Date: 2017-07-10
From: Galehead Hut

To: North Woodstock
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: clear sky

Is this the trail, or it a waterfall?It turns out to be a trick question. The trail is a waterfall. Or maybe the waterfall is the trail? That's a zen question I'll leave to others.The slow progress of the previous evening's Franconia Ridge party, who arrived at the hut a full hour after dark, was beginning to make more sense.For us, the slow progress involved a more pressing issue. We're heading towards Franconia Ridge -- the third and last place on the AT where good weather really is important -- and one recent forecast suggested there might be a thunderstorm coming in around 11am.At more than 5000ft, that's not a good place to be -- unless you're Frankenstein's monster and you're in need of a jump-start. But equally, the experience of the past six weeks or so has prompted us to take forecasts with a grain of salt.After scaling the trail/waterfall/traifall/waterail, the view from the top of Mt Garfield showed the entire Franconia Ridge to be clear and without any sign of angry black clouds bearing down on it to spoil the party.One sweaty hour later, I've covered the ground to the spot where the ridge emerges from the treeline. It's 10am and, like on the Presidentials, the weather's still nice enough to wear nothing more than shorts and a thermal top. I'm both lucky and grateful.The trail path here reflected one of the fights between the AMC, the mountain club that maintains this part of the AT, and the US Forest Service, which controls the land it sits on. The USFS took a somewhat laissez faire response, deciding that the proliferation of social trails was a lesser evil than the obvious rock-lined route the AMC favoured as a way to keep people on the One True Path. The AMC clearly won this round.After half an hour, I was standing on top of Mt Lafayette, where there are maybe 30 other day hikers milling around in blustery but still warm weather.The views in every direction are impressive, including showing that Mt Washington is clear once again, but my favourite sight is the newly-revealed one of the trail undulating along the ridge over Mt Lincoln and Mt Haystack towards Mt Liberty and Mt Flume. This is my destiny.After the Haystack, the trail headed into the bushline and then shortly before Mt Liberty, the AT heads off the ridge to Liberty Springs campsite before heading down 4000ft or so down to the highway at Franconia Notch.I grabbed some water at the spring, where there was an Australian woman from Melbourne running a summer camp hike for a bunch of kids. She in turn told her young charges about thru-hiking and presented me as Exhibit A of this obscure but colourful subspecies.The descent was steep but efficient, and I took it slowly, putting as much weight as possible on my hiking poles, until I emerged at a tarmac bike path running alongside the river.This was my bonus mile: I'd arranged to be collected by The Notch Hostel at 5.30pm but the closest place on the trail they can do that in a car is the Flume Visitor Centre, 0.9 miles down the bike path. Doing this final mile on a sealed surface was not quite my ideal way to end the day but I emerged into the car park and wandered over to the visitor centre with half an hour to spare and at exactly 5.30pm, the van arrived and I was soon headed to North Woodstock, six miles away,Soon I'd dealt with the chores -- shower, laundry, food -- and was able to chill among lots of familiar faces and a few new ones from the nobo crowd.Life is good.AT fact of the day: After my recent concerning need for Vitamin I, as the anti-inflammatory ibruprofen is known in the hiking world, I've been trying to get through the Whites while also scaling back on my use of it. From having to take a second 400mg dose in the middle of the night, the slower pace and shorter days have allowed me to try going entirely ibruprofen-free tonight. I'll find out whether this was wise or foolish tomorrow...