Franconia notch --->pinkham notch

[Mountain_Goat]

I have 8 days and 7 nights and am planning on hiking from franconia notch to pinkham notch while using the white mountain shuttle service.Was wondering if anyone had a preplanned itinerary minus usage of the huts (too expensive) available for share??? Thanks.

[hikerboy57]

franconia to craword there are a number of tentsites as alternatives to the huts. lib springs, garfield ridge, guyot, ethan pond. from crawford to pinkham is a little more difficult, thees neuman tentsite, then no legal sites till you get to mt adams. RMC runs a few shelters and sites, and off madison you have valley way tentsite, then osgood, then pinkham. there is a small fee at all the amc sites. one bit of advice, if you're planning on taking the shuttle to franconia notch as your start point, you dont get to the trailhead until11;30, so you may want to stay your first night at liberty springs. otherwise its about 14 miles over some of the roughest terrrain in the whites till you hit grafield campsite.You can get a shuttle schedule at www.outdorrs.org.

[jlb2012]

You can get a shuttle schedule at www.outdorrs.org.

url was typoed - try www.outdoors.org instead

wrt guyot tentsite - its far off trail and far down hill - the people I were supporting recently stated they would have never used that tentsite if they had realizedjust how far off trail and downhill it is located

[hikerboy57]

url was typoed - try www.outdoors.org instead

wrt guyot tentsite - its far off trail and far down hill - the people I were supporting recently stated they would have never used that tentsite if they had realizedjust how far off trail and downhill it is located

true, but its a long day from garfield to ethan pond.

[tdoczi]

true, but its a long day from garfield to ethan pond.

a sizeable chunk of it is perfectly flat though

[hikerboy57]

and the pass though zealand notch is beautiful.

[sixhusbands]

Guyot tent sites and shelter are a bit of hike down ( maybe a good mile) but it is well worth the hike. You can also stealth camp near Thoreau falls which is about half way between Zealand falls Hut and Ethan Pond campsite. Ethan pond gets a lot of people due to it's closness to Crawford notch. always plenty of room at Garfield ridge.
There is a place called the Perch ,about a mile down from the AT , between Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Adams to the north. But that is a stretch from Nauman tent sites. You could duck down into the Dry river area from Lakes of the Clouds hut and stealth camp ( about 1.5 miles until you get flat ground).

If Osgood tent sites are full, press on the great gulf trail ( .5 miles max) , plenty of stealth camping here.

I have camped at all of these places and you should be able to get to all of them. good luck

[Wil]

Thoreau Falls has a special 1/4 mile restriction that I believe is still in effect. Combined with the normal 200 foot restriction in the Whites along the AT corridor AND within the PemigeWassett Wilderness (which includes the Thoreau Falls and Shoal Pond Trails even though they are not AT trails), this makes most of the great sleeping spots near Thoreau Falls out of regulation.


One of the interesting (to me) issues of sleeping in the woods in the Whites is, once the alpine zone border has been crossed, does a patch of eight foot plus high trees (and there are numerous and huge such patches) establish a whole new ballgame (i.e. 200 feet off the trail and you're golden) or are you still in the alpine zone and sleeping is prohibited regardless of local tree height? If the former, there are many flop spots if you're willing to thread through the brush and require only a body-length spot to lie down for the night.


The relocation of the Dry River Trail at the very top makes that haul down to flat just a bit beyond reasonable to me. Remember, Dry River is another special area and we're talking 200 feet off trail or designated campsite (the first down of these was just barely tolerable IMO as a back & forth from the old trail's intersection with the Crawford Path, now it's just beyond reach). Also, though there's been some trail maintenance last couple of years, it's still rough, boggy, with lots of blowdowns