Date: 2010-07-29
From: Lincoln,NH

To: Mount Lafayette
Miles today: 6.4

Cell phone service in the gaps ("notch") is non-existant. To complicate things more, the pay phone across from the hotel didn't work either. Our kind hosts at the Carriage Motel had the shuttle company on speed-dial so we were able get a ride back to the trail head by noon. We had to wait close to an hour before they could come pick us up but were entertained by some great conversation with an Austrailian south-bound hiker who was also heading to the same trail head.When we arrived at Liberty Springs trail head we were joining a few other day-hikers and about 3 DOZEN 14-16 yr. old girls from a summer camp and their college age sponsors. They were broken up into 4 groups and started about 15 minutes apart to keep from 'crowding' the trail. We played leap-frog with the last 2 groups all the way up Liberty mountain to the camp site. The first part of the trail was easy but we still took it slowly because Hobo's pack was heavy from resupplying in town and the lower part of the trail was very busy with weekend hikers.When we hit the actual "Liberty Springs" section of the trail the terrain changed drastically. Can you guess how? Yup, we started to go UP. There weren't any cliff faces of rough stuff like we had seen previously. Just a slow, steady climb up boulder steps & roots. We did have 1 brook to cross which I managed to do with my small pack still on and did not fall in. Yeah me!!!We had planned to stop at the Liberty Springs campground but with the girls already staying there the place was pretty much packed. The care-taker told us we could make it across Franconia Ridge and down to Garfield pond before dark, "no problem". So off we went.Just 0.3 more of climbing before our trail went to the ridge & the Liberty Springs trail went the opposite direction up to the summit. The ridge trail was really nice and a needed break from the day of climbing. As we increased in altitude, we could feel the temperature drop & the winds pick-up speed. Once out of the tree line, the winds were gusting at about 40-50 MPH. We struggled to keep our feet planted on the rocks as we scrambled over each mountain. We got our first glimpse of Mt. Washington but also of clouds rolling in.As darkness quickly approached and temperatures were dropping quickly, we could tell that there wasn't enough time to safely make it below tree line. It is 'illegal' to camp above tree line but we were stuck. Hobo went to the edge of Lafayette to see about how far it was to get off the ridge. It was already so dark that he couldn't even see the next mountain top. We did the only thing we could- we stopped. (So much for taking the advise of the "expert") We struggled to get the tent pitched behind an old, rock, building foundation to give us a little protection from the gusting winds & fridged temperatures. We put on every piece of clothing we had with us (hiking layer, synthetic long-johns, fleece jacket & pants, 4 pair of socks, gloves & bandana over our heads) before crawling into our sleeping bags and pulling the hood tightly around our heads. The wind was whipping the tent & fly onto us as we attempted to sleep. We weren't sure it was going to survive the night if the winds kept up this strong.We stayed warm enough over night but didn't sleep very much. We knew we needed to be packed up and off the ridge at sunrise before we got 'caught'.Another night in paradise???Happy Trails,ATeam