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Thinking that it would be a beautiful day for foliage viewing from the Ridge, we set out to hike Lafayette and Lincoln on Saturday. Not surprisingly, there were tons of people on the trail (Falling Waters) up; somewhat more surprisingly, at about 4,000 feet, there was snow on the trail. Fortunately, the snow was spotty on the trail going up to Little Haystack, but it got more intense between Little Haystack and Lafayette. Hiking in a cloud meant visibility wasn't great, but since there was only a coating or inch or two of snow, the trail was easy to follow.
The wind wasn't terrible, but part of our water bottles froze, so it had to be below freezing with the wind chill. Heading down the summit of Lafayette the snow was more intense and micro-spikes would have made it a bit easier (but poles helped). Once we got to the point on the trail where the rocks no longer had snow, the clouds opened up to show off the beautiful fall foliage below, even as we were still standing amid the snow and could look up at the white dusted peaks. It was quite beautiful (though greenleaf hut was a pretty welcome site at that point as well).
No issues the rest of the way down (besides lots of others on the trail, all looking at us strangely for wearing so much fleece; once I warmed up, I was back in a t-shirt).
The wind wasn't terrible, but part of our water bottles froze, so it had to be below freezing with the wind chill. Heading down the summit of Lafayette the snow was more intense and micro-spikes would have made it a bit easier (but poles helped). Once we got to the point on the trail where the rocks no longer had snow, the clouds opened up to show off the beautiful fall foliage below, even as we were still standing amid the snow and could look up at the white dusted peaks. It was quite beautiful (though greenleaf hut was a pretty welcome site at that point as well).
No issues the rest of the way down (besides lots of others on the trail, all looking at us strangely for wearing so much fleece; once I warmed up, I was back in a t-shirt).
