East Pond; No / Greenleaf Hut; Yes

[Jimmy Legs and Little D]

On 2/28/10 Plan A was to hike to East Pond via the East Pond Trail off of the Kancamagus Highway. However, due to the heavy amounts of snow at the upper elevations we bailed out after hiking about a hundred yards and loosing the trail because of the overhanging branches.

Plan B was to hike to the Greenleaf Hut and if time permitted, continue to the summit of Mount Lafayette.

The last time we hiked this trail was back in 1993 when we did the Franconia Ridge Loop; descending by the Falling Waters Trail.
For the most part, the trail was packed and bare bootable and hiking with our Katoola micospikes proved to be a disadvantage in that the snow would ball up on the bottom of our boots.
Everything was covered in a new layer of snow.

Once on Agony Ridge we began to see views of what laid ahead.

Reaching Greenleaf Hut at 1:15pm we added layer of clothes to fend off the cold and wind.

Because of time restraints we decided to head back.
Coming down we couldn’t help but see the views of:

Cannon cliffs

Looking south along I-93

Lonesome lake

We returned to our vehicle at 4pm and headed to Woodstock Station for dinner with the former owner of the Franconia Notch Motel.

 

[mtruman]

Another nice one! You managed to hit two of our favorite spots in the Whites in a single day - Franconia Ridge (well almost) and Woodstock Station. Seeing that first pic I can't imagine why you gave up on East Pond though