BIGEarl
Well-known member
April 9, 2011: Franconia Ridge Traverse – Lafayette to Flume
Trails: Franconia Notch Recreation Trail, Old Bridle Path, Greenleaf Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Liberty Spring Trail
Summits: Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty, Flume
Speed Bumps: Truman, Little Haystack
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
Here’s a surprise - the weather experts were wrong, again. But, this time they were wrong in the right direction. The forecast indicated cloudy conditions until midday and then some clearing in the afternoon. We were also told about 35+ mph winds over 5000 feet – they didn’t happen either. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a moderate northwest wind on the ridge. It was a nice above-the-treeline kind of day.
Sue and I started by leaving the truck at The Basin, which was our ending location. We grabbed our things and started a warm-up walk to Lafayette Place and the trailhead for Old Bridle Path, a little under two miles away. As we were passing through Lafayette Place we met Peakbagger. His plans for the day fell apart and we invited him to join us for the day. He decided to join us for at least part of the hike. On the other side of the highway, as we passed the OBP trailhead there were quite a few people in the lot getting ready for their day. Amongst them was Mike Lynch. Sue and I waved to him but I don’t think he saw us.
As expected, Old Bridle Path is a solid track all of the way to the Greenleaf Hut. Sue and I started bare booting the day but at the first small steep pitch we pulled out the MicroSpikes, Dennis already had his Hillsound Trail Crampons (I think) in place. With the traction problem taken care of we continued our climb to our first target for the day – Mount Lafayette.
Agony Ridge was a terrific part of the hike as usual. We reached the first open viewpoint and stopped to enjoy the sights of Franconia Ridge including a small piece of Liberty’s summit to the south. Over and over again, all of the way to Greenleaf Hut we were treated to great views of Franconia Ridge. We also enjoyed views into Vermont to everything between Mount Mansfield and Killington. We left our crampons behind for this hike and it turned out to be a good decision. The climb to the hut and on to Lafayette went without any additional traction problems. On the summit of Lafayette we enjoyed “100 mile” views. What a day to be above the treeline. There was a pretty good breeze but definitely not the 35+ mph that was in the forecast. It was easy to stay warm but we needed to keep moving or add layers. We soon set off south on Franconia Ridge Trail (FRT) for the rest of our day.
Next target was Lincoln. Between Lafayette and Lincoln is a speed bump identified as Mount Truman on publications by N.H Division of Forests and Lands – DRED. On the way we met a few familiar faces including MtnPa and Arm hiking the Lincoln-Lafayette loop counterclockwise. We spent a fair amount of time visiting along the way. It’s always nice to see familiar faces on the trail. We also observed a backcountry skier having fun on Lincoln Slide. The trail on the ridge is a combination of clear trail, packed snow, and ice. There was nothing along the way that the light traction couldn’t handle. We arrived to the summit of Lincoln around 1:00pm. This was a place for a quick sanity check on our plans for the day. Lincoln is the mid-point for our planned route. We were in great shape; based on the start time, our progress, and our planned hike, we should be descending Liberty Spring Trail before the headlights are needed. We were good to go for Mount Flume.
We continued south on FRT through the area known as The Gargoyles and on to Little Haystack. At Little Haystack we said goodbye to Dennis; he made the turn and descended back to the start via Falling Waters.
Our day just got a little more difficult. The trail from Little Haystack to Liberty Spring was not broken out. In fact, it was completely drifted in and we had no sign of prior traffic to assist in trail finding. Within a very short distance we changed from MicroSpikes to snowshoes and dug in. The sheltered nature of the trail south of Little Haystack meant the snow was deep and heavily drifted in places. There were quite a few blowdowns along the way and poor blazing made the trail a little tough to follow in places. We both started really watching for signs of the trail corridor as we made our way south. There were a couple places where we wandered off the actual trail but the diversions were short and we were soon again on course. Trail finding and trail breaking cost us some time but we made it to the junction with Liberty Spring Trail still in pretty good shape.
The final walk to the summit if Liberty is a short one and the trail was really beat down, and up. We met a herd of bare booters hiking north from Liberty. They were all having a great time but really tearing up the trail. Later in the hike Sue commented the areas of butt sliding were more enjoyable than the postholes. It was bad. We stayed with our snowshoes and were able to smooth the trail, a little. Our time on Liberty was short for a couple reasons; we wanted to make the final trek to Flume where we u-turn for our hike out, and we were coming back to Liberty on our exit hike (climb it twice – count it once).
The ~1.1 mile walk to Flume went reasonably well. The postholing was impressive. I’m surprised at the depth of some of the holes – long legs for sure! It was getting late and I was running on empty. The climb to Flume went slow with extra stops along the way. It had nothing at all to do with the trail – I was simply running out of gas. We reached the summit, got a few pictures and enjoyed the views for a while. Sue told me about some cookies she had and also said I could have one when we were back on Liberty. That’s all it took, we made the u-turn and were hiking north on FRT for our exit over Mount Liberty. Re-climbing Liberty was similar to the climb of Flume – lot’s of stops along the way. We hit the summit; I finished off a quart of Gatorade and enjoyed one of Sue’s cookies. The sun was fading fast and sitting around was an easy way to get chilled. We grabbed our things and continued for the trailhead.
Descending Liberty Spring Trail went well. The upper part of the trail is a nice packed snow base with very little ice. On the way past the Liberty Spring Tentsite we noticed a large group with tents setup for the night. They invited us to join them for Margaritas but Sue declined. We continued toward the trailhead and roughly a half mile before reaching the junction with Flume Slide Trail we pulled out the headlights. The remainder of our day would be under the lights.
The lower part of Liberty Spring Trail is showing the effects of spring; there are open places in the trail that will eventually be mud pits, the streams are all open without snow bridges. There is enough snow to require snowshoes but enough exposed rocks to really beat them up if you’re not careful. We carefully picked our way through these areas and soon passed the Flume Slide Trail junction. A short distance further We stopped and I asked Sue “Shortcut?”. She said “sure”. We set off on the short bushwhack shortcut to The Basin. In a few minutes we were on the side of the stream that runs along the Franconia Notch Recreation Trail looking for a dry way across. We went north a short distance, found a couple logs, and made it to the trail with dry feet. From there it was a short walk to The Basin and our waiting truck.
Nice conditions, nice loop, nice company (sorry to lose Peakbagger when we did – he’s a treat to hike with), generally a nice day.
Thanks Sue, we’ll go again in a few days.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
Trails: Franconia Notch Recreation Trail, Old Bridle Path, Greenleaf Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Liberty Spring Trail
Summits: Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty, Flume
Speed Bumps: Truman, Little Haystack
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
Here’s a surprise - the weather experts were wrong, again. But, this time they were wrong in the right direction. The forecast indicated cloudy conditions until midday and then some clearing in the afternoon. We were also told about 35+ mph winds over 5000 feet – they didn’t happen either. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a moderate northwest wind on the ridge. It was a nice above-the-treeline kind of day.
Sue and I started by leaving the truck at The Basin, which was our ending location. We grabbed our things and started a warm-up walk to Lafayette Place and the trailhead for Old Bridle Path, a little under two miles away. As we were passing through Lafayette Place we met Peakbagger. His plans for the day fell apart and we invited him to join us for the day. He decided to join us for at least part of the hike. On the other side of the highway, as we passed the OBP trailhead there were quite a few people in the lot getting ready for their day. Amongst them was Mike Lynch. Sue and I waved to him but I don’t think he saw us.
As expected, Old Bridle Path is a solid track all of the way to the Greenleaf Hut. Sue and I started bare booting the day but at the first small steep pitch we pulled out the MicroSpikes, Dennis already had his Hillsound Trail Crampons (I think) in place. With the traction problem taken care of we continued our climb to our first target for the day – Mount Lafayette.
Agony Ridge was a terrific part of the hike as usual. We reached the first open viewpoint and stopped to enjoy the sights of Franconia Ridge including a small piece of Liberty’s summit to the south. Over and over again, all of the way to Greenleaf Hut we were treated to great views of Franconia Ridge. We also enjoyed views into Vermont to everything between Mount Mansfield and Killington. We left our crampons behind for this hike and it turned out to be a good decision. The climb to the hut and on to Lafayette went without any additional traction problems. On the summit of Lafayette we enjoyed “100 mile” views. What a day to be above the treeline. There was a pretty good breeze but definitely not the 35+ mph that was in the forecast. It was easy to stay warm but we needed to keep moving or add layers. We soon set off south on Franconia Ridge Trail (FRT) for the rest of our day.
Next target was Lincoln. Between Lafayette and Lincoln is a speed bump identified as Mount Truman on publications by N.H Division of Forests and Lands – DRED. On the way we met a few familiar faces including MtnPa and Arm hiking the Lincoln-Lafayette loop counterclockwise. We spent a fair amount of time visiting along the way. It’s always nice to see familiar faces on the trail. We also observed a backcountry skier having fun on Lincoln Slide. The trail on the ridge is a combination of clear trail, packed snow, and ice. There was nothing along the way that the light traction couldn’t handle. We arrived to the summit of Lincoln around 1:00pm. This was a place for a quick sanity check on our plans for the day. Lincoln is the mid-point for our planned route. We were in great shape; based on the start time, our progress, and our planned hike, we should be descending Liberty Spring Trail before the headlights are needed. We were good to go for Mount Flume.
We continued south on FRT through the area known as The Gargoyles and on to Little Haystack. At Little Haystack we said goodbye to Dennis; he made the turn and descended back to the start via Falling Waters.
Our day just got a little more difficult. The trail from Little Haystack to Liberty Spring was not broken out. In fact, it was completely drifted in and we had no sign of prior traffic to assist in trail finding. Within a very short distance we changed from MicroSpikes to snowshoes and dug in. The sheltered nature of the trail south of Little Haystack meant the snow was deep and heavily drifted in places. There were quite a few blowdowns along the way and poor blazing made the trail a little tough to follow in places. We both started really watching for signs of the trail corridor as we made our way south. There were a couple places where we wandered off the actual trail but the diversions were short and we were soon again on course. Trail finding and trail breaking cost us some time but we made it to the junction with Liberty Spring Trail still in pretty good shape.
The final walk to the summit if Liberty is a short one and the trail was really beat down, and up. We met a herd of bare booters hiking north from Liberty. They were all having a great time but really tearing up the trail. Later in the hike Sue commented the areas of butt sliding were more enjoyable than the postholes. It was bad. We stayed with our snowshoes and were able to smooth the trail, a little. Our time on Liberty was short for a couple reasons; we wanted to make the final trek to Flume where we u-turn for our hike out, and we were coming back to Liberty on our exit hike (climb it twice – count it once).
The ~1.1 mile walk to Flume went reasonably well. The postholing was impressive. I’m surprised at the depth of some of the holes – long legs for sure! It was getting late and I was running on empty. The climb to Flume went slow with extra stops along the way. It had nothing at all to do with the trail – I was simply running out of gas. We reached the summit, got a few pictures and enjoyed the views for a while. Sue told me about some cookies she had and also said I could have one when we were back on Liberty. That’s all it took, we made the u-turn and were hiking north on FRT for our exit over Mount Liberty. Re-climbing Liberty was similar to the climb of Flume – lot’s of stops along the way. We hit the summit; I finished off a quart of Gatorade and enjoyed one of Sue’s cookies. The sun was fading fast and sitting around was an easy way to get chilled. We grabbed our things and continued for the trailhead.
Descending Liberty Spring Trail went well. The upper part of the trail is a nice packed snow base with very little ice. On the way past the Liberty Spring Tentsite we noticed a large group with tents setup for the night. They invited us to join them for Margaritas but Sue declined. We continued toward the trailhead and roughly a half mile before reaching the junction with Flume Slide Trail we pulled out the headlights. The remainder of our day would be under the lights.
The lower part of Liberty Spring Trail is showing the effects of spring; there are open places in the trail that will eventually be mud pits, the streams are all open without snow bridges. There is enough snow to require snowshoes but enough exposed rocks to really beat them up if you’re not careful. We carefully picked our way through these areas and soon passed the Flume Slide Trail junction. A short distance further We stopped and I asked Sue “Shortcut?”. She said “sure”. We set off on the short bushwhack shortcut to The Basin. In a few minutes we were on the side of the stream that runs along the Franconia Notch Recreation Trail looking for a dry way across. We went north a short distance, found a couple logs, and made it to the trail with dry feet. From there it was a short walk to The Basin and our waiting truck.
Nice conditions, nice loop, nice company (sorry to lose Peakbagger when we did – he’s a treat to hike with), generally a nice day.
Thanks Sue, we’ll go again in a few days.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
