8/4: Mount Lafayette
I know I know this post is more than a month after I actually took the photos! I've been a bit slow editing them, since I took 1,000... given the amount I took I'm sure you won't be surprised that this post will be longer than most! I thought about making it more than one post, but it's been so long I just want to share!
Picking up from where I left off last time in Acadia, Wednesday 8/3 Alexis, Rachel, Behr and I left Acadia and drove the 5 hours to our campsite in New Hampshire. We grabbed some groceries for grilling and checked into our campsite. We stayed at Lost River Campground, which allows dogs, and it has a small river running along one side and a brook on the other that meet at the end of the campgrounds. It's a very pretty location and several of the campsites are very private and on the water. We spent the day setting up camp, exploring the camp ground, eating, and hanging out by the fire.
The next morning we got up fairly early, ate, and got ready for the day. We made sure to pack lots of water for us and Behr. We each carried a Camelbak with 70L and water bottles. I had 4 large water bottles in my bag as well! We were headed to a parking lot at Franconia State Park to do the 8.9 mile loop that crosses part of the Appalachian Trail and you summit three peaks including Mount Lafayette, the highest peak outside of the Presidential's in New Hampshire at 5,254 feet. The loop is considered very difficult with rock stair cases the entire way up and down and has an elevation gain of 3,900 feet.
We set out for the parking lot at the base of the Mount Lafayette loup and began our hike around 11 am. There is lots of information to be found online about hiking the 8.9 mile loop. We began from the parking lot, 0.2 miles to Falling Waters Trail 2.9 miles (past 3 small waterfalls on Dry Brook) to the first summit, Little Haystack Mountain on the Franconia Ridge piece of the Appalachian Trail. Then summit Mount Lincoln on the way to Mount Lafayette 1.7 miles later. Descending 1.1 miles down Greenleaf Trail to the AMC hut to stop and take a break and finally 3 miles back on Old Bridle Path to the parking lot. Map shown below.
All of this we knew ahead of time. Despite the warnings that the hike is for experienced hikers we committed ourselves to making the full loop. It was am amazing hike and most defiantly is more suited to those who hike regularly. We are all in decent shape and hike mild and shorter hikes fairly often but could have used a bit more experience for this. Before this trip Behr's longest hike was probably 4 miles and didn't have much elevation gain so we weren't sure how he would do. Surprisingly, while very tired, he made it the whole way on his own! The whole hike took us about 8 hours and I wouldn't recommend starting later than we did unless you are an experienced hiker and know what you're doing. I should probably note I obviously took a lot of photos so that made the hike take longer than it might for someone just hiking. We got lucky and it was a beautiful day, if the weather turns bad when are on the ridge, 1.7 miles of the hike that is above the tree line, you are exposed so I would recommend turning back!
Back to the beginning of our hike and some photos. We began from the parking lot right off 93 and walked the 0.2 miles on Old Bridle path that connected us to Falling Waters Trail. This was the last chance to use a bathroom until you reached the AMC hut 5.7 miles later. We quickly made it to Falling Waters Trail with Dry Brook winding along the path, and the path cross over several times.
The many exposed roots and rock stairs cases along the way added natural beauty to the man made path and make the hike more strenuous. Once we reached the first point the path crossed Dry Brook we played a bit in the brook and climbed some wet rock. If I didn't mention it before I highly recommend taking Falling Waters Trail up and NOT down if you are doing the loop, not only is it beautiful but there are wet rocks along the path and finding your footing on the way down would be more difficult.
Along the path we came across the first waterfall and stopped to take some photos and play on a nearby fallen tree that crosses 10-12 feet above the ground by the path.
The natural beauty along the way made it hard not to stop every second for a photo, okay well maybe I actually did come a bit too close to stopping every few seconds! It also made it difficult not to want to stop and just soak it in, but it's a long difficult trail so we kept moving.
We passed another small piece of the brook that looked a bit like a waterfall. The rocks ran down like staircases in this piece of the brook and it seemed like a small three tiered waterfall.
As usual I couldn't help taking many photos of Alexis and Behr, Behr is just such a happy dog.
The altitude and rock staircases started getting to us and we would pause more often to catch our breath and rest with Behr after the last waterfall, but even before that (as you see above) we were steadily climbing rock stair cases and gaining elevation.
The last waterfall along the path is the largest, Bridal Veil Falls. Here we stopped to eat cliff bars and enjoy the view for a bit, but not too long. And as always to take some photos!
While crossing the brook for what I believe was the lasts time, this mini falls caught my eye. The steps in the grey, yellow, orange, white rock covered in patches of green moss passing sprouts of water down a level until the flow on.
Climbing climbing climbing, on past beautiful rock staircases and exposed tree roots.
We couldn't let the beauty deter us from our destination so I'd stop very quickly, often so quickly my photos weren't always in focus, to try to capture the feeling of being there. The warmth of the day, the happy moss growing on the paths, the fungi on the rocks, lucky clovers even sprouting from moss, and the tree tall and strong.
Getting closer to the top we start to see the tree line and some of the mountains around us.
And we finally reached the first summit, Little Haystack Mountain, where a friendly fellow hiker asked if we wanted a photo. Reaching the first summit felt like a relief at this point, the altitude gain and rock stair cases were pretty steep at the end of the Falling Waters Trail. We took a break here and had another small snack and lots of water.
Before we continued on Behr got to meet this adorable little puppy who was making the loop, half walking and half carried, from the other direction headed back down Falling Waters Trail.
When we began onto Franconia Ridge it was really hard to tell along the way when we hit the second peak, the trail slopes up and down regularly across the mountains. We would hit a new part where it seemed we were at a peak and wonder if that one was close to our final destination. The 1.7 miles from peak to peak seemed to take longer than we expected.
Even along the tops of these mountains there were more rock stairs cases, and beautiful views.
We finally made it to Mount Lafayette but didn't linger, it was getting later in the day and we knew we still have 4.1 miles to go!
This ones funny if you can see it, Behr is making this awfully funny sneezy face and Alexis is looking at him laughing. While Rachel is oblivious and taking photos of the view into the valley below.
We tried to make the 1.1 miles to the AMC hut in record time (for us at least) and we're moving fairly quickly down the rock staircases. Above you can even see Behr being silly and trying to more more quickly. At one point I yelled out a warning about a slippery rock. Ironically enough pretty close to that spot Alexis ended up slipping and spraining his ankle. He had to talk the rest of way down with it sprained, irritating it more.
We stopped for a bathroom break and water refills (not that we really needed them at this point, we had enough water still) and sat for a bit outside the AMC lodge as they began their dinner.
Old Bridle Path on the way down was full of exposed rock staircases, rock stair cases and exposed roots, with a path that ran in and out of covered woods.
Once we were back at the car we all lay down on the ground feeling accomplished and very tired. We grabbed some ice cream afterwards and hung out back at camp. Because of Alexis's injury we headed straight home the next day. We'll head back up into the White Mountains this month to check out a few more areas!
