Franconia Ridge, The Presidential Range & Mt Washington

Day #: 68

Miles Since Last Update: 53 mi.

Total Miles Hiked: 853 mi.

Miles Remaining: 1,344 mi.

The Whites and AMC

New Hampshire’s White Mountain Range is filled with huts and campsites run by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). Staying at a hut typically costs over $100, so they’re not full of thru-hikers but instead they are primarily locations for mountain-loving vacationers (The Whites are very popular tourist location in New England). The huts do take in 2 thru-hikers a night who can work-for-stay, and often they will put out their leftover breakfast for us thru-hikers to eat as we pass by. The campsites, on the other hand, cost $15 and the AMC has created a thru-hiker pass which allows for thru-hikers to get some discounts while in the whites:

The thru-hiker pass discounts a hikers first campsite to only $10, all all subsequent campsites to $5. Plus, you  get 2 free baked goods and one free bowl of soup at a hut in addition to other discounts at select AMC locations.

Outside of these official campsites, the last option a thru-hiker has is to Stealth camp. The main important difference between The Whites and most of the rest of the AT is that sections of The White Mountains are located in the Alpine Zone, above tree line, where it is dangerous (and thus not allowed) to stealth camp. So if one wants to stealth, they need to plan their days accordingly.

Day 64 – Franconia Ridge

I struck gold and hiked along the Franconia Ridge on a gorgeous day. The Franconia Ridge lies above the tree line, providing gorgeous views as one climbs one mountain after another, including but not limited to: Mount Lafayette, Mount Lincoln, and Little Haystack. It is the second-highest range of peaks in the White Mountains, and arguably one of the most popular hikes in New England. This Franconia Ridge hike sees up to 1,000 hikers a day, according to the Appalachian Mountain Club . I entered this stage of the AT with much anticipation because many hikers I met on the trail in New England told me it is  one of the most beautiful hikes in the White Mountains if not on the whole AT.

So, I will mainly share my time on the Franconia Ridge with you through photos:

I’m not going to lie and say that hiking the Franconia Ridge was an easy day. Quite the opposite in fact: it was a steep, hard climb out of Lincoln, NH up to the elevation of Franconia Ridge, which is located in the alpine zone. But once up there, I felt that the beauty around me helped distract me from climbing up and down the multiple mountain peaks along the way.

I ended my day stealth campaign at the northern base of Garfield Mountain.

Day 65 – Mt. Garfield to Ripley Falls

Not much to say other than that in  comparison to the day prior, this day was mostly sad, cloudy, and miserable (thanks to rain making me wet and sad and obscuring any view which may have made the day worthwhile).

I did stop at my first hut, the Zealand Hit, and used my AMC pass for a warm bowl of soup (just what the doctor ordered on a rainy day).

Day 66 – Ripley Falls to Mizpah Spring Hut 🛖

This is the day I formed a Tramily with Popeye, Recon, Elf, Clueless, and The Little Prince (Elf’s service dog).

I started this morning solo, climbing up Mt Webster with the plan to end at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut.

At the Webster Cliffs I ran into the familiar faces of Elf, Clueless, and their dog, the Little Prince. Elf and Clueless are a couple who I met early on in my time in PA. They are trying to complete their triple crown and trying to reach Katahdin by their 50th wedding anniversary. I also ran into Recon and Popeye. Recon I had met at The Yellow Deli. He too had been knocked off the trail for a few days due to COVID. Popeye and I immediately felt like we had known each other from before, but we could not pin-point why or how.

Without any official decision or word, we fell into a group, sticking together to help each other out as we continuously ran into steep rock faces one after the other.

When we got to the Mitzpah Spring Hut, it was still early afternoon, but warnings of afternoon showers hunted our minds. We knew that climbing up to the Lake of the Clouds Hut was risky because if the hut was full, they would deny us, and we would have to hike all the way back down to a safe campsite below the alpine zone. It’s typically a four hour one-way hike from Mitzpah to the Lake of the Clouds Hut, so it’s a pretty big deal if you get denied. All things combined we decided it was better to play it safe and stay at the Mitzpah hut (Recon, Popeye, and I shared a tent platform). We formed a plan to do the entirety of The Presidentials the following day, and spent the rest of our afternoon playing cards and enjoying each others company.

Near the end of our day hiking, Popeye and I finally figured out how we knew each other! She had been at the campsite on my second night on the trail. You may recall from one of my earlier posts that, at that campsite, a man harassed myself and a fellow thru-hiker, another young woman named Saratonin, and Popeye had come up to us to check if we were OK.

Because of Popeye, I felt protected and a part of the thru-hiking community in a moment where I could’ve had a really bad experience. So it was special to have found her again!

Day 67 – The Presidential Range & Mt Washington

According to Wikipedia “The Presidential Range is a mountain range located in the White Mountains… containing the highest peaks of the Whites, its most notable summits are named for American presidents… The Presidential Range is notorious for having some of the worst weather on Earth [especially Mt Washington], mainly because of the unpredictability of high wind speeds and whiteout conditions on the higher summits.”

Lastly, it’s important to know that The Presidential Range all lies in the Alpine Zone which is a no-stealth-site area. So unless one is staying at a AMC hut, you must traverse the entire range in one day in order to climb back down below the alpine zone for tenting.

The Approach

Our approach to Mt Washington found us waking up at 4 AM to get a headstart on the trail.

Even though I was tired and slightly grumpy having to wake up at 4 AM I did not regret it for a minute once we were on the trail. The sunrise over the mountains combined with finally being able to see over the treetops made for a stunning morning. I mostly hiked with Recon and Popeye that morning, although Elf, Clueless, and The Little Prince were never far behind. The entire time we were in awe of the views (prepare for a bombardment of photos)

We arrived to the Lake of the Clouds hut in time for leftover breakfast, which fueled us for the ascent of Washington. You may notice that in some of these photos there’s a Mountain in the distance surrounded by a cloud. It was, of course, Mount Washington.

The Summit

As we hiked up into the cloud, our vision blurred, and slowly, we were restricted to seeing less and less in front of us. We could see each other, but we couldn’t see much more. It got cold, and it got windy. We kept hiking up up up, and the beauty of the whole scenario is that we were never put off by the cloudy bad weather in Mount Washington. In fact, we were cheerful, we were high on life. We were whooping and yelling and laughing with glee, because we had made it. We were climbing Mt Washington.
And it didn’t matter that the weather was terrible, in fact, it kind of felt like an appropriate Appalachian Trail moment. Having a sunny day on Mt Washington?!?! Unheard of. Being socked in on the top of the peak, now that’s AT thru hiking.

There is a nice visitor center at the top of the mountain that we were able to duck into and get some food, and most importantly postcards!

We hung out there with Elf, Clueless, and the Little Prince, just happy that we had made it to Washington and there wasn’t a blizzard in the middle of July.

The Descent

After the joyful celebration of the cloudy summit of Mt Washington, because it didn’t have wind speeds that could wipe us off the planet, we then had to finish our journey across the Presidential Range.

Luckily, as soon as we hiked down off Mt Washington, we also hiked down out of the cloud, and we were greeted once more with gorgeous alpine views:

The Cog Tradition

If one doesn’t want to brave the rough overland adventure of hiking across the Presidentials to get to Washington, nor drive up the mountain to fight off other cars for parking lots, there is a third option readily available: The Cog.

The Mount Washington Cog Railway, AKA the Cog, is the world’s first mountain-climbing cog railway and apparently the second steepest rack railway in the world (after the Pilatus Railway in Switzerland). It takes about an hour for the steam locomotive to make its way to the 6288′ summit of Mount Washington. And if cog-riders are lucky, they may get to glimpse along the way a tradition as old as time… or at least as old as the AT.

It is AT Thru-Hiker tradition to moon the cog. And even though I couldn’t get anyone in my tramily to join me, that wasn’t going to cause me to shirk tradition

Getting down from The Presidentials required us to climb up, over, and down Mt Madison which absolutely destroyed my knees like nothing else. Not to mention, Mt Madison required us to scramble up a rocky precipice and do our best not to tumble to our deaths.

Day 68 – Nero into Gorham, NH

The next day, we dragged our sore, tired bodies out of our tents at the Osgood campsite, and hiked the short jaunt to the Pinkham Visitors Center. Before meeting my White Mountain Range Tramily, I had planned to keep pushing through and go straight into the Wildcats. But now, sitting in the visitor center with my knees badly crying for ice, and hearing Recon tell Popeye about the amazing BBQ in town (Road Hawg BBQ Swine Dining) and hearing their offer to all share a hotel room together… my resolve broke and I (happily) decided to Nero in town that day.

We stood outside the visitors center and successfully got 2 hitches within just a couple of minutes: a truck to carry Clueless, Elf, and The Little Prince, and one to t drive in myself, Popeye, and Recon. The woman (Deanne) who picked up myself, Popeye, and Recon had hiked a good portion of the AT and was in the area waiting for her siblings to come out of The Whites.
Deanne was kind enough not only to drive us into town (a ~15mi drive), but to go a step further and drive us to Walmart to resupply and hang out there to bring us back to our hotel after.