White Mountains, New Hampshire
By dirtbag
Its true everything you hear about the Notorious White Mountains of New Hampshire! A beautiful warm, sunny day can quickly turn into a dark, cool, windy, treacherous thunderstorm with heavy rainfall, in mere minutes up on those mountains. I knew what we were in for and I gave fair warning to the kids all about it. We have never hiked in the White Mountains, let alone been in New Hampshire, so tbis was certainly a special adventure for all of us. From the ferry ride off of Long Island to Connecticut.. the drive up to New Hampshire to the hotel we crashed in overnight.. to the early morning sunrise on the trail.. this was going to be a memorable trip for everyone! I have been tracking the weather for the last 5 weeks as I planned this trip. Originally we were planning on the Grafton Loop trail in Maine, but then I switched it to the Pemi Loop in New Hampshire, another trail which has been on my radar for years now. For those not familiar with the White Mountains or the Pemi Loop, you can quickly google and search it to read all about it.. or you can sit back and watch our trip video to see some amazing views through some rugged, tough terrain with some wicked weather patterns as we hike. Unfortunately, due to SEVERE thunder and lightning storms, with torrential downpours and flash flooding expected we made the wise decision to not continue up over the Bonds and Bond Cliff, so we hiked out on the Franconia Brook Trail day 2. We did get to hike the famous Franconia Ridge section of the Appalachian trail on day 1, luckily a thunderstorm rolled in just as we were able to get down from that long ridge walk. Dark storm clouds, pouring rain, dropping temperatures and flashing lightning with cracking, shaking thunder directly overhead and all around us as we hiked definitely was an experience they will never forget! We were able to hike to Garfield Pond, where we decided to cook and eat dinner to fuel us for our final assent of the evening, up Garfield Mountain and across.. then slightly down to the Garfield tent site. Tbis was a wise decision as it also gave some time for the crazy lightning storm to pass and the heavy rain to ease up a bit so we could safely get up and over Garfield Mt. We made it safe and sound and saturated wet to the tent site where unfortunately we had to pay $15/per person, so $45 to camp for the night. Apparently the AMC has control over certain camping areas in the White Mountains, where tney have 1 lean to, a few wood tent platforms and surrounding areas for overflow to make camp. Yes, tney charge you to camp here! The lean to was full.. as usual so we had to make camp in the woods near bye.. and PAY for it! I have to say I am NOT fan of this because there are not that many places to camp along the pemi loop trail and the few spots that were acceptable the AMC had control of!! Anyway.. save that topic for another day! Day 2 was a sunny beautiful day but our weather reports were calling for more severe thunderstorms, with heavy rainfall and flash flooding directly where we were to be in the evening and overnight, with more rain all morning and following day. I made the executive decision to NOT continue our planned hike on the Pemi Loop, but to hike out on the Franconia Brook trail back to our car. Do not be upset if this happens to you and do not feel cheated.. do not be upset for us either as this was an absolute beauty of a trail.. 10 miles of waterfalls, cascading streams and flumes, absolute beauty all around. The White Mountains did not disappoint, and we all had a taste of its power, while being able to see the hype. Pictures and video do no justice for the views and beauty, but we know exactly what it was like because we had the opportunity to hike it and live it. We plan on going back.. sooner then later!
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