Date: 2009-09-08
From: Franconia Notch

To: Mt. Lafayette
Miles today: 8.4

Highlight: Enjoying INCREDIBLE views of the Franconia Ridge and surviving a wild night on top of Mt. Lafayette in a fog storm and 60 mph wind gusts. We woke up at Chet's and headed out to the grocery store to get some breakfast and resupply for the upcoming days. I had to figure out if my mail drop had arrived at the Lafayette Place Campgrounds, as it didn't arrive on Saturday or yesterday, as it was Labor Day. Fortunately, it did arrive, but it was in an entirely different location. While at the supermarket, I struck up a conversation with Dick, a section-hiker from eastern Tennessee. He had offered to take Jungli and I to the campground to pick up the package and to drop us off at the trailhead. He introduced me to his wife, Ann, whom I had met south of Smart Mountain just a few days before. They were wonderful people and Jungli and I enjoyed hearing about their own adventures on the AT and how they planned to finish their last section (Maine) within two years. What an accomplishment!!! We picked up the MD and took us to the Flume parking lot, where we had walked to just two days prior, and saw Buttchinz and Big Camera! We were all happy to be reunited again. Dick and Ann then dropped us off on I-93 just north of the trailhead and, after saying our goodbyes, Jungli and I walked along the stretch of the highway, cleared over the steel barrier and descended down the embankment to reconnect to the trail. We stopped at Liberty Springs Campsite for a short period before deciding to hike on. The views of the Franconia Ridge were absolutely MARVELOUS!!! We climbed up Little Haystack Mountain and Mt. Lincoln, 4,800 ft and 5,089 ft respectively, and enjoyed the setting sun to the west and the vibrant golden rays shining on the green rock faces in front of us. The winds were rather strong up top, but I was so happy and content to be up there - all on our own - that I teared up a bit. It was such a wonderful feeling. We took our time enjoying the views for the next two hours, but the sun had descended rather quickly, the winds grew stronger and the air became much colder. By the time we had reached the base of Mt. Lafayette, it was complete darkness and a dense fog had enveloped the area. The winds grew stronger and stronger as we climbed up the peak and visibility dropped to 5 feet. We decided to stick together to ensure that neither of us would get lost. At one point, I walked off the trail (which consisted nothing more of large rock boulders), but we managed to find our way back to a cairn within 5 minutes. We reached the Mt. Lafayette peak at 9:30 pm, but we were so disoriented that we actually approached it from the northern side. Don't ask me how. Jungli wanted to make the 1.1 mile trek down to Greenleaf Hut, but we had no idea where the trail was as visibility was horrible and the winds were very strong. I strongly recommended that we just camp up on top of the mountain as we knew where we were and we were not at risk of freezing. So, we hunkered behind some large boulders and tried to camp for the night. The air was so cold from the wind and the condensation was so strong that, in the morning, Jungli's sleeping bag had become completely saturated. The other concern was that we had run out of water and we would just have to wait until morning. At 3 am, the storm had completely passed and I awoke to a beautiful sky of glittering stars and as I peaked over the boulders under which we were sleeping, I saw the shining lights of the valley towns down below. It was quite an amazing feeling to be camping on top of the world.