Leaving Franconia – The Walk

Day 103-15 Miles today from Garfield Ridge Shelter to Ethan Pond Shelter, 3000 feet higher, 4200 feet below, 1850 in Mile Marker

Cozy in the shelter

He fell asleep very early yesterday afternoon. It was a fresh and almost cold day. It was raining and cold and the wind blew the fog at the entrance of the shelter.

More and more hikers entered the shelter. I slept through everything. I woke up around 5:00 dreaming of the food to eat, but I decided just staying in my bag and not going out to take out my food bag from the bears. I ended up sleeping.

Early start

Around 3:30 in the morning I got up and prepared to go. He had been asleep for at least 11 hours. So I packed and moved to the food area. Then I prepared my little food that I stayed for breakfast. I grabbed enough calories to put in my side bags for the day and used all my instant breakfast.

I did a stretch and then I arrived on the road around 5:15. By then, the sun began to illuminate the sky, although it had not yet increased on the horizon.

Breakfast leftovers

It was cold this morning. I do not use my fan when I start because I needed to stay dry in case of emergency. Maybe I have a day of food. It is less than 3 miles from the cabin, so I doubt that you do it on time for breakfast leftovers. I don’t think they are established until 8:00.

So I took my time and hoped to get there around 8:00 and be able to grab the leftovers that have breakfast.

Escalation

The path that descended in Garfield Mountain was a rock revolution and had water that flowed through him. It was so steep that I decided to save my posts in my backpack.

I turned around, looked at the mountain, and the rock went down the waterfall where the path had become. I had seen many photos and videos of this section of the path. It was very slow.

Hot food and resources

Soon I found myself on a path of the «normal» beads again with only a few rock obstacles. A path that you can advance at a fast pace.

Unfortunately, that made me too early to obtain remains of Bougie hikers for breakfast at Galehead Hut.

It was 7:30 and they did not place breakfast leftovers until 8:00.

So I took a cup of coffee and went out to the front porch to enjoy the warm sun while waiting for tourists to leave the breakfast table so that I could grab the remains. He had been dreaming with food all night.

At 8:00 I enjoyed some scrambled eggs and a bowl full of oatmeal that the croo had sprayed some blueberry raisins and chocolate sparks. It was great to get some calories, especially those that I didn’t have to carry. I also enjoyed more coffee cups with a lot of sugar and hot chocolate thrown by even more calories. I took a coffee cake to go on the path, so I had a lot of caffeine in me and many calories.

Then I used his bathroom, which was a super clean and private luxury with hygienic paper supplied. They had running water so they could take a garbage bath in the sink. I felt renewed when I started climbing South Twin Mountain during the elevation of 1400 feet in a mile I needed to conquer.

Southern twin

The South Twin climb was not bad at all. Not too much technical climbing was more like 1,400 steps or maybe less than that because they were great steps. But many support points.

The views were spectacular. I could see a great maximum distance often that Mount Washington had to be because it was abnormal and it was barely visible through the clouds around me. I can also see ranges and mountain ranges coming out in front of me. It was a beautiful day in Franconia.

Floating in the wind

The path to Mount Gilead was basically flat. I forgot how fast hiking was. I almost felt that I was floating in the wind. It had a light package and there are no obstacles that are not rocks to turn around and basically there is no elevation. I miss this type of trip. Whites have been an experience, but I am excited to get some miles daily again.

The path when he approached Mount Gilead was above the Alpine area with a great rock fight to the summit. After the summit there was a bit of technical climbing in descent.

Dodging the hikers of the day

And then the path became very flat and crossed again. The only obstacle was the many hikers of the days. The path was not very wide, so I had to constantly do all everyday hikers.

I did a really fast moment to the Zeeland Falls cabin, where I got my free soup as part of my AMC excrement pass. It was a wonderful pile of rice and beans. They even gave us a free recharge. I left full and happy.

Wrong way

I left the cabin and ended up going south. The trail brands are not very good here and the entire path has different names with «(at)» added on the side of the non -Appalachles path. It is almost as if they didn’t want us here. More about that later.

I turned around and returned to the cabin and in the right direction to the north. The next section of the path was extremely flat without obstacles during the last 4 miles more or less for the shelter.

Almost at home

The path, although it was relatively flat, continued along a cannon that was full of huge rock rocks and lined with steep rock cliffs. I loved rock cliffs. They seemed that they were those who took out all these rocks that filled this valley.

In the distance I could see mountains. It seems that some of the big rocks in the cliff would be released at any time and reach this valley.

I kept walking through the valley and the swamp until I arrived at the Ethan Pond shelter. Tomorrow I will meet with Knockerz at Crawfords Notch for a replenishment in the morning and then address the presidential ones.

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