History: Mt Lincoln is named for President Abe Lincoln. Mt. Lafayette is named for a notable French General during the American Revolutionary War. The unofficial name of the "south peak" of Lincoln is known as Mt. Truman. Not a NH48 peak, by far, but worth noting nonetheless. Little Haystack, also not a NH48, still offers plenty to hikers on this section of the AT.
Peak Elevation: Mt. Lafayette 5249 ft.; Mt. Lincoln 5089 ft.; Little Haystack 4780 ft.; Mt. Truman 5000 ft.
Elevation Gain:
Trail: The "Franconia Ridge Loop" - Falling Waters Tr., Franconia Ridge Tr., Old Bridle Path.
Length: 8.8 mi
Time on Trail : 0800ish
Time off Trail: 1400ish
The weather looked like it may turn sour as we departed but we went onward up the trail anyway. A popular and often crowded loop, we wanted to get an early start and keep moving whenever possible, hoping the weather would clear off and provide good photo ops. We ascended the Falling Waters side first, hitting Little Haystack's overcast and cloud-covered peak. We kept moving in hopes it would clear off soon enough to more or less no avail. I walked by and gave the rocky summit of Mt. Truman, or Lincoln South, a nod in passing. Shortly after that, I had to stop and stretch - hamstring cramps from tightness or electrolyte imbalance. I watered up, stretched, and got a move on. Once we continued to ascend to Lincoln it looked as if the cloud cover might burn off after all, but we kept rolling because we knew that the weather could be teasing us and we didn't want to be up there in the event of lightning.
We triumphantly got to Lafayette's summit as the clouds broke out a bit and i snapped off a few pics before we kept moving to descend to the greenleaf hut, where we topped off our water, hit the rest room and had a snack. The sun shone for a bit and we decided to move on, as it seemed like the clouds still might show rain. And we got sprinkled on a bit as we descended but were in the treeline at that point. timely as that was, there were downpours as we hit the highway to head south back home.
Photos:
Mt Lafayette, Mt Lincoln, Mt. Truman, Little Haystack mountain, 10SEP16I'd like to hike the ridge line again, maybe doing Flume through Garfield as a traverse could be fun as a Pemi-Half. Or that would be a Pemi-Third, wouldn't it, maybe?
