Escape Higher

I had the pleasure to tag along with some good folks along their 3 day loop hike around the Pemigewasset Wilderness. I had a prior engagement on the third day so I planned a bail out point for the end of the second day.
I dropped my car off at the final trailhead and prearranged for Notch Taxi to pick me up and transport me to the starting trailhead. The drive in the AM was quite nice seeing the sun rise shine upon the mountains as I drove through Franconia Notch.
Met up with the others at The Basin trailhead. This is the first time meeting Jake and Adam(Joel’s friends). The jokes and mocking begin early and I can tell this will be a fun trip.
The goal for me is to hike, in this order, Mt Flume, Mt Liberty, Little Haystack Mt, Mt Lincoln, Mt Lafayette, Mt Garfield, South Twin Mt, Mt Guyot, and Zealand Mt. We start off down the paved bike trail to the trailhead with packs locked and loaded.
The route chosen begins up the mildly aggressive Flume Slide Trail. This starts off sharing the Liberty Springs Trail and is a nice walk in the woods. After a couple of miles and stream crossings, this trail changes its mood. This is a bit challenging with some steep and wet slabs to negotiate. I dart into the side woods when I felt the need. Exposure is not really my thing. The others press up the main trail. The quick elevation gains us some views as we stop to rest and look behind us.
Once to the first look out, the views are amazing. We have great weather slated for the entire trip. We dip down and up the rocky ridge to the summit of Mt Flume and enjoy some water and a snack. Only a brief stop as this was the first of many summits and Mt Liberty is just ahead. Once on Mt Liberty, we rest and enjoy lunch.
We push on to a new trail for me. I had not been on Franconia Ridge Trail between Liberty Springs Trail and Falling Waters Trail. It is a short 1.7mi and we are quickly on Little Haystack Mt. This begins the very popular stretch on the Franconia Ridge Trail, but it’s a Thursday so not quite as busy.
We seem to hit Mt Lincoln fairly quickly taking in all the views on both sides of the ridge. The first time I had done this stretch it was overcast and I couldn’t really see more than 50 feet in any direction. This trip showed why this loop is so popular.
After Mt Lincoln is a bit longer stretch with some elevation gain. I start to slow down here as my feet begin getting sore in an odd place, the front of my ankles. Suspecting I tightened my laces too tight I loosen them a smidge once on Mt Lafayette. We took some time to relax on Lafayette knowing we had a long descent coming. Basically, much of the elevation we had gained thus far will be lost as we drop into the void between Mt Lafayette and Mt Garfield. Our planned camp site should be somewhere down there at Garfield Pond.
After the long descent we reach the pond and poke around for the camp. It is huge and spread out with many options. We are not certain we will have it to ourselves, but we are hopeful as it’s already about 5pm. We setup 3 hammocks and one tent spread out like we own the wilderness. We fetch and filter water, a fire started, and dinner made. Enjoyed dinner by the fire and enjoyed the rest and company.
Now was time to climb in my hammock. A brief note about my setup. I am new to hiking and camping. I decided to shave costs by DIY’ing what I can for some of my gear. Hasn’t really shaved any costs in the long run, but I now have a full DIY sleep system and I don’t have to learn to tie any knots 😉 .
– 11′ gathered end double layer hammock
– down top quilt (14oz 850)
– new for this trip, full length synthetic underquilt with 5oz Climashield
– new for this trip, 12′ winter tarp, it is a bit roomy
With this setup I was finally able to have a warm night, but it is far from ultralight. It will need some tweaking.
The morning came and I was awake early, I think about 5am. I could hear someone else up, but I was too toasty to climb out. After resisting for a bit, my bladder convinced me to get up.
Enjoyed a quiet coffee and breakfast with Jake before the other 2 woke.
Once everyone was up and fed, it was time to pack up and move on. The others had relatively short mileage to Guyot campsite, but I was looking at a bit more(~double) to bail out to my car. I didn’t have a serious deadline, but needed to be aware of my timing. It all worked out perfectly.
Once packed up, our day began with a short ascent up Mt Garfield. It was a bit chilly to start the morning and I fussed with layers on the way up. The views from Garfield are some of the best to look across the entire Pemi. We could see all we completed the prior day and all we needed to accomplish today.
The descent from Garfield starts a bit steep and begin the ups and downs (some refer to them as PUDs, pointless ups and downs) along the Garfield Ridge Trail all the way to Galehead hut. Not too far into our descent when someone found a dropped camera who we believed belonged to a woman who passed us, planning to finish the loop today. Jake packed it and made it his mission to get it back to it’s owner. He did ultimately return it to her after racing mach 7 or 8 to catch her.
Joel and I cruised at our own pace across Garfield Ridge Trail and met up with Adam and Jake at Galehead hut. Jake bounced up the spur trail to Galehead Mt while the rest of us rested and ate lunch. A decent food and rest break before the march up the short but steep Twinway Trail up to South Twin Mt.
This was some more new trail for me as I hadn’t been up to South Twin from the hut before. It was really steep. I took many rests on the way up. Once we poked out of the trees, amazing views in all directions. It was really quite amazing. I have a 360 degree panoramic photo including views to Mt Washington and back into the Pemi. It’s too large to upload but spectacular. Adam, Joel, and I actually napped on top of South Twin while Jake remained in beast mode and bounced out to tag North Twin Mt.
Once Jake returned, we chatted a bit and head out down the Twinway toward Mt Guyot. This was a nice stretch and we covered it quickly. Though Jake and I seemed to take our time, but I think we were at a normal pace while Joel and Adam sort of turned it up a notch. We caught up to them sitting at the junction of the Twinway Trail and Bondcliff Trail.
From here, we parted ways. Those three headed down Bondcliff Trail to the Guyot campsite for another night and will hike out over the Bonds and out Lincoln Woods the next day. I headed over Mt Guyot aiming to make it out of the woods at the Zealand trailhead.
Knowing I only had to make it out sometime in the next ~12 hours, lol, I settled into a slow pace. My feet were still sore from boot issues and wanted to ensure good footing. I barely caught up to a gentleman who allowed me to pass, but we would leap frog the rest of the way out. I stopped at the Zeacliff view to rest, snack and change up socks. I chatted briefly with an AT thru-hiker at the hut. It was tough to linger at the hut because they were serving dinner and smelled wonderful. I pressed on and made it out after an easy walk on the mild descent.