Jon and I arrived at the parking lot around 9:00 am to meet up with Joel and Tim. Joel became a member this week in order to join us on this trip and we were happy he did! We started shortly thereafter putting on our MicroSpikes at the junction of the Old Bridle Path and Falling Waters Trail.

Thunderstorms and rain were forecasted mid-afternoon so we thought about going up Old Bridle Path to Mt. Lafayette instead of our original plan and assess if we should continue hiking the ridge. However, we ran the risk of the brooks and streams swelling with the rain if we did. Tim convinced us to stick with our original plan and we are glad he did!

We only ran into two couples on the way up…a pair where the guy was wearing shorts and another who had snowshoes strapped to their packs.

The waterfalls were just spectacular with the snow melting. Several crossings on Falling Waters were still bridged and passable but I bet this is the last day since most were on the verge of collapsing. The sun was shining, we had blue skies, and everyone was in great spirits! Today I felt like I was dragging ass and going up slower than usual. We finally came to the Shining Rock junction for a water break to get ready for the final push up to Little Haystack.

We arrived at the bare nubble summit of Little Haystack [4,760’], dropped our packs and had lunch. We had views in all directions. We had it all to ourselves. In fact, we had all the peaks to ourselves, Little Haystack, Lincoln and Lafayette. So much different than summer when you encounter crowds of people on top of each summit.

We took off our MicroSpikes for the ridge traverse except for Tim. It was not windy and cold on the Ridge, in fact, rather balmy on the summit of Mt. Lafayette. Its 1.7 miles to the summit of Mt. Lafayette where you first have to climb Mt. Lincoln. The traverse is open, on a nearly level ridge on a treadway defined by low rock walls. Views are spectacular with Mt. Lincoln looming ahead as an impressive rocky pyramid. I gave it my all. We summited Lincoln [5,089’] and took a group shot. We then traversed over to Mt. Lafayette, now grabbing our attention. It gets closer and closer. We finally made it across and to the top! It appeared that Mt. Lafayette was the only sunny spot in NH as we saw dark clouds circling around us. We basked in the sunshine and enjoyed a balmy wind. We could have stayed up there longer but it was only a matter of time that these clouds would be on top of us.  

We made good time descending down the Hut and stopped about halfway down to put our MicroSpikes on. At the Hut we took a break and admired the ridge from below.  

Usually it’s a walk in the park out but we felt raindrops at the Hut that reminded us we had to get moving. About 15 minutes later we heard thunder and saw lightning bolts over the Kinsmans and Cannon. A wall of moisture was coming our way. The wind started to really pick up. A few minutes later we had snow and hail pounding us and as dropped further, it changed to rain. We are glad we kept a good pace today and had a reasonable start time because quite a few hikers were caught on the ridge and higher up above treeline when the weather changed. The trail then began to get really chopped up and full of postholes. The rain and hail added to the terrible conditions.   

We got back to our vehicles around 4:15pm. It was nice to hike and not have to wear snowshoes for a change. We bid our goodbyes hoping to reconnect with each other real soon.

It was an incredible hike with perfect conditions and blue skies until mid-afternoon with thunder, lightning, hail, snow and rain! Many people who do this loop hike are never this lucky as to getting views on the Ridge.

Jon took most of the photos on this trip. >>View Slide Show Pics with Music.

~ Mike Boisvert