Shaupeneak Ridge Waterfall

Yes, many waterfalls, as I suspected long before I started chasing them, require a hike. Indeed, beside the fact that construction of a paved pathway such that entire families even along with their wheelchair-bound members can leisurely stroll on may be outside of any town’s budget, the engineering feats required I imagine can be insurmountable as the topography leading to the falls can be challenging. Some waterfalls to this day remain unreachable because of the gorges, ravines, and other impossible obstacles one has to cross to get to them.

But there is a bright side to all this. A hike, like the price of admission, can be a deterrent for the casual interlopers who really have no interest in Nature other than it being there and easily accessible. So, they ask, why not? They then crowd the place and I’m hoping against hope here they don’t leave trash behind them. This, I find, is fact. The easier it is to get to a waterfall, the more trash you will find.

Then there is the walk in the woods. The peace and quiet broken only by the sound of your boots hitting rock, grass, or earth as you take it step-by-step on miles of untarnished land is a pleasurable experience like no other. Out alone with Nature, one gets to live in one’s mind such that one becomes convinced this is perhaps how Nature intended things to be. Then, you hear the rush of water and not long after that you see the waterfall. All exhaustion gone as you are transported to a wholly different and pristine realm continually refreshed by Nature even when there are no humans around to witness it.

So, take the waterfalls for how they are. They may be roadside but disturbed. Or you may instead hope for the reward of a waterfall spectacular enough to offset the miles of trek needed to get there.

Then again, there is Shaupeneak Ridge Waterfall. With an elevation gain of only 182 feet that you would only feel very briefly during the only 0.7-mile or 15-minute hike, it falls somewhere between the easy-to-get-to-but-tainted waterfall and the hard-to-get-to-but-pristine waterfall. And should you feel a hike is not complete without some clambering on top of rocks, you can optionally do so once you are at the waterfall. Yes, I will always prefer hiking to a waterfall as opposed to having no hike at all. But being that I am nowhere near hardcore when it comes to hiking, I say the hike to the waterfall at Shaupenaek Ridge hits the sweet spot. It perfectly embodies the very definition of something being “short and sweet”.

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