I’m planning some places to hit up this summer and I’d like to get to both of these lakes. Does anyone know if you can paddle upstream from Profile to Echo and back?
Because they straddle the peak of the notch, they drain in opposite directions.
Echo Lake is the source of Lafayette Brook, which flows north into the Ammonoosuc River, then west to the Connecticut River at Woodsville, and on out to Long Island sound.
Profile Like is the source of the Pemigewasset River, which flows south paralleling the highway until it becomes the Merrimack River in Franklin. It’s the headwaters of New England’s 19th century textile industry.
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Those are some tiny lakes. Even if they don’t connect via water, google maps shows they are 0.8 miles apart, connected by the Pemi trail. You just need a cart.
I saw the Pemi in between the lakes on the map and they are relatively level in elevation, so I thought you could paddle between the two. Do you know if it’s possible?
I’ve driven the highway between the two many times. No navigable water there that I have seen - the river is not visible through the trees. As others mentioned, both are very small ponds.
It’s not possible.
The Pemi river is just a stream where it enters Profile Lake. If you want to see where it goes, there is a trail that follows it upstream through the culvert where it passes under the highway. On the other side of that culvert is a small pond/wetland that disappears into the exit ramp for the tramway. The tramway parking lot is right at the high point of the notch. Somewhere within the drainage systems for the parking lot, access road, and interstate highway is where you’d find the source of the stream and the demarcation between what flows south and north.
Anyway, there isn’t much to Profile Lake that you can’t see from the access points at the north and south ends.