3 Attachment(s)
Franconia notch to Crawford notch
I'm trying to piece together missing parts of the AT through NH so I can finally say I hiked the whole darn thing.
I left my car at the AT trail head in Crawford Notch Tuesday (6/26/18) and took the AMC shuttle over to Franconia Notch. Which drops you off nearly a mile from the AT highway crossing, but it's an easy mile. it also gets there a little late, nearly 11 AM, but if you only have one car is the only practical way to do this.
It was a long, slow hike up to Mt Lafayette. Didn't get to the summit until nearly 4 PM. But it was a picture perfect day with 125 mile visibility that morning. Still pretty good by late afternoon.
Garfield shelter is only 3.9 miles from the summit, but man, are those miles hard. The descent off of Lafayette is long, steep and fully exposed. You got to be real careful going down this. The climb up and over Garfield was a killer at the end of the day. The profile does not show how steep some parts of the trail are or how treacherous some of those pieces of ledge can be.
I finally arrived at the Garfield site a little after 8 PM. I had just enough time to set up my tent on the last available tent platform spot (next to two other tents) and make my supper before it got dark.
The final descent off of Garfield was another little piece of White mountain insanity. Nearly straight down, lots of loose rock, with a stream running down the middle of it just to make it more interesting. I passed an older couple who were having one heck of a time trying to climb down that section of trial. Thankfully, they had their 30 something daughter to help.
Once at the bottom of Garfield, the trail eased up some, but then you hit the 1500 foot climb up South Twin, the last 1000 feet in 0.8 miles. Lots of rock scrambling to get up there. Nice view from the top though, even though it was getting cloudy and hazy.
Once off the summit cone of S. Twin, the trail eases up some until you do another steep decent down to Zealand falls.
I had planned on staying at Ethan pond last night, but the forecast was for rain to start overnight. With the road only another 2.5 miles away, I opted to just hike out to the car. Plus I heard that there was going to be a lot of thru hikers holed up there to wait out the rain today before going up into the Prezies.
While at the Zealand falls hut, I meet a thru hiker who desperately needed to get to the Gorham PO where he had new shoes waiting. The ones he had on would never make it across the Prezie traverse. I had talked and hiked a little with him the day before, so I knew his situation. When I found him at Zealand trying to figure out how to get to Gorham the next day, I told him I was hiking out to my car and asked if he wanted a lift. Of course he did :)
It was nearly 4 PM when we left Zealand hut and had 8 miles to get to the car. Pedal to the metal, we managed to do those 8 miles in less then 3 hours. Good thing that last stretch was real flat! So, I got him to the "Barn" in Gorham before dark and did my little bit of trail magic.
All in all, it was a hard two days of hiking and my knees are really sore this morning. But I picked the last 2 really good days for awhile to do this section. Tomorrow temps spike in the high 80's and I see 99 forecast for Saturday. Summer is coming to the North Country with a vengeance.
Attachment 43028 Lafayette is still a long ways off!
Attachment 43029Top of Garfield looking into the Pemi as the sun starts to set.
Attachment 43030 Top of South Twin. Clouds moving in and getting hazy.
