Liberty Springs Trailhead (1,422 feet) mile 1,820.1 to Garfield Ridge Campsite (4,020 feet) mile 1,830.2 for a 10.1 mile day.

Well, actually, we hiked 11.1 miles today since we had to hike 1 mile on pavement from the parking lot to the AT! Not sure I have ever said this out loud on here or not but, I hate walking on pavement with a full pack, it really hurts my feet. Nonetheless, we did it and then started the hard rocky climb up the side of the mountain. We were headed for the, famed among thru-hikers, Franconia Ridge. The climb up was steep and rocky! I’m going to save my comments about the rocks until my last blog.

One great thing up here, the campsites have some amazing water and they come out of tree limbs, well, not literally, they are just setup to drain from the spring using tree limbs.

The Franconia Range is a mountain range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. They are the second highest range in the “Whites”, as they are called by hikers, behind the Presidential Range, more on those another day. Franconia Ridge forms the backbone of the range and is home to the Appalachian Trail. The Ridge is made up of, Little Haystack (4,780 feet), Mount Lincoln (5,089 feet), and the highest peak, Mount Lafayette (5,260 feet). The AT along Franconia Ridge is an above tree line trail that we get to walk for miles, and the best part about above tree line, the views are amazing!!!

After Mount Lafayette we started our descent to the Garfield Ridge Campsite. The campsite also had a shelter, so, tonight I chose to stay in the shelter. One of the reasons I chose to stay in the shelter, it was a spacious shelter. This was our first campsite in the white mountains which meant we had to pay up. You see, the Appalachian Mountain Club, I think maybe a spin off of the mafia, charges $10 to stay at all of their campsites. They charge $150 to stay in one of their huts, where the customer comes first above everyone else. Oh, and the one paying all of that money, can’t throw trash away, there are no trash cans, they can’t shower, they have no electricity, the only thing they get for that money is breakfast and dinner. All of that money being paid and the trails looked horrible. Oh, and, there are caretakers living at these campsites. According to our Guthook app, they are there to collect money, and teach principles of Leave No Trace. All the campsites we stayed at, never once heard anything about Leave No Trace!

Nonetheless, we paid our money, slept and got out of there the next morning.

Puppy Love, out!

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