North east Adventures 5-7-17
Lincoln, Lafayette and Liberty
White mountains.
Adventure was calling once again, this time it was calling for the White mountains. I had set this adventure on a particular hike that was a very popular hike with tremendous views. Knowing that it could be very busy I decided to take my chances in the shoulder season. Being May, some snow still remained. Most of the snow would be rotten/ unstable while the solid snow would be in the very middle almost like a mono rail. I drove up after a working a full day at work. I had arrived at the trail head very late and would be hiking and setting up in the dark which was expected.. It was raining and just hot enough that you were comfortably uncomfortable. I was making good time and before I knew it I had hit the elevation gain. By now it was raining and i was pretty uncomfortable. Being dark and probably the only one on the trail, I proceeded to taking my shirt off and hiking with just a poncho and my shorts on. A huge sense of relief soon came as the breeze cooled me off. After 2 small stream crossings I soon made it to liberty springs camp site. I was the only one there as I navigated my way through the blow down and empty campsite. This was before I had my tent, so I had brought with my 4 season bivy and a tarp.
I unpacked my gear in the heavy wind that was picking up as I was setting up camp. After I had set camp up I went over to the bear proof canister and put anything that had an odor in it and went back to my camp site. It was a very rough wind with the rain and the tree branches that I would find around my bivy. Amazingly despite my tarp somehow ending up flapping in the wind and soon in my face after i opened up the bivy, I was ok. It was a wet morning, it had rained overnight and everything was very slick. I went over to the bear box and got my edibles. As I was opening up the bear box, I realized that I was the only one up here. I quickly ate my breakfast I wanted to get on trail. I packed up the gear that I was going to bring and I was on my way up to the Junction between Liberty Spring and Franconia Ridge trail.
Franconia notch is a beautiful area, if you have nice weather. I tend to enjoy the type-2 days and fun sometimes more than a picture perfect day. This was one of those days where it was all type 2 fun. I worked my way on the Franconia ridge trail. There was still a bit of snow above treeline but just in between needing snowshoes and actually needing them. Being of my earlier hikes I do wish after I did it I should have brought them. After hiking for a bit in the dense forest, the trail didn’t look like it saw much use. The trees were very dense at times due to all of the blow down. Blow down always makes for fun navigating. I soon made it out of the trees and to the ridge line, above treeline. It was cloudy and windy the moment I hit treeline but it was manageable with my current layering. I pushed on the trail, typically there would be a nice 360 degree view but everything was blocked in by the clouds.
I soon made it to Lincoln, I quietly rejoiced as I could not see a thing but being trapped in the clouds was such a mystical feeling. While enjoying this feeling I was interrupted by the sudden increase in wind and now rain. I donned my rain gear and pushed on towards Mt Lafayette. The wind was getting heavier and the wind was getting fierce as I was pushing on. I was starting to get a slight chill as I could see Lafayette in the heart of the mist provided by the clouds. As I pushed onward the wind got more forceful and the rain got heavier as I approached the summit. The final push was the most memorable because , as I was looking for the summit marker I climbed over the ledge and got hit by a surge of wind and rain right in my face. At 5,000+ Feet I could only see rain and clouds around me. After enjoying the clouds views I worked my way back to the junction to Liberty springs. Even though my body was tired and I was running on fumes I decided to make the half mile push up to liberty. Every step I made felt like lead weight in my legs. I was running on fumes but step by step I pushed onward. The last led to a view of the clouds starting to break. For what seemed like for ages I was now seeing through the clouds. I sat here for a bit and enjoyed view for a bit.
After enjoying the view I headed back down to the campsite and broke down camp. It was a mostly downhill hike at this point with a heavy pack. I quickly packed up camp and made my way down. Despite getting rained on, having a tree branch fall on me and getting knocked around by winds, I had a pretty amazing time.
