New Hampshire Foliage with Laurie

For the third consecutive year Laurie and I went to New Hampshire during the peak of the fall foliage and probably my last time for the year. Sometimes the weather is nice for us and sometimes it is not, it is October after all. All week we were checking the extended forecast to see if was worthwhile to go camping. By Tuesday we were sure we could go even if would be a little chilly camping. I asked weeks ago to have Sunday off from work. I already had Friday and Saturday off so I was pretty excited to have a three day weekend. We left Thursday after we both got out of work. It was almost dark when we left home. Luckily, we found a campsite very easily even in the dark. We have set the tent up so many times by the light of our headlamp that it is almost second nature, so that was no big deal.

Friday

We did not have a far drive on Friday. The overnight low was roughly 48 degrees so it was a little chilly getting out of the toasty sleeping bag. The day was perfect though, There wasn't a cloud in the sky the entire day. The daytime high was predicted to be over sixty with very little wind. We had planned to do the Franconia bike trail on Friday. When I found out it would be so clear, I begged Laurie to do a mountain with me so we could get big views and save the bike ride for Saturday.

Because my best friend is so awesome, we went hiking. We actually did a four thousand footer. The mountain we hiked was Mount Garfield. It is 4500 feet high. The hike is ten miles round trip with 3000 feet of elevation gain. We started very early and finished up an hour before sunset. The reason it took so long? We stayed up there enjoying the huge views for as long as we could.

When we got on the summit about 12:30 there were a bunch of people on top. However, most of them left by 1 pm. There is plenty of room on the summit for a few groups of people. But there was never more than six people on top after the first thirty  minutes.

One thing that was kind of fun; the cover photo of the book that describes all of the four thousand footers "The 4000 Footers of the White Mountains" by Steve Smith was taken on top of Garfield. While we were up there we tried to recreate the photo. I found the rock the hiker was standing on with Owl's Head in the background. The light was bad and the best view was backlit. It was still fun and the scenery was amazing. I'd say we took over fifty pictures trying to get the photo. We also saw a Black Backed Woodpecker which is a north woods specialty and a lifebird for me

Just like my hike last week up Isolation, just as we were about to leave, some Grey Jays showed up and wanted some food. For the third consecutive trip I got to feed the jays out of my hand. Laurie did also, the first time since we were in Colorado in 2010. After we fed the jays, we hiked the five miles back to the car. We had about an hour before dark and still needed to eat supper. We drove to the Eisenhower Wayside and enjoyed a close up view of the Presidentials while eating supper as the sun was going down.

Saturday

The weather forecast for Saturday was sixty degrees but clouding up early and possible rain showers . I knew that hiking a big mountain was not going to be worth it. The plan for the day was to bike ride the Franconia Bikepath in the morning. If it was still nice out in the afternoon I wanted to hike out to a mountain lake. Late afternoon we were going to be "tourists" and hang out in Lincoln during the predicted rain showers.

We got an early start for the bike path. We didn't make it very far before we realized we were too sore to enjoy riding our bike up the hilly path. Laurie turned around very quickly. I chose to ride a couple miles and have her pick me up at the Basin. Because we didn't bike for long, we had plenty of extra time. We drove down to the Kanc to go to our mountain pond.

 I have never seen so many people in New Hampshire. We drove through Franconia Notch. The number of cars parked to hike Franconia Ridge was mind blowing. The cars were parked along the interstate for over half a mile! I heard later the cars ended up backing up a full mile from the trailhead!. This is the busiest weekend of the year in the mountains, but the amount of people was insane. We got off the highway at Exit 32 in Lincoln. The cars were backed up all the way to the ramp. It took us a full half hour to get through town! While we were driving down the Kanc, every viewpoint was full with cars. People were taking pictures not only by the carload, but also the busload. At all the trailheads things were no better. Cars were parked along the road for places like Greeley Ponds and East Pond.

Needless to say, I was disappointed to know solitude was probably not going to happen. There were so many people in the mountains it really didn't matter where we could go, there was no escaping them. Can't blame anyone for being there, the scenery was amazing. The foliage was at its peak and the weather was really nice for October standards.

The mountain lake I chose to visit Saturday was only a flat mile from the road. However, it is out of the way. Not too many people know about it. Still, I figured even if a few people knew about the pond it would be crowded. The trail had one thing going for it to deter people. The very beginning of the trail crosses a river right near the parking lot. The river is wide enough and deep enough where you have to get wet to cross it. There is no way to rock hop.

When we pulled up to the parking place to my surprise no one was parked at the parking area! We took our shoes off and crossed the river in sandals. We hid our sandals behind a rock and walked to the pond. The pond did not disappoint. There were views of big mountains right behind the pond in all directions. All the mountains were dressed in their best bright colors. We found a nice flat rock to eat a picnic. It was so peaceful and relaxing we stayed on the rock for almost two hours before we went back to the car.

After we got back to the car we drove back to Lincoln to be tourists. There was a traffic jam by one of the viewpoints. Back in Lincoln the traffic was no better. I found a parking spot and we walked around. There was a large craft fair going on that we walked through. Then we went to the Mountain Wanderer book store and talked with the owner/famous hiker/author Steve Smith for a few minutes. Then we bought a pizza before going back to camp. Soon after we got back to camp the rain started. It rained most of the night.

Sunday

Big Cherry Pond

Having a rare Sunday off, I didn't want to waste it. Even though we woke up to crappy weather, I didn't want to just drive home early and throw away a Sunday off from work. We got up early and drove to Cherry Pond. There were a few people already there. It turns out there was a birding group there for the day (my people). We talked to them for a while. They had scopes and were trying to see how many species they could find from the boardwalk. I contributed to there count by finding a Great Blue Heron on the opposite shore. By far the highlight was not a bird but a moose! It was the first moose I've seen in three years. It was already across the pond and we only saw it for a few seconds.

Elbow Pond

After a few hours at Pondicherry we packed our wet tent in the car and drove towards home. We stopped at Elbow Pond in North Woodstock first. It wasn't raining but it was a raw windy day. We cooked some mac and cheese and took some pictures. I'd never been to Elbow Pond so it was nice to explore another mountain lake before making the three hour drive home.

Things I learned


It is a waste of time for me to bring my bike to NH. I'd rather walk up a mountain than ride a bike up one. It was a pain in the ass taking the bike rack on and off.

Next year it would be better to go up on my Thurs/Fri off from work than the Saturday. There were so many people it was uncomfortable.

I'm going to try to go to Pondicherry next year during the breeding season. The area is very birdy.

I forgot how grand the view is from Garfield