Story by Richie Davis
It’s a constant, comforting backdrop that accompanies Joseph Bushee Jr. as he describes the journey that led him to write his book —a journey that melded his interest in photography and his love of the outdoors. Behind him, a gentle, steady rush of falling water fans out on the rocks that overlook this extension of Montague’s Meadow Road — Falls Road in Sunderland.
These are Slatestone Falls, a magnificent wonder of nature in its own right, with orange jewelweed and lush green foliage framing the Rorschach-like pattern of cascading water this day. Yet it’s one of dozens of spectacles featured in Bushee’s “Waterfalls of Massachusetts.” (2004: New England Cartographics)
The 168-page collection of 55 waterfalls — from Bash Bish Falls in Mount Washington State Forest, in the state’s southwest corner, to Powwow River in Amesbury in the northeast — includes 15 in Franklin County, where the 42-year-old author lived until this spring …. and where his fascination for waterfalls first took root.
With his point-and-shoot camera in hand, Bushee began exploring waterfalls around the region about six years ago.
“I'm more of a place-thing photographer than a people photographer,” said Bushee, who works as a bank network support technician and began discovering how many of the hikes he went on led to incredibly beautiful waterfalls. “Waterfalls as landscapes are really great, so I started collecting them.”
That meant planning hikes around waterfalls to see how many he could visit and photograph, in hopes of documenting them in a guidebook.
“It just kind of evolved,” said Bushee, who was living in Greenfield at the time. “You're hiking out in the summer, it’s 95 degrees, you’re sweating, and you get to a waterfall: It's usually in a shaded glen, you've got the cool air, an awesome destination and an awesome photo op.”
In addition to his guidebook, replete with images, maps and descriptions, Bushee has a Web site — USwaterfalls.com — which gradually began to reflect his fascination with falls. Today, with help from visitors who submit their favorite photos and information about waterfalls, the site includes 145 waterfalls in 11 states, as far away as South Dakota, but mostly in the Northeast.
When the prospect of a guidebook became more likely last year, Bushee began revisiting the roughly 50 Massachusetts sites he’d collected, taking better photos and double-checking his directions. Carrying a tape recorder into which “I’d just yack away while walking” to describe the trail as he hiked, Bushee polished up the information he’d collected in preparation for having it published.
The North Amherst publisher took on the project last fall, and the book was published in May.
Arranged by region of the state and clustered by groups within each region, several waterfalls can be visited by the reader during a single day.
The book includes Pauchaug Brook Lower Falls in Northfield and two Sluice Brook falls in Shelburne — one of which requires a canoe or kayak to view. It also points to two of Bushee’s favorite spots in Savoy State Forest, Tannery Brook and Ross Brook falls.
With all of these falls in one compendium, it’s easy to see that all waterfalls are not the same.
There are “fans” like Slatestone, which widen as they descend, in multiple small drops or “cascades.” There are “cataracts,” very powerful or high waterfalls, of which there are few locally. And then there are narrow “chutes” between two cliffs, steep, sloping “taluses” and lesser-sloping “screes.”
The Web sites — www.usfalls.com and www.massfalls.com — advertise Bushee’s book, but they do more, the author said.
“I’m trying to make a mega-site where waterfall enthusiasts can come, and find a waterfall by checking the map,” he said. Visitors can also submit photos and details about their favorite falls, and they can also see that — like Slatestone, for example — not all of the scenic attractions involve strenuous hikes.
Bushee has been replacing his “point-and-shoot” images with photos taken with his digital single lens reflex camera for the Website. He’s also changed his approach to photographing the fast-falling water.
“For the most part, I had always preferred to semi-freeze the falls because that's more like what you’d see: you don’t really see it in time lapse. This year, I’ve been leaning more and more toward hanging that shutter open for a second or two and letting it kind of mist a little bit.”
Bushee’s favorite site? “In Massachusetts, it’s got to be Bash Bish Falls,” he said. “In the wintertime, there’s a mass of ice, and in the summertime, there’s a
really nice volume of water, that comes down and does bit of a cascade through a 1,000-foot gorge. It does a couple of tumbles there, comes around a corner, splits around a large spur that’s sticking up.” The two sides splash and then join together in a single dramatic fall before it hits the final pool.
“I’ve seen people — crazy people — diving off of it,” said Bushee, who warns anyone thinking of swimming near falls that it’s impossible to know all of the risks. “That whole white at bottom is air bubbles that make you less buoyant so you sink like a rock.”
At Doane Falls in Royalston, some divers have died after getting pushed beneath underwater ledges and then pinned in a current.
“You never know what's down there,” said Bushee, reflecting on all of the mysteries that seem to abound at these scenic wonders.
Especially against a full-color foliage backdrop after a hike on a brisk day, those mysteries attract outdoor lovers of all kinds.
“It's just a peaceful thing,” he said. “People sit down by the water and the sound is calming; it masks civilization. It’s a walk you can take, with a destination that makes it worthwhile; something that people of all ages enjoy.”
You can reach Richie Davis at rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269