Over the summer I usually spend a decent amount of time thinking about all the mountains I could possibly hike before the summer is out. This past summer I had to deal with taking a required course at a community college nearby and working ten hour shifts on the days I didn’t have class. What I am trying to say is that my leisure time was limited. Even so, I google searched “best hikes in New England” and “Day Hikes in the Whites” trying to get ideas for when I finally had the time. I ended up hiking Red hill, Mount Major, Bald Knob, Rattlesnake, and Uncanoonuc; all of which are located in various regions of New Hampshire. Although these smaller 1-2 hour hikes were enjoyable, I was looking to challenge myself.
I did a lot of research during the final weeks of summer about the Franconia Notch Trail. I found out that is a part of the Appalachian Trail (AT) and consists of a 8.9 mile loop that crosses Little Haystack, Mt Lincoln, and Mt. Lafayette (all at elevations over 4000ft) . The average amount of time to complete the hike was 7 hours long; that is TRIPLE the amount of time than hikes I had been doing all summer. I visited the AMC website and other hiker-oriented sites and all across the board people were raving about how amazing the views are as you traverse across the presidential range. I had to see for myself.
It was an early morning waking up at 6am in Plymouth the first weekend back at school. I packed a bag with my Nalgene bottle filled with water, food, camera, first aid kit, and sunglasses. The weather looked good with the highest temp at 75 degrees around noon. Me and my boyfriend arrived at the Franconia Notch State Park by 6:30am and began the treck shortly thereafter. The temp was only about 38 degrees when we started so I had worn a fleece jacket, a hat, and gloves. The loop begins with taking the Falling Waters trail. The trial takes you up to 4080ft in just over 3 miles. It seemed pretty easy at first but as the miles racked up it became very rocky and the last mile was an UPHILL battle. Finally seeing the light peeking out from the alpine zone at around 9:20am and getting our first glimpse of views made the “stair” climbing all worth it.
We had arrived at the top of Little Haystack! The 360 view of mountains and dirt trails nuzzled in the shrubbery along the ridge was absolutely breath taking. At this point we stayed at the peak to eat some food to regain our strength and to take lots of pictures. At 10am we decided to keep moving toward Mt. Lincoln via the Franconia Ridge Trail. It was roughly a mile between each peak and the temperature got warmer as the day went along and sunglasses became a necessity.
The highest of all three mountains was Mt. Lafayette and it was the last hoorah of the trail. The mountain was particularly crowded, as you do not need to hike the Ridge in order to reach the peak, so we decided not to stay too long. Old Bridle path was the means of making our way down.
The entire loop took just under 8 hours to complete and by the time it was over my knees were aching, my feet throbbing, my body physically exhausted, but I was happier than ever. That hike was the most beautiful I had ever seen and there is a sense of pride knowing you can accomplish such a feat.