WeRmudfun
New member
We took the pup up Mt Garfield for her 11th 4000 footer. We parked at the trailhead and were surprised to see the amount of cars parked there for a Friday. Seemed strange that we probably only saw 8-9 people all day. We figured the others might have gone to the hut.
The Garfield Trail starts with a slight UP, then drops down to the first small water crossing that has a bog bridge. It is 4.8 miles long and is a relatively easy trail. The trail is blazed with blue blazes. The trail then drops you onto an old Jeep road that used to supply the fire tower. The first few water crossing after that are easy to just rock hop over. We run into some mud areas, but they were avoidable. There are a few blow downs, but there are also signs of recent trail maintenance. There is a snowmobile trail that crosses the Garfield Trail. There are branches laid across both side to let you know to keep going straight. This trail is very easy to follow and for the most part it is and easy to moderate trail to hike. A lot of fresh leaves that have fallen on the trail. Once you come to the switchback section there are some spots where the trail is wet, so slipping on the leaves and rocks might become a problem. I saw Brandi slide down a few boulders. Right before the trail junction there is a slight UP over a bunch of jumbled rocks.
The junction with the Garfield Ridge Trail looked quite different to us as the last time we were there we were standing in 8-9 inches of fresh snow. From the junction it is .2 miles to the summit on Mt Garfield. This is the only part of the whole hike that required effort. Most of the way were wet rocks and boulders requiring that you pay attention to avoid falling. This was also the area where we saw clouds rolling in. We were worried that the 5 mile hike in was not going to award us with views, we were wrong.
The views we mainly wanted to see were not disappointing. We love how Owl's Head is in the middle of all the other mountains around it. We call the area 'The Arena' as that is what it reminds us of. Before we completed the NH 48, we had no idea where Owl's Head was until we stood on Mt Garfield and someone pointed it out to us. What goes around comes around, as we were able to point it out to someone else yesterday who seemed as impressed as we were the first time. There is a foundation from the old fire tower on the summit. It seems ironic though that the fire tower, well burnt down in the 1950's according to our research.
Overall for a 4000 footer, it's not a hard one to bag in our opinion. We are not the fastest hikers and were able to do the 10 mile round trip in 6 hours including spending over a half hour on the summit. We posted a video of day's adventure if anyone would like to see the trail conditions...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RU7vxtL8RY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
The Garfield Trail starts with a slight UP, then drops down to the first small water crossing that has a bog bridge. It is 4.8 miles long and is a relatively easy trail. The trail is blazed with blue blazes. The trail then drops you onto an old Jeep road that used to supply the fire tower. The first few water crossing after that are easy to just rock hop over. We run into some mud areas, but they were avoidable. There are a few blow downs, but there are also signs of recent trail maintenance. There is a snowmobile trail that crosses the Garfield Trail. There are branches laid across both side to let you know to keep going straight. This trail is very easy to follow and for the most part it is and easy to moderate trail to hike. A lot of fresh leaves that have fallen on the trail. Once you come to the switchback section there are some spots where the trail is wet, so slipping on the leaves and rocks might become a problem. I saw Brandi slide down a few boulders. Right before the trail junction there is a slight UP over a bunch of jumbled rocks.
The junction with the Garfield Ridge Trail looked quite different to us as the last time we were there we were standing in 8-9 inches of fresh snow. From the junction it is .2 miles to the summit on Mt Garfield. This is the only part of the whole hike that required effort. Most of the way were wet rocks and boulders requiring that you pay attention to avoid falling. This was also the area where we saw clouds rolling in. We were worried that the 5 mile hike in was not going to award us with views, we were wrong.
The views we mainly wanted to see were not disappointing. We love how Owl's Head is in the middle of all the other mountains around it. We call the area 'The Arena' as that is what it reminds us of. Before we completed the NH 48, we had no idea where Owl's Head was until we stood on Mt Garfield and someone pointed it out to us. What goes around comes around, as we were able to point it out to someone else yesterday who seemed as impressed as we were the first time. There is a foundation from the old fire tower on the summit. It seems ironic though that the fire tower, well burnt down in the 1950's according to our research. Overall for a 4000 footer, it's not a hard one to bag in our opinion. We are not the fastest hikers and were able to do the 10 mile round trip in 6 hours including spending over a half hour on the summit. We posted a video of day's adventure if anyone would like to see the trail conditions...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RU7vxtL8RY&feature=c4-overview&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
