Date: 2007-08-27
From: Franconia Notch

To: Mt. Garfield
Miles today: 9.8

#1 Day #1 NightTo our delight we saw blue skies when we woke up. Today we climbed the legendary Franconia Range with a 4m, above tree line, ridge walk. To quote Wingfoot "This range is considered by many to be the most scenic on the entire AT." To say the least, we were excited. We ate breakfast and packed up then started the 2500ft climb to liberty spring. The climb didn't seem as hard as I thought and I barley got out of breath. Game On and I took a break at liberty spring and filled up our bottles from the beautiful pipe spring. We sat and took in the semi view as we chugged pure spring water. We continued up to the ridge line where we started up toward little haystack mtn. We took a break at our first viewpoint where we could see Moosilauke and Kinsman and many mountains we had come over in the past week. We were still under tree cover and didn't realize the grand views we were about to get.We hiked on and climbed to 4760ft up little haystack. At about 4600ft the trees thinned out and we were walking through a total alpine environment. There were lots of day hikers out all wanting to hear our story. We talked with them as we ate lunch. We could see mt washington and the presidential range in the distance and the rest of the franconia range. One day hiker told me the visibility today was over 90 miles! In the other direction we could see mt kinsman and lonesome lake. There was no wind and the sun was beating down. A far cry from the weather I had on moosilauke. After lunch we started our long, beautiful alpine ridge walk. We could see hikers who were a mile ahead on top of mt lincoln. Walking above treeline is so amazing! 360 Degree, 90 mile views of some of the most spectacular scenery in the north east and you see it over the entire walk! Pairs of raven were circling around the open peaks.Game on and I walked as slow as possible. We stopped almost every 5 min to take in the amazing views. We got on top of mt lincoln at 5089ft, which was way more grand than haystack, and got our first look at the even more spectacular mt lafayette. The day just kept getting better and better! We took our packs off on mt lincoln and sat up there for what seemed like an hour. Some hikers caught up from town: iceman, buffalo bobby, philmont, popeye, lightweight, brisk, chach, moongoat, and sideshow. Quite a crew! We continued our ridge walk over to mt lafayette. In the alpine zone the trail is made very distinct by lining the sides with rocks. This keeps hikers off the very fragile alpine plants. One footprint can take almost 10 years to regrow! We got on top of lafayette at 5249ft and took our packs off yet again. We could see the same view from haystack, but being higher, made it even better. We could see the black smoke from the mt washington cog railway in the distance.Game on and I walked another mile above treeline down mt lafayette. The sun was getting lower in the sky which cast some cool shadows in the valley. We walked another 2m toward garfield pond where we tanked up on water and climbed mt garfield at 4500ft to camp. There is an old concrete foundation on top of the mountain that blocks the wind pretty well that we could cowboy camp in. When we got up there the sun was setting, and in the opposite direction a near full moon was rising over mt guyot. I swear I could feel the earth rotating on top of that mountain! The sunset was picture perfect with lots of purple and pink. Game on and I cooked dinner and fell asleep under the stars. We were camped smack dab in the middle of the franconia range on a mountaintop with a 360 degree view of the moonlit valley and ridges. This was definitely the best stealth camp spot on the entire trail! Best day of hiking on the entire trail too! Is there any end to the greatness that is the Appalachian!n Trail?Today's StatsStarting Point:Franconia NotchEnding Point:Mt. GarfieldMileage:9.8Elevation Gain:5840ft!!Elevation Loss:2830ftHiking Time:10:04Weather:Clear, Sunny, AmazingPain Factor:2