Mt. Lincoln, October 21, 2006

Our next hike is one of our favorites, Charlie is taking us to the Franconia Ridge - here is his preview:

Lincoln Lafayette hike is a 8.8 mile loop that has incredible views on a clear day. The route will be up the Falling Waters Trail to Lincoln (5089'), across Franconia Ridge to Lafayette (5260'), then down the Old Bridle Path Trail. The elevation gain is 3850 ft. About 2 miles of this hike is above tree line, the book time for the hike is 6-1/2 hours. This hike is very popular in the summer and on weekends the trails can be quite crowded. But, in late October there will be fewer people and possibly more challenging weather conditions. At a minimum there will be patches of snow and ice at the higher elevations. It would be wise to put your Stabilicers in your pack, along with extra layers for the colder temps on top. There are usually trail reports for this hike on the Views from the Top web site, which is a good way to check on how much snow hikers may have encountered. If it looks like mid-Winter conditions, I will call off the hike.

NEXT HIKE: October 21, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette
MEETING SPOTS: LL Bean (Exit 14 off 93): 8:00 am
Irving Station (Exit 23 off 93): 8:30 am
TRAILHEAD: Layette Place parking lot - North bound side: 9:00 am
HIKE LEADER: Charlie Raeburn

Last Saturday Charlie led the hike to Lincoln/Lafayette, here is his report:

Only two other hikers arrived at the trailhead for the Lincoln / Lafayette hike. One of the two turned around when they saw the 2 inches of snow in the parking lot and the blowing wind. So, just Dennis and I made our way up the Falling Waters trail. It was quite picturesque with the snow on the trees and the prior day's heavy rains swelling the river. The trail itself was protected from the wind making the conditions quite comfortable. The river crossings were a little more challenging, but we made our way to the summit of Lincoln fairly easily.

However, once above treeline things got pretty uncomfortable. We were no longer protected from the biting wind, and the temperature was much lower. We took shelter on the Lincoln summit to eat our lunch and decided we did not want to go across the Franconia Ridge trail and the top part of Old Bridal Path with a 50 MPH wind blowing in our face. After a fairly quick lunch break, we put on our Stablicers and went back down Falling Waters. We encountered a lot of others on the trail, including a bus load of hikers from Montreal. Everyone was concerned with the weather on top and it's not clear how many actually made the ridge crossing.

While we did not achieve our original objective, we did feel we had an enjoyable hike.