Copy/Repost Hike

Saturday I went on an outstanding 10+mile winter hike with 5 fine lads of Gay Outdoors along the Franconia Ridge in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. 1 car was stashed at the end of the Liberty Spring Trail, and we parked at Cannon Mountain’s tram parking lot at 9, and walked onto the Greenleaf Trail at 9:30 to hike up to the Greenleaf Hut. From there, we summited Mt Lafayette (elev. 5,250’) at 1:10pm and hunkered down behind some rocks to eat our lunch out of the 50mph wind gusts. Then we descended down the backside of Lafayette south along the Franconia Ridge under sunny skies, peak-bagging Mt. Lincoln (5,089’) and Little Haystack (4,760’) where Alex scrambled out onto an isolated granitic outcropping for a nifty Kodak moment. We then plunged into the back wilderness with either micro spikes or snowshoes to follow the snowy trail on up to the spectacularly bare rocky summit of Mt. Liberty (4,439’) at 5:30, before retracing our steps for 0.3 mile to head down the 3.3-mile Liberty Springs Trail to the stashed car, starting down at 5:45. We popped out of the pitch-black woods with our headlamps and into Steve’s truck at 8pm, totally spent! 10-3/4 hours on the trails for 10.37 miles. Thank you, Jason, for leading this superb expedition, and to my outstanding hiking mates Bob, Alex, Steve and Michael for your camaraderie and good cheer. It was A Good Day.

This was a great day, amazing experiences and ever a few first:

For Michael Jordan this was his 1st: - hiking for over 10 miles and over 7 hours - hiked in the dark with a head lamp - hiked over multiple summits on the same day

For another member it was his 1st - hiked in the dark with a head lamp - hiked for over 10 miles - hiked along a ridge

For photos please check out our Facebook post.