Mount Lafayette: July 11, 2015

Mountain: Mount Lafayette
Elevation: 5,260 (New Hampshire's 6th Tallest, New England's 7th Tallest)
Route: Greenleaf Trail
Mileage: 3.3 to summit
Arya's Take: Nuts to that trail.  It's easier over here, I'm going this way.

This is why I hike.  For days like we had today.

And no, I'm not really trying to be hyperbolic here.  Too often, it's too hot, or it rains, or someone twists and ankle, or the views aren't as nice as you thought they'd be (if they're there at all).  But sometimes, things just work.

The day that Arya (and 8 of our friends) had up on the Franconias on July 11 was, truly, one of the best days of hiking I have ever had in my entire life.  The group we had was fun to be around, with everyone up for whatever the mountains could throw at us, and with the weather cooperating, we got to spend nearly 6 hours above treeline with magnificent views in all directions.  My brother and I knew that going in (having hiked this exact route before), but you never know if everything will come together to give you a day like we had this past weekend.  And I think Arya would agree.

As I mentioned in my prep-entry, the Franconia Range is the second most prominent in the White Mountains after the Presidentials, and is one of the most popular hiking destinations in the state (which we can attest to, having run into approximately 50,000 people on the ridge through the course of the day).  We would be summiting Mount Lafayette first, gaining most of our elevation in one fell swoop, and then traversing the spine of the Franks down to Mount Lincoln, then Little Haystack (doesn't count), and eventually to Mount Liberty.  To start things off, I was apprehensive about getting off at a reasonable hour, for a couple of reasons.  First, the mileage and elevation we'd be going through meant that we'd be spending a LOT of time on the trail, and I didn't want to get back to the car after dark.  Second, of the 9 people that were hiking with us, 5 were meeting us at the trailhead (in two separate cars, no less) so coordinating would be difficult.  Also we made the decision to stay up to wait for the last of the Farm-based party to make it up on Friday night at 11:15, and proceeded to stay up for another 45 minutes, imbibing things that would...not exactly make us very chipper at 5:30, when we had to get up to hit the road by 6:15.

But!  Miracle of Miracles everyones was roaring to go on Saturday morning (well, apart from my younger brother, but he's not exactly much of a morning person).  From the Farm, Franconia Notch (former home to New Hampshire state symbol the Old Man of the Mountains) is about an hour and 20 minutes away, and we'd need all the time we had to make sure we could stash the first car at the trailhead where we'd be ending our day (as discussed previously) and to find our way to the starting trailhead, as there was road construction on the highway through the Notch, and the exit we needed to get off at was closed (because of course it was).

Anyway, we did eventually find our way to the Greenleaf Trailhead, the parking for which was actually across the notch at the Cannon Mountain Tramway.  Within 30 seconds of arriving so did our companions (!) and we were all able to prep and get on our way by 8:07, which, wow.  It was exciting and I was hoping to have a nice little warmup before gaining our elevation, but hey, at least we weren't going up Ammonoosuc Ravine this time, right?

...About that.  One of the problems with the nice rosy memories of the day we spent hiking the Franks in 1996 is that most of my memories of the glorious ridge obscured how we GOT to that ridge.  Also, I was 11, and full of boundless energy; I am now 30, and not.  The Greenleaf Trail doesn't pull any punches, and while it's not quite like Ammonoosuc Ravine (2 miles in flat, then 1 mile straight up), it just sort of...goes.  A few switchbacks here and there, but mostly just up, and after 20 minutes I had not only broken a sweat, but delved into my Nalgenes for the first time.  Not exactly a good sign when you've gone half a mile with 11.5 more to go.  I was heartened to see that nearly everyone in our party felt the same way, griping about it without going into full-bore complaining.  Which is good, since I was the one that picked this trail when planning the hike and felt more than a little responsible for everyone's misfortune.  The Greenleaf Trail is the best way to get to the top of Lafayette and made the most sense for our loop, but still.

Not that people didn't take issue with the steepness and relentlessness of the trail, mind you, they just didn't blame me for it.  After about an hour it seemed like we would just slog all the way up to treeline like that, though we then poked out of the trees for a bit around Eagle Cliff, and it was nice to get a few views in before we finished the last mile or so to the Greenleaf Hut.  It was right at the point when I at least was beginning to ask myself "Why am I doing this on a perfectly nice Saturday?!" when we got some views, a stiff breeze, and I was reminded.

And once we got to Greenleaf, we got the first of a couple of nice surprises that day.  I figured that we would refill our water bottles (as we'd consumed a lot gaining our elevation, but still had quite a bit of hiking to do that day),grab a snack, use the restrooms and keep going.  All in all we spent maybe 15 minutes there, but discovered that the Hut Croo (and yes, they spell it like that) had made fresh FREE PANCAKES for breakfast and we all helped ourselves.  Not a bad stick-to-your-ribs meal before we began our ridegwalking in earnest.  We were also treated to our first real preview of where we were going to spend the rest of the day, seeing Lafayette and Lincoln looming before us in the brilliant morning sunshine.  After Arya made some friends waiting for us outside (dogs aren't allowed in the AMC High Huts, boo hiss), we kept on the Greenleaf trail to the top of the ridge.

As second winds go, it was pretty good.  We all felt reasonably rested, and being able to take a look around every couple of steps and see the Notch (or the the Ridge) was nice too.  I have to admit that we had a tendency to spread out at times, and while Arya did want to press ahead at the end of her leash, we settled into a nice middle ground where there were a few people ahead of us, but far enough that she wasn't cutting them off or clotheslining them. 

There were some switchbacks, but really the Greenleaf Trail continued more or less straight at what my brother and I were convinced was a false peak of Lafayette.  That's one of the main pratfalls of hiking a lot above treeline, as nice as it is:  sometimes the promontory you're headed for is just a bluff and they actual summit is not visible.  It wasn't that bad on Lafayette, actually, since once we went over the bluff we only had maybe 0.2 of a mile to go.  Cannon has some that I remember not-so-fondly (the Cannonballs), and the worst of the worst from my 23-year-old memories of childhood was the Caps Ridge Trail up Mount Jefferson.  They kept going and going and going, each time you thought you were there, another peak loomed beyond.  Which I guess they were trying to warn us about with the name of the trail.

But we made it to the top of Lafayette, and Franconia Ridge, with no trouble at about 11:15.  Not to f'ing shabby, if I do say so myself, given that we shattered booktime and had enough time to spare on my loose outline that we took our packs off, had a snack, and took in the sun for a bit.  It was getting to the time of day that we started to see a ton more people, which would only increase as our day and the sunshine wore on.  There was a group of people wearing matching neon green t shirts, a summer camp I think, and some others that were using the foundation of an old 1850s-era cabin to make an early lunch.  Arya actually did really well on Lafayette, compared with how she usually is on summits, and didn't even try to go for our food when we brought it out. Even the turkey jerky we had!

Eventually, though, we knew we still had a majority of mileage to go, and after getting some good-natured pushback from the group, we decided that we would indeed officially stop for lunch on top of Lincoln.  So after one last round of pictures, off we went.

-M

Mount Abraham: July 3, 2015

Mountain: Mount Abraham
Elevation: 4,006 (Vermont's 5th Tallest, New England's 64th Tallest)
Route: Battell Trail
Mileage: 5.8 miles round trip
Arya's Take:Uh, Dad?  These rocks go...straight up.  What do I do?

I have to admit, when looking at the peak-bagging I wanted to do with Arya, Abraham was a bit of an afterthought.  Sure, I remember hiking it in 2012, and had vague memories of what the trail and summit were like, but I really have to issue an apology.  I mean, the main reason that I disregarded it was that the mountain itself is only 4,006 feet, so it barely qualifies, and there were, I was sure, other mountains that would be more worth our time.

And there are, don't get me wrong.  But when it became clear that I had an extra day off to play with over the 4th of July weekend (before we headed to Maine and I had a 5K to run), I decided to, for better or for worse, get Abraham out of the way.  It also helped that the forecast was sunny and in the 70s.

So Arya and I prattled off over the Appalachian Gap again, and I was again struck with just how much time I seem to be spending in the Mad River Valley since we moved to Vermont.  There were easier ways to get to the Battell Trailhead in Lincoln (like, for example, the Lincoln Gap road), but since we were in my Prius and the Lincoln Gap road is dirt, I figured the App Gap was the way to go.

We also got kiiiiiind of a later start than I anticipated, due mainly to the fact that I got a cluster headache as I was trying to get up that morning and wanted to die for about 3 hours.  What are cluster headaches, I hear you ask?  Basically, 12 years ago I started getting horrendously bad migraines, with no apparent trigger or cause, and they were so bad that I couldn't move or think or anything while they persisted.  Several doctor's visits (and one STAT CT scan!) later, they diagnosed me with cluster headaches, which they told me a) will attack with no warning, b) will come in bunches (hence the name) and c) have no known cause.  Not only that, but they'd disappear eventually, only to return later, again with no rhyme or reason.  So...hooray!  They're back, and they don't respond to drugs.  I got one on July 3, and it took until 12:30 for us to actually get out on the trail.

Which worried me slightly, since even though Abraham is a smaller mountain, heading out on a hike after noon set us up for potential trouble, since if something happened we wouldn't have that much time to do something about it.  Also since we needed to be back in Barre by 7:00 or so in order to pack the car and meet my fiancee so we could drive the 3 hours to Maine, so we didn't have too much of a margin for error.

But at any rate, we started off, and with some minor adjustments in Arya's pack, things went pretty well on the whole.  Moreso than usually Arya had a propensity to zigzag across the trail into the woods on either side, and once again looked back down the trail just enough to make me think that someone (or something) was following us.  The trail also proved to be more of a challenege than I remember, given that I did it on a whim in sneakers, I wasn't expecting it to be as slow going as it was.  We encountered several large groups, too (summer camps, I assumed), and that impacted our pace.  I mean, not a ton, and we still crushed book time, but it wasn't exactly my finest hour of hiking.

This became apparent when we reached the Battell Shelter at 2.1 miles, where some families were having lunch and Arya wanted desperately to say hello and to vacuum up any table scraps that might have fallen off the benches.  We'd reached the Long Trail, and the well-worn sign pointing us towards the Abraham summit was scratched enough that it was either 0.3 or 0.8 to the summit, and I was crestfallen when I realized it was 0.8.  That's how you know you're not at your best.

At any rate, we tramped off the the summit, walking along the southern edge of the Monroe Skyline amongst the scrubby evergreen trees, a brilliant blue sky above us.  The 0.8 proved to be just long enough for both Arya and I to start wondering where the summit was, and I was confronted suddenly with a memory of the first time I'd hiked Abraham that I'd apparently suppressed:  the scramble to the summit.

It came in a flash, recalling the 0.2 of straight-freaking-up rock climbing that you have to do to reach the top, hand-over-hand and plotting each tree branch and foot placement before you're done with your last.  It annihilated my sneakers (eventually wearing the heel to the point I had to replace them), and it presented the first time hiking that Arya had serious problems with continuing.  She was good for much of the scramble, but with some people heading down from the summit as we were heading up (side effect of our late start), we had a lot of waiting to do, and there were some rock faces that were sheer enough that I had to pick her up and carry her.  Thankfully, her new dog framepack has a handle for just such a purpose, and though she scowled at me for the indignity, it was the best way for us to continue.  Eventually, though, it flattened out and we were above treeline.

It really amazes me that two mountains in such proximity could have such different summits based on their height and the perceived difficulty as Mounts Abraham and Ellen.  Ellen is, after all, nearly 90 feet taller than Abraham, and yet, is not only wooded on top, but so insignificant compared to the surrounding terrain that I wandered past it without noticing when I hiked it first.  Abraham, on the other hand, has spectacular views in all directions, showing off the Breadloaf wilderness, Lake Champlain, and the rest of the Monroe Skyline.  Not bad for the 4th-shortest 4,000 footer in all of New England.

Really, Abraham makes you earn it, and it feels like much more of an accomplishment when you're on top.  Yes, it's small, but the Battell Trail is not what I would qualify as easy (or short), and the last little bit of sheer elevation gain gives you the impression that you're really up among the alpine.

None of this really mattered to Arya, who was mostly concerned with the other dogs on top, none of whom really wanted anything to do with her.  I tried to get her to drink, as the air was surprisingly stagnant above treeline and the direct sunshine made it seem much hotter than it probably was.  Couple with her whole "I'm a black dog with minimal sweat glands" thing, and Arya spent the first several minutes we were settled panting and pacing back and forth.

Eventually I discovered that the only way to get her to drink from the bowl was to hold it in front of her snout like a horse's feed-bag, and after that she drank for what seemed like forever.  After that she continued to be a bit of a pain in the ass on the summit, as she usually is, since when we reach them there's not a whole lot for her to do while I sit and try to eat some lunch.

On this occasion, though, we were a bit pressed for time, and I decided after about 20 minutes or so to pack up and head back down.  Not only was a concerned with getting back to the car and getting home, but it occurred to me that I hadn't done as much packing the night before as I probably should have, and so I'd need some time to finish before we all went to Maine.  It was also a good opportunity to test out my knee, since I'd been nervous about it buckling on me after we did Mount Ellen.  To be completely honest, part of me was kinf od hoping I'd fuck up my knee, so that I would have a valid excuse not to run the aforementioned 5K that I was signed up for two days thence (for which I had not trained a lick, because I am an idiot).  Thankfully, though, we had enough people immediately ahead of us on the rockiest descent that we had to take our time, which was good on my knee and better for Arya's apprehension.  The congestion got kind of bad once we reached the shelter on our way down, but thankfully most people apparently chose to hike up using the Long Trail, so once we turned back onto the Battell Trail we were good to go.

And i really apologize how these entries tend to lose steam once we get to the descent, but it's just that...I hate the descent.  I've talked about this before, but in climbing down, my mind starts to wander to what I want to do after we're done, and how good it's going to feel to sit in the car and take my boots off.  It was a lovely day, and Arya did really well with everything all things considered, but I really can't find much of anything interesting to say on the way down, unless something basically smacks me in the face.  My knee held up, Arya was dead asleep for the rest of the day (which, of course, was mostly spent in the car anyway), and we have another 4,000 footer in the books.  From here, though, the real fun begins, since now all we had left in Vermont was Mount Mansfield, and I'd started to put together a plan for one of, if not the, most ambitious day hikes we would ever do.  But that's for another entry or two (or three).

-M

NEXT TRIP PLANNING: THE FRANCONIAS

Well, not all of them.  That'd be kind of absurd.

But for the first big trip of the summer, I'm trying to put together a plan to hike three major peaks in the Franconia Range, all of which are among the highest in the White Mountains, and New England at large.  The mountains I want to do in this day trip are specifically Mounts Lafayette, Lincoln, and Liberty, though Mount Flume, at the end of the range, is also a 4,000 footer.  It's just a bit much to do all of them in one day, which I'll get to in a bit.

The Franconias are actually part of a large horseshoe of mountains, most of which are 4,000 footers, surrounding an expanse of forest called the Pemigewasset Wilderness.  The Franks link up with Mount Garfield (4,500) at the north edge of the Wilderness, where the ridge continues to the Twins range, with Mounts Galehead (4,024), North Twin (4,761), South Twin (4,902) and Zealand (4,260), after which it curves south to the Bond range, with Mounts West Bond (4,540), Bond (4,698), and Bondcliff (4,265).  All of this surrounds Owl's Head (4,025), smack in the middle of the Wilderness, and if you throw in the Franks with Lafayette (5,260), Lincoln (5,089), Liberty (4,459) and Flume (4,328), you're looking at over a quarter of the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire.  It's possible to do them all over about a 3-day camping trip, with Huts and Shelters scattered throughout, and it's some of the best hiking you'll do in New England.

Not that that's what I have planned.  Really, I just want to hit the high peaks of the Franks, and even with just the three, for a day trip, it's going to be quite a challenge.  The first major hurdle is simply logistics.

So far, when planning out peak-bagging trips with Arya, we've either stuck to one mountain, or selected trails that have the same base area so that we do a loop (like with Mount Washington and Mount Monroe).  The problem with the Franks is how and where all the major trails are situated:  In Franconia Notch.

Much like the Presidential Range with Crawford and Pinkham Notches, the Franks flank one side of Franconia Notch, with Cannon Mountain and the Kinsmans on the other side.  Interstate 93 also runs through the notch, so it's easy to get to as it were, though not so easy to hike back from one trailhead to another.

My current plan is to get up at the crack of day (or before it), and take two cars with our group, stashing one at the trailhead for Liberty (to the south) and heading north to the trailhead for Lafayette and starting our day there.  We used to do this all the time with my parents when we were kids (including when we did the Franks in 1996).  That way we can take the trails that make the most sense for the mountains we want to climb, and not the need to get back to the car.

It's gonna be a long day, though.  Assuming an 8:00 start at the trailhead (which in turn assumes a 6:00 departure from the Farm, which prooooobably won't happen), we won't be back to the stashed car until 5:00, and won't be back to the Farm until 7:00.  And that's if we stick to book time, which, while certainly within the realm of possibility, isn't a guarantee.  So this might be a bit ambitious.

It could be completely amazing, though.  The Franconias provide some sweeping vistas of the Pemigewasset Wilderness and the Presidential Range above treeline on a good day (which, fingers crossed, weather.gov is telling me we'll have on Saturday).  We'll be gaining most of our elevation to begin with, on the Greenleaf Trail to ascend Lafayette, passing one of the High Huts along the way.  It'll be around 4 miles to the summit of Lafayette, and hopefully we can get up there before or around noon, so we can enjoy the views for a bit, have a snack, and continue down the Franconia Ridge and keep on book time.

The ridge itself I remember vividly from when we hiked it in 1996; not so much specific parts of it, but more the almost painfully blue sky, and the green of the mountains around us.  We really hit it on a perfect day, with not a cloud to be seen, and it remains probably the best aesthetic day of hiking I've ever had (at least, my nearly 20-year-old memories of that day tell me so).  You're above treeline the ENTIRE time from Lafayette to Lincoln, which is only actually one mile away, and I don't recall feeling at all tired or worn the whole way down the ridge.  The White Mountain Guide tells me that part of the traverse is technically a knife edge, which makes me nervous both for my new-found fear of heights and the fact that I'll have Arya on her extendo-leash, though it is explicit that it's NOT like the infamous one on Katahdin, and I don't really recall having trouble with it before.  I bet it's just that the ridge is 10 or 15 feet wide with steep drops on either side (which I DO remember), and I think we can handle that, as long as Arya doesn't see a butterfly she wants to chase.

From the top of Mount Lincoln, though, the day starts to stretch out, and that's what I'm kind of worried about.  I remember when we did Monroe and Washington that I really started to hit a wall and just want to be done when we reached the junction with the trails up Mount Clay, and we still had a majority of our descent to go.  From Lincoln to Liberty is about 2.5 miles, and from Liberty back to the parking lot it's another 3.  So that's not exactly a lark, though with most of that being ridgewalking, I'm hoping that we don't really start to suffer until we're heading down to the car.  Additionally, after my knee got messed up on Mount Ellen, I've been especially nervous that something might happen halfway through our day, but I guess there's nothing I can do about that except wear my brace, use my hiking poles, and take some Aleve.  We'll see.

In all, especially if the forecast holds, this could be an amazing day.  We have a lot of people coming (potentially 12 in all!) and it'll be great to spend the day up there and bag 3 more peaks for Arya.  I mean, I'll basically be an invalid on Sunday, but some things are worth it.

Cheers!

-M