arghman
New member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2004
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(Lafayette, Lincoln, Little Haystack, Liberty. Great day but AVOID the Pemi Trail)
nice weather on Franconia Ridge, flags flying for Sep. 11 like others of you had mentioned. Mountain sandwort (Arenaria groenlandica) was still in bloom in many spots, a few sporadic blueberries still left.
I ran into some acquaintances of mine, one of whom is an Alpine Steward for AMC, as of about 2:45pm he had counted 338 people up on the ridge. (Not many of whom responded to a "hello", and there was one guy speaking loudly on a cell phone on Mt Lafayette.
)
The trail from Little Haystack to Liberty was much nicer in some ways -- a fairly level walk through some open spruce woods w/ moss, slightly boggy, lots of wood sorrel. I only ran into 6 people, everyone of which said hello. Two of them were thru-hikers who stopped to chat a little while, mostly about the rainy weather this summer.
After I got down via Liberty Spring trail, started back to my car via Pemi trail (2.8 mile level walk along the Pemigewasset R.) Big mistake. This trail is NOT well maintained. No blazes, nonstandard trail signs at the junctions, (arrows curving down to point towards the ground) sections with pockets of 9" deep mud where you wouldn't expect them (no attempt at drainage or bridges), and the trail petered out into nowhere at one point. I'm lucky I had map+compass+GPS (which told me I where I was relative to one of the I93 exits), but ended up having to bushwhack for 10 mins and cross Cascade Brook nearly at dusk. I found the bike path & took that the rest of the way. NH Parks staff is going to hear from me.
Anyway, the ridgeline was well worth the effort (especially those weird rock formations south of Mt. Lincoln)
nice weather on Franconia Ridge, flags flying for Sep. 11 like others of you had mentioned. Mountain sandwort (Arenaria groenlandica) was still in bloom in many spots, a few sporadic blueberries still left.
I ran into some acquaintances of mine, one of whom is an Alpine Steward for AMC, as of about 2:45pm he had counted 338 people up on the ridge. (Not many of whom responded to a "hello", and there was one guy speaking loudly on a cell phone on Mt Lafayette.
)The trail from Little Haystack to Liberty was much nicer in some ways -- a fairly level walk through some open spruce woods w/ moss, slightly boggy, lots of wood sorrel. I only ran into 6 people, everyone of which said hello. Two of them were thru-hikers who stopped to chat a little while, mostly about the rainy weather this summer.
After I got down via Liberty Spring trail, started back to my car via Pemi trail (2.8 mile level walk along the Pemigewasset R.) Big mistake. This trail is NOT well maintained.
No blazes, nonstandard trail signs at the junctions, (arrows curving down to point towards the ground) sections with pockets of 9" deep mud where you wouldn't expect them (no attempt at drainage or bridges), and the trail petered out into nowhere at one point. I'm lucky I had map+compass+GPS (which told me I where I was relative to one of the I93 exits), but ended up having to bushwhack for 10 mins and cross Cascade Brook nearly at dusk. I found the bike path & took that the rest of the way. NH Parks staff is going to hear from me.Anyway, the ridgeline was well worth the effort (especially those weird rock formations south of Mt. Lincoln)
