Date: 2004-08-02
From: Liberty Spring Campsite

To: Guyot Campsite
Miles today: 13.2

It was past 8am when this beautiful day woke me. Sleeping late was nice. That put me on the trail after 10am. Who cared. This was my home stomping ground. The section of trail across Franconia Ridge that lay ahead had probably seen my footsteps a hundred times before, with no exaggeration, and this would be a perfect day to visit it again.My home is just a 45 minute drive south of Franconia Notch. The rewards on Franconia ridge are so great that when the sun is shining on a weekend morning at home, the ridge often calls me and I just have to go.The caretaker, Huff, a past thru-hiker, had left a ""thru-hikers only" journal book on a tree at the spring. That was really nice. The Whites get so much traffic that we are quite a minority. It's tough to keep track of fellow thru-hikers in the logs and journals so crowded with short haul hikers scribblings.Half past 11am found me on top of Little Haystack at the beginning of that glorious stretch of above tree line trail known as the Franconia Ridge. It was as if after 1,806 trail miles I had finally arrived home. There were plenty of people on the summit and I just cruised on through with a profoundly happy feeling inside and a big smile on the outside. The day just screamed for photos and there were a plenty taken. I had to say hi or howdy to everyone.Some good folks offered to take some pictures of me with my camera as I was about to summit Mount Lincoln. That caught me by surprise and was really nice. It was about noon by now and at 5,089' Mount Lincoln would have been a good place for some lunch part 1 but destiny called me onward.Another 20 minutes later found me on the 5,249 foot summit of Mount Lafayette. This would be the highest peak till the Presidential range.After about an hour lunch break, at 1:20pm it was time to dance along the Garfield ridge and weave my way down amongst the thick krumholz, fur and spruce trees over to the pointy Mount Garfield.Garfield was another of my favorite summits for all seasons and with all form of foot wear including skis. My spirits were so high, that I made it to Garfield before 3pm. The air was dryer and views were even better now. There was no choice but to take a half hour break here. It was just too nice. There had once been a fire watch hut here. Only the foundation remains.A half mile steeply down from MtGarfield was the side trail to Garfield Ridge Shelter and Campsite. A stop here was required to thank a caretaker. This was the guy who had taken and passed on my trail magic back a Liberty Spring. Low and behold he was actually here. Caretakers often wander pretty far afield during the day time. He was actually chatting on his porch with his boss. I introduced myself and thanked him especially for not opening the cookies. His reward was of course a cookie. We laughed about the possibility that there had been perhaps 2 bags of cookies or maybe some other goodies. Only Sage really knows. It was fun talking with these guys but it was getting on to 4 o'clock and my plan was to sleep at Guyot Campsite tonight, a rugged 6.2 miles ahead.This next section of trail is described in the AMC White Mountain Guide as ¢endless ups and downs¢. The Guide is noted for understatement. None of the climbs or descents are large so they don't show up on most opt maps, but they can be steep. Some would require most folks to use hands. It was on this stretch that I met a fellow thru-hiker named Trunks. He had been just ahead of me for a long time. This was evident by his journal entries. It's funny how you feel like you kind of know someone after having read their journal entries for so long. It's like finding a long lost friend but really, you don't know each other at all and he's never even heard of you. Now was the chance to finally say hi. His dad had joined him yesterday. The plan was to hike the Whites together. Trunks wanted to take it a little easy for dad but dad would have no part of that. He wasn't going to slow his son down. That seemed pretty silly to me. Trunks asked if I had seen his dad and in fact I had. He was back a little ways doing OK. The idea of anyone joining a thru-hiker of 1,800 miles and not slowing him down was just silly. I had to give his dad credit for trying though. I cautioned Trunks to be careful with his dad and suggested they might stay at Galehead Hut.We got to the hut and his dad showed up. We talked some and his dad asked where I was spending the night. I didn't want to tell him but couldn't lie. We were probably about the same age and Trunks was maybe approaching 30. Dad probably figured if I could make it he could make it. That thought felt terrible to me. It was about 5:30pm when I left the happy crowd at Galehead behind. By 6:10 I was on the summit of South Twin. This is a crazy steep hunk of trail. It's one of my favorite. It climbs nearly 1,100 feet in less than 0.8 miles. It's flat as it leaves the hut. Then it starts up and just makes a bee line for the summit as switch backs are pretty uncommon in this neck of the woods. South Twin is a gorgeous summit too. South Twin is a gorgeous summit. The views of the Presidentials and Franconia Ridge and the Pemigewasset Wilderness were stunning. Shortly, Trunks showed up. His dad was struggling up the trail. He hoped to convince his dad to spend the night here. It's probably illegal but they could be very leave-no-trace.Beautiful as it was here it was time to move on down the trail. Hiking a high alpine ridge as the late afternoon shadows stretch into evening is a sensation that is hard to explain. For some, it probably brings fear and trepidation. For me, it is just pure ecstasy. The trail stays in the dwarf boreal forest till it breaks out on the talus and tundra near Mount Guyot. On the way though, it passes near the top of several slides and cliffs affording great views through the battered trees.Last summer, while doing some trail work on this section of trail, an angry thru-hiker had pointed out an error on the sign here. The sign was for the Bondcliff Trail. It pointed to Guyot Campsite in 0.8 miles and the Wilderness Trail in 6.8 miles. That was all just fine. At the top center of the sign there was an AT symbol. That was just plain wrong. The trail adopter in me took over and with knife in hand I carved a little square of wood out removing the AT. I later confessed this action and protested the error to my superiors. Now, a year later, as a thru-hiker myself, I'm taking a picture. We need to do a better job for thru-hikers up here. (The sign has since been replaced with a correct one. 8/2006)It was 7:30pm on the above treeline summit of Mount Guyot and the wind was just screaming. You could just stand there leaning into it. It's so much fun, though a bit chilling. The view of the days hike across Franconia and Garfield Ridges from here was perfection. The sun setting behind Garfield just made it all that much better.At 7:45pm the side trail lead me down the steep quarter mile approach to my favorite campsite in the Whites, Guyot. I stop to check in with the caretaker. We're talking casually when a Forest Service Ranger comes down to tell the caretaker that he will be spending the night up on the ridge in the ¢No Camping Zone¢. The caretaker, a pretty laid back soft spoken guy, is stunned almost speechless and he's not alone. The ranger, an in your face type character, proceeds to tell the caretaker that he doesn't agree with the ¢no camping¢ designation. It seems like he is looking for an argument. This is disturbing to me. It's after 8pm, time to leave this awkward scene and find the platform the caretaker had suggested at the bottom of the campsite. Don't get me wrong. Most rangers are great. This one had issues.It was a great nights sleep down on platform 8 or 7, whichever. The whole place is on a steep slope and that afforded total privacy and quiet. It was a perfect night to sleep out under the stars. It was only a 13.2 mile day but it was full of good times, great views and rugged hiking so who cares about a number.