Harvard Cascade

Take Interstate 93 to the town of Lincoln and depart the freeway at Exit 33, signed for US Route 3, North Woodstock and North Lincoln. Turn north onto Route 3 and continue for just one-quarter of a mile, then turn left onto Hanson Farm Road. After a few hundred feet the road turns into Georgiana Falls Road (Hanson Farm Road bears right) and ends a short distance later at the parking area. The Georgiana Falls Trail passes under Interstate 93 and follows an old roadbed for the first half of a mile, then cuts toward Harvard Brook and becomes a more defined path (the old logging road does continue, so be sure to find the right point to turn). After traversing through the woods. After about three-quarters of a mile of hiking the trail encounters the bare rock slabs at the bottom of Lower Georgiana Falls and follows blazes painted onto the rocks along the side of the falls. Georgiana Falls is then passed at the 1.2 mile point. Harvard Cascade is encountered after 1.35 miles of hiking on the trail. The path becomes considerably less defined after passing the top of Georgiana Falls, but still easy enough to follow.Harvard Cascade is one of several significant waterfalls found along Harvard Brook as it tumbles into the Pemigewasset River valley. The falls are a single-step sliding cascade type drop falling a total of 18 feet, first sliding down the smooth granite bedrock and then falling freely from an overhanging ledge for the final 5-6 feet of its descent. The bare rock streambed at Harvard Cascade stretches for as much as 75 feet acorss at the falls, which suggests that during periods of high flow the falls may expand by two or three times its normal width to cover a very wide breadth of the ledge forming the falls. The Harvard Brook basin is fairly large, covering an area of about 5.6 square miles upstream of the falls. In addition to the size of the catchment, there are two flatwater features – Bog Eddy and Bog Pond – which will retain a considerable amount of surface water throughout the year and help to ensure a good flow remains in the creek at all times. The large basin also ensures that during the spring freshet, or after heavy rainfall, the stream can and often does swell to impressive levels.Confusion has surrounded the names of the waterfalls on Harvard Brook at times in the past - usually stemming from an inability to positively identify which waterfall was intended to be named as Georgiana Falls. What is now for certain known to be Georgiana had at times been referred to as Harvard Falls in order to distinguish it from the lower set of falls on the brook (now known as Lower Georgiana Falls). Harvard Cascade was singled out as this small fall, but whether it was chosen to be named because someone felt it worthy of naming, or whether it was meant to take the title of its namesake stream as a means to dispell confusion over which fall was known as Harvard is not entirely clear.