Franconia Ridge Traverse

Franconia Ridge Traverse

August 16, 2008

Today's adventures started with Mad River (aka Rick) asking if we were interested in doing something 'challenging'. He was considering Lincoln/Lafayette and we easily talked him into heading up via Skookumchuck and finishing at Liberty. Andrea, a new hiking buddy from earlier this week also joined in for some fun.

After car spotting, we started up Skookumchuck at 8:30. Mad River sporting one of his new hiking accessories, a lovely kilt. Cloudy skies but no rain at this point. The trail was rather damp, but we enjoyed the scenery and varying terrain. The trail challenges along some steep sections, but then opens up 4.2 miles on the Garfield Ridge trail, just below North Lafayette. We watched some interesting cloud formations all around us as we headed up North and over to Lafayette. A few rain drops started falling enroute and some omnimus thunder also began at this point. Time for rain jacket, some quick views (and food) at the summit. As we were getting ready to leave we spotted one of the AMC volunteers that looked familar. Turns out he was at the Lakes hut years before when we were part of group that had a Blue Grass concert/dance at the hut one weekend.

With thunder and lightning in the distance, we made a quick departure onward towards Lincoln. We were surprised at the low volume of traffic for this popular trail, especially on a weekend in August. On the way to Lincon the sun came out and off came the rain gear! It was here that Rick decided to brave it and hike sans underwear in his kilt! But alas his sense of modesty quickly returned with the winds :>

As we came off Lincoln we could see the rain line approaching from the West and the rain gear was quickly put back on. The rain hit us, but very quickly turned into hail growing in size to the point it stung hitting our exposed legs. We found shelter and waited out the passing storm before heading over to Haystack. Luckily the hail lasted only about 5-6 minutes.

At Haystack we decided that it would be better to continue on to Liberty via the tree protected ridge, versus heading down Falling Waters trail, one that is very steep. Soon we were in trees making our way via the muddy trail. Andrea, who had received two blisters on Wednesday was feeling rather uncomfortable so we stopped to let her put on dry socks and to let Dr Mad River work his magic with first aid gear a few notches above Andrea's duct tape and Bob's single bandaid.

At the junction of the Liberty Springs trail Andrea decided that blisters or not, she wanted to grab the peak (the Peak Bagging bug bite her) as it would be her 5th new peak this week. On Liberty we had great views to the North where Garfield, the Twins, and Bonds were all in the sun. We wondered about HikerBob and Poison Ivy braving the weather with an overnight at Gyot shelter.

After enjoying the views we headed down past the Liberty Springs tent site. The trail was wet and muddy, but our spirits were high having had such an adventure on the ridge. Soon we were down to what would be Andrea's first river crossing that she handled like a pro. 30 minutes later the parking lot came into view as we completed our hike. Hiking time just under 9 hrs.

Rain, hail, wind, clouds, sunshine... today's hike had it all. A fun adventure with great people.

Length of Hike: 9 hours

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