Date: 2019-09-07
From: Garfield Ridge Shelter (NH)

To: Cascade Brook/Franconia Notch/North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 10.3

I woke up at 2:15am. I thought I couldn¢t get back to sleep but then I looked and it was 5:25, so must have slept at some point. I could hear the wind howling throughout the night, although when I got up, things were more calm and the promised rain hadn¢t materialized.I made and ate breakfast and everyone else was starting to stir when I got back to the shelter. The shelter was .2 miles from the AT which is also where there was water.  (Remember the climb up the waterfall yesterday? Yeah, that water.) I filled up and started hiking.The trail was still uphill when I started, but not as steep and with fewer waterfalls than yesterday. At the top of Mt. Garfield, SC caught up with me and we could see Franconia Ridge ahead.After Garfield we of course had to go down and then back up to Mt. Lafayette to begin Franconia Ridge. The climbs up and down were probably difficult, but I think we¢re just getting used to all the rocks and climbing so it just seems normal now. The north side of Lafayette had lots of trail runners. We saw several pass us going up and then coming back down.Up on top of Lafayette the views were incredible. I could see for miles in every direction. We could see the Presidentials we have completed and the rest of the ridge we are to do today.As we continued south along the ridge, it became clear that today was a Saturday. The ridge became packed with people who did not appear to have very much hiking experience. Because it is a ridge, sometimes only one person can be on the trail at a time so I spent an inordinate amount of time waiting for people to pass. At one point, there was a short climb that had plenty of hand and foot holds. A guy going the opposite way balked at the ¢cliff.¢ I laughed, ¢Oh, it¢s just a little one.¢ He looked at me wide-eyed, ¢There are worse?¢I have to wonder if today is some sort of Canadian holiday. It seemed like there were more French speakers on the ridge than English speakers. Eventually we got to the end of the ridge and started heading back down below tree line. There we saw a couple of hikers we met around mile 200. Then, .4 miles past the Liberty Springs Campsite, we hit our halfway point! We have now completed 1096 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Only 1096 left!After that the trail became increasingly flat. Eventually the AT joined up with a bike trail to cross a stream. Just past the bridge, the trail turned north, but we stayed on the bike path. We then took a trail to a parking lot because we were getting off trail for the night!A cousin of a friend lives in New Hampshire and she came up to meet us. Her car was parked right where we came out of the woods. She drove us into North Woodstock where we checked into a motel and got showers. Then we went down the street to a restaurant for dinner.This is tied with the longest time we¢ve been out between town stops. Both this section of the Whites and the 100MW took 8 days. The one difference was that we didn¢t bring as much food but it worked out because we could get food from the huts as well as the Pinkham Notch visitors center. We also did some charging of electronics at Pinkham Notch.