dr_wu002
Well-known member
On Saturday, Jessbee and Dr. Wu met up at Lincoln Woods, spotted a car at Loon and drove over to Garfield for what was to be a fairly easy and spectacular (though sometimes frustrating) day in the woods. I'll get right to the details...
Garfield & Garfield Ridge Trail
The hike up Garfield is, as most people know, easy and nice. VFTT are incredible and since we got an early start, we had the summit all to ourselves. We spent a good 15 chilly minutes there before walking to Lafayette on the Garfield Ridge Trail which neither of us had ever been on before. The GRT is one of those trails people like to try and scare me about. I've hiked to Galehead from Garfield and that part is steep but nothing more. The section from Garfield to Lafayette though is one of the easiest sections of trail that I've come across in a while. I don't know what people are talking about -- there are NO difficult trails in the Whites, period.
Franconia Ridge - Elation/Frustration!
You actually pop above treeline on the GRT before you hit the Skoocumchuck trail! This section is quite amazing as is the long approach to Lafayette (over North Lafayette) which neither Jessbee or I have ever done before. The Lafayette Summit wasn't all that populated either so we had a nice time snacking, checking out the views, and relaxing before walking over to Truman and Lincoln. The ridge at this point was getting crowded so we moved quickly over Truman and hung out at the North Part of the Lincoln Summit to avoid the crowds. By the time we got to Little Haystack though I was convinced that they had rerouted I-93 over Franconia Ridge -- it was an almost unbroken line of people moving North on the trail! Little Haystack was a zoo!! We didn't stick around... figured Liberty would be less crowded.
Liberty wasn't. The trail over to Liberty was not crowded but Liberty itself was a nut house. The first thing we were greeted by was some 12 year old jerkoff throwing boulders off the Liberty Summit and his retarded parents lamely saying, "Darwin (can't remember name), don't throw rocks" which of course made the kid throw more. Jessbee suggested that having a dartgun would be fun but I told her, sardonically speaking of course, that a real gun would be more effective. However, I think "Darwin" will, one way or another, probably invent his own way to remove himself from the gene pool. Anyway, we went a little ways off the summit & find a quiet place to sit, eat and enjoy the views.
Whaleback
Our intention was to head down to Whaleback after Flume and out to our waiting car @ Loon. The Old Osseo Trail is easy to find and oddly enough, higher up it is well maintained (blowdown cut & removed; flagging; markers etc.) and gets a fair amount of travel. We were having a lot of fun – at one point you pass a section where it is steep on your left & there’s good views to Flume and also Guyot and Bond. After this point the trail gets a little more faint and we began encountering a lot of nasty blowdown that was actually easy to negotiate and pick up the trail again. Then we came to a section where the blowdown completely obliterated the trail… again, I angled hard around it but this time I couldn’t pick up the trail. At this point I made a foolish mistake: rather than head back to the trail and get my bearing, I started hunting around for the trail. I guess I was feeling overconfident because the trail had always been easy to pick up after the blowdown and I’m usually good at finding these things. Well, we ended up wandering all around, now bushwhacking, looking for the trail. After about 20 minutes and no trail I realized that we were lost – and it was getting late and the geography here was so ambiguous so rather than try to just find the summit (we were about 0.1 away from it when we lost the trail) I headed North, angling slightly East to a section where the trail was bounded by topography. This was slow going as well because now that you’re bushwhacking (it was thick) you can throw that 20 minutes/mile out the window. Luckily I easily found the trail but dicking around in the woods had cost us a decent amount of time so, rather than heading back to more unknown we decided to backtrack to the New Osseo Trail and take the easy and familiar way out.
No big deal – better safe than sorry, right? I could have found that section of blowdown and this time picked up the trail but after nearly 15-20 miles of hiking and darkness quickly approaching, I think this was probably the correct decision. Ironically, I felt great today. Throughout the whole trip, which with the BW was probably 20+ miles, I never felt tired even once. I could’ve hiked forever that day.
Retrospect
Really, this was a wonderful day. Garfield to Flume is just the most incredible hike I've been on since being in Iceland. It's open, the views are incredible, the weather was perfect! The crowds at one point or another were a bit much -- more than I had ever encountered on the ridge before -- but it didn't spoil the day. The walk on the Old Osseo Trail was a blast and the soft ground was a pleasant change after nearly an entire day on rough, rocky trail. Too bad we didn't find the summit but after a long day, although we both felt strong, doing something like this is a one shot deal. Either you find Whaleback or you go back. We went back and still had a great trip nonetheless.
Pictures
Later.
-Dr. Wu
Garfield & Garfield Ridge Trail
The hike up Garfield is, as most people know, easy and nice. VFTT are incredible and since we got an early start, we had the summit all to ourselves. We spent a good 15 chilly minutes there before walking to Lafayette on the Garfield Ridge Trail which neither of us had ever been on before. The GRT is one of those trails people like to try and scare me about. I've hiked to Galehead from Garfield and that part is steep but nothing more. The section from Garfield to Lafayette though is one of the easiest sections of trail that I've come across in a while. I don't know what people are talking about -- there are NO difficult trails in the Whites, period.
Franconia Ridge - Elation/Frustration!
You actually pop above treeline on the GRT before you hit the Skoocumchuck trail! This section is quite amazing as is the long approach to Lafayette (over North Lafayette) which neither Jessbee or I have ever done before. The Lafayette Summit wasn't all that populated either so we had a nice time snacking, checking out the views, and relaxing before walking over to Truman and Lincoln. The ridge at this point was getting crowded so we moved quickly over Truman and hung out at the North Part of the Lincoln Summit to avoid the crowds. By the time we got to Little Haystack though I was convinced that they had rerouted I-93 over Franconia Ridge -- it was an almost unbroken line of people moving North on the trail! Little Haystack was a zoo!! We didn't stick around... figured Liberty would be less crowded.
Liberty wasn't. The trail over to Liberty was not crowded but Liberty itself was a nut house. The first thing we were greeted by was some 12 year old jerkoff throwing boulders off the Liberty Summit and his retarded parents lamely saying, "Darwin (can't remember name), don't throw rocks" which of course made the kid throw more. Jessbee suggested that having a dartgun would be fun but I told her, sardonically speaking of course, that a real gun would be more effective. However, I think "Darwin" will, one way or another, probably invent his own way to remove himself from the gene pool. Anyway, we went a little ways off the summit & find a quiet place to sit, eat and enjoy the views.
Whaleback
Our intention was to head down to Whaleback after Flume and out to our waiting car @ Loon. The Old Osseo Trail is easy to find and oddly enough, higher up it is well maintained (blowdown cut & removed; flagging; markers etc.) and gets a fair amount of travel. We were having a lot of fun – at one point you pass a section where it is steep on your left & there’s good views to Flume and also Guyot and Bond. After this point the trail gets a little more faint and we began encountering a lot of nasty blowdown that was actually easy to negotiate and pick up the trail again. Then we came to a section where the blowdown completely obliterated the trail… again, I angled hard around it but this time I couldn’t pick up the trail. At this point I made a foolish mistake: rather than head back to the trail and get my bearing, I started hunting around for the trail. I guess I was feeling overconfident because the trail had always been easy to pick up after the blowdown and I’m usually good at finding these things. Well, we ended up wandering all around, now bushwhacking, looking for the trail. After about 20 minutes and no trail I realized that we were lost – and it was getting late and the geography here was so ambiguous so rather than try to just find the summit (we were about 0.1 away from it when we lost the trail) I headed North, angling slightly East to a section where the trail was bounded by topography. This was slow going as well because now that you’re bushwhacking (it was thick) you can throw that 20 minutes/mile out the window. Luckily I easily found the trail but dicking around in the woods had cost us a decent amount of time so, rather than heading back to more unknown we decided to backtrack to the New Osseo Trail and take the easy and familiar way out.
No big deal – better safe than sorry, right? I could have found that section of blowdown and this time picked up the trail but after nearly 15-20 miles of hiking and darkness quickly approaching, I think this was probably the correct decision. Ironically, I felt great today. Throughout the whole trip, which with the BW was probably 20+ miles, I never felt tired even once. I could’ve hiked forever that day.
Retrospect
Really, this was a wonderful day. Garfield to Flume is just the most incredible hike I've been on since being in Iceland. It's open, the views are incredible, the weather was perfect! The crowds at one point or another were a bit much -- more than I had ever encountered on the ridge before -- but it didn't spoil the day. The walk on the Old Osseo Trail was a blast and the soft ground was a pleasant change after nearly an entire day on rough, rocky trail. Too bad we didn't find the summit but after a long day, although we both felt strong, doing something like this is a one shot deal. Either you find Whaleback or you go back. We went back and still had a great trip nonetheless.
Pictures
Later.
-Dr. Wu
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