Skookumchuckin' to North Lafayette 9/7/12

[grouseking]

This was a much planned trip back to North Lafayette via the Skookumchuck trail. Back in Jan of 2011 I attempted it with some friends but we lost the trail, and had to turn around. After seeing where the trail went last Friday, I felt kind of stupid, but the amount of snow obscured the trail enough so we were forced to go back. But there was no such problem on Friday! It is a wonderful trail, and I may repeat it someday.

Skookumchuck Brook

A taste of fall!

heading towards treeline

view from the trail junction...what a day!

interesting vantage point of cannon, the kinsmans and the surrounding area

Neat view into the Pemi

Garfield Ridge trail near the Skoo trail junc

My new toy...lots of steps!

It was good to be above treeline, temps were in the 60s at the summit...pretty good for sept!

http://grouseking.smugmug.com/New-H...yette/25295027_HGtmwD#!i=2078430909&k=WJPzHxC

 

[Jimmy Legs and Little D]

Nice hike, Phil. The Skookumchuck Trail is a good one to take to avoid the crowds. That was a lot of steps too. It is beginning to look a bit fallish.

Donna

 

[Driver8]

Very pretty pics, grouseking - thank you for sharing. I came at Franconia Ridge from a different direction Sunday, the Falling Waters to Old Bridle Path loop. It was a beautiful, clear day, but windy and chilly up top - winds 20-35, variable in exposed areas, temps ranging from low to higher 40s. Was my first time to do that loop - had done Lafayette, there-and-back by OBP and Greenleaf Memorial Day weekend. Such an extraordinarily beautiful place. I want to scoot up the Skook before too long, maybe do a two-car number with it and Greenleaf or a two-day loop over Garfield and the Twins, we'll see.

I have a newbie question: I just posted a new thread here and inserted photos, but they appear as links for me, unlike for you and unlike what I've experienced with Whiteblaze. Can you kindly help me figure out how to post my pics as photos, not as links? I'd be ever so thankful.

 

[Raymond]

This is the way I do it: I have my photos posted on Webshots, then I can link to them with the symbol (that appears on this site while I’m typing my message) that looks like a square with a tree in it. Open up the photo on that other site, get the linking address, then insert it in the ‘‘From URL’’ window that appears after you click on that symbol here. I had to unclick the ‘‘Retrieve remote file and reference locally’’ box to get it to work.

I don’t know how some people, like Grouseking, get their photos to appear so huge, though. Not using Webshots, I guess.

I tried to get to North Lafayette on Monday, but conditions were too bad for me. I figured I may as well save it for a day I could enjoy it. The summits were socked in and there was a stiff wind blowing. The thermometer on my Helix wristwatch (which was in the back pocket of my pack, not on my wrist) said 41°, but an Appalachian Trail section hiker’s thermometer said 37.6°, so who knows. It was somewhere in there, I guess. Anyway, I turned back when I thought I saw ice forming on my pack. Just water droplets, probably.

By the way: It was a Franconia Ridge miracle! I had the summits of Liberty, Lincoln, and (for the first few minutes or so) Lafayette all to myself that day. I’ll bet that doesn’t happen very often.