Date: 2005-08-15
From: Franconia Notch, then Sweet Fish's house

To: Garfield Pond Stealth Campsite
Miles today: 9.1

Hopeful:   We stayed up until about 1 AM, seeing Sweet Fish's pictures. Seeing them starts to make me feel nostalgic, since the majority of a thru hiker's pictures are now places that we've already seen. At the same time, I get excited to glimpse some of the cool things ahead. We had breakfast, got groceries, and headed out with "Mr. Sweet Fish" AKA Bob, who went even further out of the way to help us by letting us drop Nate's car at Crawford Notch where we'll hike to in a few days. Thank you, again! We wish it could have been a longer stay, but when the weather report said no rain, just clouds that should clear up by the afternoon, we had to jump on the chance to go over Franconia Ridge, considered by many, including our guide book author, "Wingfoot", to be the most scenic section on the AT.    We crossed and summited Little Haystack, Lincoln, and Lafayette Mountains, all on a stretch mostly above treeline. However, to get there, we didn't break in Nate and Al any to easy. The climb outdid Mt. Moosilauke--this time we went from 1,450 feet to eventually 5,249 feet at the top of Mt. Lafayette. They did fantastic and we're so glad they made the time to come out here and join us. How cool to share this part of the hike with them! The clouds blew in and out over the ridge. We took a ton of pictures and lingered over the views on either side, and ahead and behind. It was the postcard pics I've seen, only a little less clear. On our way down, the blue skies really did open up, but we couldn't have waited. As it was, we pulled into this campsite around six or so. The sun is beginning to set well before 8 PM this time of year, this far northeast.    We meant to go on to the official Garfield Ridge campsite, another 700 feet up and over Mt. Garfield, but this site, near the pond, is quite a find. It's just the four of us. Today, Al acquired the trail name "Dirt", which seemed clear to us upon seeing him proudly wear a shirt that says, "I love Dirt". Nate's name came tonight when he told us more about his firefighting training, and when he successfully built us a great fire for this chilly night with very wet wood. Thus, he becomes, "Fireman". They earned their trail names today-- it was a very tough hike, but also very incredible.   The craziest thing happened tonight after we ate, cleaned up and were headed to our tents. Nate lingered by the dying fire a little, and we soon heard him exclaim something about a moose. One had approached our camp and Nate saw his head before he backed out of view. Of course, we all quickly unzipped our tents and ran back out to see, but he only let us hear him walking nearby, and wouldn't come back within range of our head lamps. Wow! Than Red Wing bravely took a little trek down to the pond to see what he could see with his head lamp and found very fresh tracks. As he headed back to toward camp, he heard as snort about 20 feet away, where he had just been standing. This was no shy moose. But again, he eluded the head lamp. Sneaky guy!   We're a little hyped up now, but really need our sleep too. Looking forward to another day with Dirt and Fireman tomorrow. Hope to see Free, Pogo, Princess, Rocky and Bowinkle again soon, too. And of course, that moose!