5-day Pemi hike

[poison ivy]

I spent five days last week on a two-part mission in the Whites: to hike the Appalachian Trail from Franconia Notch to Crawford Notch and do a little peakbagging besides. My friend Calley agreed to come along with me as her last hiking trip before moving to South Carolina. We hiked 11 4K’s on the NH 48 list (including nine new ones) and had a grand time even though the weather didn’t cooperate so much.

Pictures from our adventure are located here

Day 1, Sunday, July 11:
We arrived at Franconia Notch at 11 a.m. (after paying a hefty $65 for a shuttle ride) and headed down the bike path for a quick warm up before picking up the AT on the rocky Liberty Springs Trail. It was a long climb up Liberty Springs, which isn’t terribly steep for a 2,700 foot ascent but is steady. Although one of the guidebooks mentioned something about switchbacks, Calley and I found only two “landings” between steep sections.

We arrived at the Liberty Springs tent site at 2 p.m. . After a little creativity using lots of rope, string and a carabineer to keep my tarptent standing, we had lunch and dropped most of our pack weight in the tent. At 3 p.m., we began hiking up to summit Mt. Liberty. There, we had fantastic views of Franconia Notch and the Pemi behind us.

Next, we headed over to Mt. Flume, descending some pretty steep ledges off of Mt. Liberty but the rest of the walk was not difficult at all. Unfortunately, while hanging out on the summit, we heard a few rumbles of thunder, so our stay was fairly brief. So we turned back the way we came and headed down to the tent site for the night.

Day two, Monday, July 12:
Hit the trail at about 9:30 a.m. and made a pretty fast ascent to the Franconia Ridge Trail. The trail was a treat because it is pretty level. There were a couple of ledges to scramble up, but nothing too taxing. Behind us, we could see Liberty and Flume, looking much farther away than they actually were. When we arrived just short summit of Little Haystack, we were treated to sunny skies and fantastic views of Franconia Notch. (We had both done this portion of Franconia Ridge previously so we knew what to expect.) It was wonderful to be on the ridge on a Monday morning and we had the first bit of it completely to ourselves.

After snacking and basking in the sun on Little Haystack, we headed across the ridge, alternately looking at Cannon on our left and the Pemi Wilderness on our right on a gorgeous day. Quickly enough, we made it to the summit of Mt. Lincoln and met a family that had hiked up from Greenleaf Hut with their three daughters -- the youngest had to be about seven or eight. The girls charged off ahead of us and we were treated to a bunch of very children’s cute songs as we headed up to the next peak, Mt. Lafayette, which at 5,249 feet is the highest mountain on our five-day hike.

Compared to the rest of the ridge, Lafayette was like Grand Central Station. There were at least two dozen people on the top, snacking and attempting to identify the surrounding peaks. As we hiked up, clouds obscured the summit of Lafayette, but once we got there the skies cleared, though it was very breezy.

With the beautiful Franconia Ridge behind us, we headed over the north peak of Lafayette and down to the hell that is the Garfield Ridge Trail. I don’t know who laid out this trail but it was an incredibly rough three miles going up steep little knobs and down into little knolls over lots of rocks, roots and boulders. Actually, that wasn’t the worst part -- what is most demoralizing is the viewpoints where you can see Garfield still looming ahead -- often looking higher and just as far away as when you started. I tripped and slid down one of the rocks, landing on the leg with the camera in my pocket. Ouch!!

It took us forever to reach Garfield Pond and we were both almost out of water so we hiked down one of the water runoffs to filter some from the pond. It was filled with yellow pond lilies and did not look all that appetizing, but we really didn’t have any other choice. From there, we continued the scramble to the top and were both feeling really tired. I was so happy when I came out to a ledge with a great view of the “backside” of Franconia Ridge. After looking at the ledge, I turned around and saw the little concrete remains of Garfield’s firetower just over us.

We dropped our packs and climbed the final 150 feet of the summit The views from the summit are outstanding and were really our last good views of the Pemi for the trip. From the summit, it was just a short drop to the Garfield Ridge Campsite. Clouds started blowing in as we got there so we decided to stay at the shelter rather than worry about a wet tent.

 

[poison ivy]

Day 3, Tuesday, July 13:

Calley and I ended up on the trail at about 8:45 a.m. after watching snowshoe hares run around near the Garfield Ridge Shelter for the last time. A gray jay also made an appearance just as we were leaving, though it flew away before I could get my camera ready, already convinced it wasn’t going to get a handout.

The first half-mile or so was a tough rocky descent down lots of boulders that appeared to be sitting in a small stream, but it may have just been run-off. As we headed down the trail, it was wonderful to see Garfield looming behind us, rather than in front of us!

The trail eased up quite a bit until we hit the junction with the Gale River Trail. From there it was a fairly steep ascent up to Galehead Hut. Members of the hut croo, who must be used to the ascent, blew past us on the slopes carrying buckets and shovels. It was really windy near the hut and we dropped our packs on the bench outside before taking a snack break. We managed the one-mile roundtrip hike to the summit of Galehead within thirty minutes. The summit doesn’t really have a view, but a ledge on the way up overlooks Galehead Hut and shows the steep ascent next we’d be facing up South Twin Mountain.

Before heading up South Twin, we went back to the hut for bowls each of spicy tomato soup. It must have reenergized us because neither of us had any difficulty at all with the one-mile climb up the stone stairway to South Twin’s summit. It took just over an hour to reach the top, where we had quick views before the clouds started blowing in.

The AT follows the Twinway down from South Twin, at first a little steeply over a few ledges but the next two miles were basically flat, so we considered them bliss. The trail ascends slightly and we veered off the AT onto the Bondcliff Trail just short of Mt. Guyot’s summit. I’m sure the slopes of Guyot have a great view in nice weather, but a white cloud of mist enveloped as we hiked over the rocks and began the steep descent to the Guyot Shelter, our destination for the tonight and tomorrow night too.

Day 4, Wednesday, July 14:

I woke up to find a boreal chickadee hopping around in the shelter scavenging for food. It was so neat! However, the weather didn’t improve overnight -- so much for getting nice weather for my birthday!
At around 9 a.m., we decided to go and hike the Bonds anyway. We left our packs and most of our gear behind. The trail to Mt. Bond, wasn’t particularly steep and was fairly easy. When we arrived at the summit, the “finest views in the Whites” were shrouded in a could of white mist. We took a picture at the summit cairn and headed down the trail to Bondcliff.

Okay, so I’ll admit, hiking to Bondcliff in that weather wasn’t the smartest idea I ever had. The trail descends fairly steeply and then reaches a ridge after climbing over a tumble of lichen-covered rocks. Both Calley and I slipped and fell (none of the falls were particularly painful) crossing those rocks. I asked whether she felt comfortable continuing and she felt okay, so we kept going. Once on top of the ridge, we had about 15 foot visibility and could see to the next cairn but not far after. We finally recognized the all-too-famous cliff on the WMG cover. We took turns taking pictures of each other standing on the cliff, knowing that the commanding views were out there someplace in the fog and high-tailed it out of there, hiking back the way we came to Mt. Bond.

After a quick snack break, we headed back down to the West Bond spur. It was steeper than I thought it would be, but we quickly made it up to the summit and sat below a ledge to keep out of the wind for a break. We then headed back down to Guyot Shelter, deciding to stay another night instead of hiking on.

Day 5, Thursday, July 15:

After eating the dregs of the food bag for breakfast, Calley and I got on the trail at an astounding 6:15 a.m. We knew we’d have a long day and wanted to get an early start. The toughest climb of the day came at the beginning as we hiked out from the shelter back up Guyot to get back on the AT. The weather didn’t get any better -- in fact it was actually raining as we started hiking. My boots, which were still damp from yesterday’s excursion didn’t last very long. My right foot was wet within two miles and my right foot soon followed suit. So, I was squishing along the trail.

No views from the Guyot, but we figured we were golden with the toughest part of the day behind us. Calley was motivated to get coffee at Zealand Falls Hut (five miles from the start at Guyot Shelter) and raced down the trail -- I could barely keep up. It was a big change from yesterday when she was lagging behind me for most of the day. Consequently, she missed the .1 spur to the summit of Zealand. I yelled for her to come back, but she was far enough ahead that she didn’t hear me. So I left my trekking poles at the junction in case she returned and headed over to the summit myself.

Once I managed to catch up to Calley, she said she didn’t really want to head back so we kept going. The rain really started pouring as we headed down to the hut so I can’t blame her. Both of us were turning the corner to miserable as we realized that a 13 mile hike in a deluge wasn’t going to be a heck of a lot of fun. I remember looking up at those rain clouds and yelling “Is that all you’ve got? My navel is still dry!”

Our spirits lifted a bit when we came across a couple hiking up from the hut as part of an eight day hiking trip. They were both really dry so it was obvious the hut wasn’t too far away. The woman stopped and said we must have started early that morning (I think she assumed we stayed at Galehead Hut.) I told her our start time and our destination of Crawford Notch and she said “you guys are my hero” before hiking on. It’s hard to be grumpy when you run into people like that!

We arrived at Zealand Falls Hut at 10 a.m. to find they still had apricot scones and plenty of coffee left over from breakfast. Revived after our break, we hit the trail again at 11 and heading down to the Ethan Pond Trail. This trail was just what our feet needed -- for about three miles or so the trail, built on an old railroad grade, was completely flat, without rocks or roots as it descends very gradually toward Zealand Notch. The rain even started to let up a bit so we went back to enjoying the hike.

The Ethan Pond Trail isn’t completely heaven -- after a few miles, it became a boggy mud hole, lined with pretty pink sheep laurel. Many of the bog bridges through the mud had completely deteriorated. Since my feet were pretty much floating in my boots at this time, I just kept on walking through the mud until I reached one spot where I sunk down to my knees. After that, the splintered bog bridges looked a lot more attractive. We later passed a trail crew out replacing the bog bridges and we thanked them for their work. They looked like they were having a terrific time, despite the rain!

The miles pretty much flew by considering we had such a flat trail to deal with. With only a mile to go before Route 302, I incredibly stupidly walked into a rock on the side of the trail. Almost immediately a huge egg popped out of my knee, so our final downhill mile hurt like crazy and was incredibly slow. However, we reached the trailhead by 2:15.

After the trip, I've now completed 34 of the Nh 4K's & Calley has completed 27.

 

[MichaelJ]

Sounds like you'll just have to revisit the Bonds when better weather is forecast.


Glad you had a great trip!