A waterfall, good company, and a Bette Davis plaque: welcome to Coppermine Brook and Bridal Veil Falls in Franconia, New Hampshire.

The plaque’s been documented elsewhere, but in brief: in the 1930s, actress Bette Davis was married to Arthur Farnsworth from nearby Sugar Hill, who died in a tragic accident. Someone, supposedly Davis herself, later mounted a memorial plaque on a boulder in Coppermine Brook, with an affectionate inscription to “the keeper of stray ladies.”

The Coppermine Brook trailhead is just off NH Route 116. I went there with a friend a few days after heavy rains and flash flooding had left significant road and property damage in the area. Between I-93 and 116, we passed two work crews repairing washed-out edges of roads. The trail itself, alongside the brook, was a bit gullied but otherwise intact.

The trail rises about 1100 feet in two and a half miles to its terminus at Bridal Veil Falls. If you want a shorter hike, the plaque is only a mile or so from the trailhead – but you have to want to find it. No directional signs will help you. It’s on a boulder in the brook, accessible via a clearing that you’ll see between the trail and the brook. The plaque faces downstream.

This out-and-back hike has an average grade of about 8%, if my math is right. It doesn’t feel like an 1100′ climb, although it is. There are no scrambles along the way, and no mountain vistas, but there’s plenty of shade by a cool brook leading to a pretty waterfall. This was a perfect choice for a low-key hike with a friend.

This hike along Coppermine Brook goes partway up the west side of Cannon Mountain, which is more familiar from its other side facing I-93. So to stretch a point, I can say that I’ve hiked Cannon…never mind that I didn’t get anywhere near the summit!