others have to wait until water levels drop a bit.

This year I am using these outings to practice with my new camera gear, especially my macro lens. This gorge sits in a slightly different ecosystem than where I’ve been shooting recently, so I spotted several moss species that were new to my photo collection.

Laurel injured her shoulder this spring and stayed up top to freshen a large sign. She found another sign she could have upgraded but left it alone; it points toward the Dilly Trail, which has been closed since a forest fire in fall 2017 destabilized the rockslides.

Lunch is a friendly, do-it-yourself spread that White Mountain Attractions usually provides. 

After eating, a few of us wander back through the gorge just to enjoy it from the visitor perspective. A couple of the younger folks scrambled through several caves this year — I’ll come back with a kneepad or two.


Go capture some memories, leave the trail better than you found it, and don't forget to take off the lens cap! - Kate



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