Lafayette & Lincoln

TRAILS:Bridle Path, Franconia Ridge, Falling Waters

February 9, 2010

Tom came over to my house at 8 this morning, and off we went to hike Lafayette and Lincoln - #46 & #47 on my quest to hike the NH48 in a single Winter Season. sunny skies, warm temps, low winds - today was destined to be a nice one.

We arrived at the trail a few minutes before 10 AM and were quickly on our way. It was 22 degrees and warming up. There was a little wind that was being funnelled through the notch, but as we climbed higher it dropped right off. At the parking area there was a couple of inches of fresh powder over a well tracked/packed trail, but as we went higher the snow grew to 6 inches on the trees and trail.

Other than many many stops to admire the views, we made good time to the hut where we took time for a snack. A few low clouds came through which we thought we create an undercast in the area, but they moved out fairly fast. As we made our way above the treeline we had bright blue skies all around.

Next stop was the summit of Lafayette for more photos and "Wow" views. As we left and headed down the ridge to Lincoln we saw the first of only 3 hikers that we would see today. On the far side of Lincoln we stopped and lounged while enjoying our lunch in the bright sunshine with almost no wind. Imagine being able to sit and eat lunch hatless and gloveless on Franconia Ridge in February - pretty nice.

Moving on after lunch we made our way to Haystack where we ran into Cath Goodwin and her friend Kate Fisc, who we learned is a massage therapist. Tom will most likley be a future customer - better than going all the way home to get his back worked on!

As much as we hated to leave the wonderful views, we started our way down the Falling Waters trail, back to the car. What a perfect day to be above treeline! A 9.9 on the Wow scale!

Directions to Trailhead
Rte 93 north Past Exit 32 onto the Rte 3 Parkway. Go past Exit 33 and pull into the Lafayette Place parking lot on the East side of the Parkway.

Length of Hike:
7:10 hours
8.9 miles

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