Date: 2012-08-02
From: Garfield Ridge Shelter and Campsite, MP 1818.6, NH

To: Franconia Notch, MP 1808.5, NH
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: light rain

Page 1 of 2NOTE: For the next few days we will be traveling southbound from Crawford Notch to Franconia NotchBoth Minutia and I got up tired. I was up at 6:30 am. Minutia didn't want to get out of the sack. It rained a little last night so everything is a bit wet. Took us to 9:30 am to break camp. I actually left a little early to get to Garfield Shelter and Campsite to use the privy. It was a hard climb and I don't think we would have made it yesterday evening. As I said, it was a hard climb to top of Mt Garfield, elevation 4,500 feet. We camped at roughly 3,800 feet and 0.5 of a mile from the summit. The 360° view from Mt Garfield was amazing. What was more amazing was the view of Mt Lafayette in the distance and all the ground (3.4 miles) we have to hike to get there. We dropped down to an elevaton of 3,937 near Garfield Pond and then started the ascent up Mt Lafayette. I don't want to gloss over the difficulty hiking between these mountains. You are constantly high stepping around rocks and roots with sharp climbs up and down ridges over boulders or slabs of wet granite. Progress is 1 MPH or less. You're always trying to figure out where to put your next step. If you lose concentration, you risk injury through a fall. I stay focused, but it is mind numbing!The climb to the top of Mt Lafayette was very, very long and once clear of the tree line, with many false summits. Bill Bryson said it best in a "Walk in the Woods," "the elusive summit retreats by what ever distance you advance" and that's how our climb above tree line was.   What kept us going was the spectacular views. There is nothing like standing on a summit with the world laid out 360° below your feet! Indescribably awesome!Mt Lafayette at elevation 5,260 feet is just a few feet lower then Mt Washington. From Mt Lafayette, we hiked along Franconia Ridge over Mt Lincoln (El 5,080) and Little Haystack Mt (El 4,770). The ridge is all above tree line with drop offs on either side.   The treadway varied from scree (a slope of loose rock debris at the base of a steep incline) to granite slabs to boulders and always either up or down. Very little level. At the top of Lafayette I was down to my last liter of water and this became a problem for me as we hiked the exposed ridge and descended to Liberty Spring Campsite 3.8 miles away. Long before we reached the campsite, I ran out of water. Let me say, the descent was just as slow, harrowing, difficult and dangerous as the climb up Lafayette.We reached Liberty Spring Campsite by 6 pm. This site is run by the AMC and has a caretaker. It has a good spring and all tent sites are on platforms. This is of necessity since the whole site is on a slope.The spring was flowing slowly so it took awhile to gather a liter of water. Normally I treat my water no matter how good the source. I was so thirsty, I drank a couple of liters straight away.   After quenching our thirst at the spring, we started looking for a tent site. However the place was full with youth group campers. The caretaker showed us some overflow sites, but none were acceptable.   So at 6:30 pm, we decided to hike the 2.7 miles on sore feet and wooden legs to the trail head with the idea that if we found a good flat spot along the way, we would stealth camp. Although the trail was steep at first, it did become more manageable the lower down the mountain we went, but not enough to tent.Spurred on by impending darkness, we made the trail head by 8 pm. Minutia called the shuttle and the motel. It took the shuttle 45 minutes to pick us up.   I was tired and chilled in my sweat soaked clothes. I took off my hiking shirt and put on my dry wind shirt. While we waited, we watched fire works from somewhere in North Woodstock. After arriving at the motel, we bought cheese steaks and chocolate milk. Minutia also bought a 12 pack of PBR beer, potato chips and cheese curls . We took showers and called home. Too exhausted to talk, but needed to let our wives know we were safe.We covered 10.1 miles (MP 1818.6 to MP 1808.5) in approximately 10 hours of hiking. We had planned to cover these 28 miles in 5 days and did it in 3, thanks in no small part to excellent weather.