Date: 2008-07-29
From: Franconian Notch, NH

To: Greenleaf Hut, NH
Miles today: 6.4

OH MY GOSH..OH MY GOSH...OH...MY...GOSH!! The White Mtns. are rocking my hiking world! Oh, before I get into today, I did have something happen for the first time yesterday.We went to the store to buy some supplies, and the guy in front of me in the line and I were making small talk. Well, he's getting his groceries rung up, which included some beer, and the checkout clerk asked for MY i.d.! Apparently, because this man and I were talking, she suspected he was buying the beer for me, so she carded me! Can you believe that!? Ok, when will I stop being carded...when I'm 60?Last nite A.M., V8 and I went back to the Woodstock Inn Restaurant for dinner and then we "had" to get icecream @ a place that A.M. loves because it has her favorite flavor...peppermint stick. Oh, and Howie (my moose) tried to score a date with a similarly sized cow toy on the shelf. He struck out unfortunately.So onto today's hike. The plan, so we could hike w\a day pack was to start north from Franconian Notch, hike to the Greenleaf Hut, and then follow a side trail called the Bridal Path, 2.9 miles down to the car. Yes, 2.9 miles of hiking didn't count as AT miles, but it's so much more enjoyable and easier with a daypack.We met @ 6:45 a.m., got in the car and drove to Franconian Notch. The AT is also called Liberty Rocks Trail here, so we were actually heading up by 7:15 a.m. It was 3 pretty nice miles up to the ridge. Parts were steep and some fun rock scrambling was involved. All of the hiking is in thick alpine pine forests after just a bit of elevation climbing. It smelled great.Today was supposed to be a really nice day, sunny, warm..but it ended up being very overcast with off\on sprinkles that had A.M., V8 and I constantly stopping to put on raingear, and then take it off. It's annoying, but you don't want to get caught in a sudden downpour when you know you'll be hiking on exposed ridge for the majority of the day.We were hiking along...and I'm down to 1 Nalgene canteen because my other (pretty new) one sprung a leak @ the top seam. Well, I notice my right butt cheek is wet, but it hasn't rained. I took off my pack ad now my second canteen has a damn leak on the bottom! I'm writing Nalgene a letter when I get home. This is the 4th one this has happened to, and last year I only had a problem with 1. Ticks me off. I love this hydration system, but what good is it if I can't carry water? I flipped the canteen upside down and that worked to get me through the day.So we keep heading up and there was some maor rock scrambling requiring me to throw my hiking poles up. The trees were getting short and stubby again, and after climbing on top of this rock the most incredible view appeared. As of now, the sky was clear of low clouds, the sun was out and I could see miles of green and rocky mountains. Oh wow was it awesome!This was on the way up to Little Haystack Mtn. and I saw 2 stealth sites w\in 1 mile of the summit that I could have hung at.Soon, we were on the most exposed ridge yet. It was incredible...literally on the top of these enormous mountains. We had a view for about 8 minutes and then suddenly these foggy wet white clouds socked everything in, and it was pretty cool. I saw 52 degrees as the lowest temp on the ridge today, but the wind was wicked strong, and that made it feel even colder.I was wearing my rain jacket for warmth and wind protection and my OR hat, which I almost lost 2 times due to the wind ripping it off my head.There were tons of people, and to our surprise so many of them were ill prepared for the volatile weather...wearing tank tops and no coats.So I could NOT stop smiling up there. Yes, it was a little cold , the wind was horrible, the views came and went (mostly went) as the thick white clouds were blown past and around us, but it was still totally awesome being up there. After reaching the summit of Little Haystack Mtn. (4800 ft), it was up to Mt. Lincoln (5089 ft) via a totally exposed rocky ridge, and then it was another mile to the summit of Mt. Lafayette (5249 ft). I loved the rock scrambling again and the trail went up and around huge rocky tops. I was having the time of my life, but only because there was zero thunder. Had I heard that, I would have freaked, because there is absolutely no protection up here. It was like a moonscape...beautifully barron, with rocks, boulders and some fragile alpine vegetation. So freakin cool people!!On the way to Mt. Lafayette, V8 stopped to help some totally unprepared day hikers. These people were driving, saw a trail, pulled over and decided to climb it, no maps or knowledge of the area, no jackets, no money...nothing. They came up the Falling Water trail which is apparently quite steep, and realized it was too hard to go back down, so they were on top of this exposed ridge trying to find another way down.V8 showed them her maps and advised them, and they seemed to be in good spirits, but man..people gotta be smarter than this.We got to the summit of Mt. Lafayette, socked in, but still cool. The AT continues north and we took the side trail to Greenleaf Hut, 1.1 miles away.We eventually got back down to treeline and I got this awesome pic where you could see the trees, a layer above that was clear sky, sun, a view, and a layer above that was the dark grey rain clouds. It reminded me of that sandart people have where different colors and layers of sand make a picture.Finally we could see the hut, and were out of the clouds. We got there around 1'ish, and I was starving. I've learned some new menu ideas from A.M. and V8, so today was an english muffin with garlic herb cheese andmayo on it. Yummy...There were tons of dau hikers in the hut and a youth group from Boston.The day hikers were interested in what we were doing and Auntie Mame starts telling them to read my journal, and I'm like hey...read HER journal too! LOLI did finaly get to ask a hut worker about the low fee to sleep on a table thing. She said it's $10.00 and only for thru-hikers, if no work for stay is available. So there ya have it.After inhaling my lunch, I went outside to look @ the pond down below. The huts have really great views and scenery.Then I went back inside and bought 2 Hershey Bars. So far the 2 huts I've seen have stuff to buy like Cliff Bars, earplugs, some snacks. Pretty nice.We all geared up and headed out around 2:15. We had 2.9 miles to go down this other trail, which leads from the hut to a parking area.This trail, the Bridal Trail, used to be a horse trail years ago. It was rocky and step in a few places, but overall a really nice trail.As we got lower, there was some light rain, but then we got below all of that and had some fantastic views of the Franconian Ridge where we'd just hiked.We had 2.9 miles to go but man were my knees killing me. A.M. showed me how to tie a bandana around the bottom of my knee cap which does the same thing as the knee bands, which serve to keep these tendons aligned and in a groove inside your knee. Wow, I was shocked @ how much it helped. I told her, so then she goes and takes the bandana off her head and gives it to me to use on my other knee! How sweet is that?! I'm going to buy some of those knee bands I think.I looked @ the temps, and it was now 72 degrees! That's a 20 degree difference from the top of the ridge.We made it to the car @ 4:18 p.m., and were happy about that. V8 told A.M. and I that she was not comfortable or wanting to hike back on that ridge the next few days. The weather made her extremely uneasy, and I really appreciated that she told us this. See, nobody should ever hike\do anything that doesm't feel right to them. She's hiked all of this before too, so we decided to go back to the room and figure out a plan after we knew the weather.We got A.M.'s car and on the way back, picked up a hiker, Beershake from CT. He started last year too, but ended up in the hospital with Lyme, so is back finishing this year. We took him to Chet's in Lincoln.I moved over to share their room tonight, and I got showered, and called Karen who will be here THURSDAY!Originally, we'd planned to hike back up the Bridal trail, hit the AT where we left off, hike north to Galehead Hut where they made reservations already, and I was going to do the $10.00 thing, and then we'd hike to the Zealand Falls trail and get down to the car on Thursday.We went o the visitor's center for weather and watched the weather report. It is calling for either afternoon or evening t-storms for tomorrow with storms continuing or scattered into Thursday.Well, we all unanimously agreed it was stupid to get back on that ridge, which is 2 days of totally exposed rugged hiking, with this forecast, it was 60% chance.After much discussion, here's the plan, which worked out amazingly well for us all. First, A.M. and V8 had paid for 1 nite already in a hut, ad it's non-refundable, but you can transfer your spot to other huts and campgrounds run by te AMC if there's space. V8 hopped on the phone and totally scored. We're hiking up the Zealand Falls trail to the AT and are doing the "easy" low elevation hike down to Crawford Notch where there's an AMC basecamp called Highland Falls. They transferred their reservation there, and THEN they told me they paid a bit more to get a private bunkroom with 4 bunks in it, so they can let me stay in it w\them (we think), but if not, I can hang or sleep on a table. No biggie either way.This leaves about a 12 mile section on the exposed ridge for us to finish when the weather is safer. Also, Thursday, we're all taking a few days off so I can have some time with Karen and they can go to their homes for a bit, and then we're all meeting up again probably beginning of next week.So that's the plan. Next was food, and I was craving McDonalds, so I got my craving fed, then we went to Riteaid so I could get some knee bads, which were $15.00 each, but a $30.00 investment now may prevent a more expensive doc's visit later.Then we "had" to get more icecream! LOL We've all eaten icecream EVERY day here...how hard am I living huh?I LIKE how these 2 women hike. Common sense based, listeing to intuition and body, and not afraid to say, "No, I'm not taking a chance if I can wait a few days." We're all on the same page which is refreshing.We went back to the room, journaled and all passed out. We're sleeping till we wake tomorrow and not stressing an early start since tomorrow's hike will be about 5-6 hrs, as opposed to 9-10 like yesterday.I am so incredibly fortunate to have this wonderful company which has taken the stress of these mountains away completely, and is allowing me to totally enjoy it. Wow...this is fun.~Certain