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
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