Franconia Ridge
If you remember my last article, Naomi and I were staying with Cindy and David, friends of mine, who live in New Hampshire. My wife Kim, had come to visit us there.
On Sept. 24th Kim took Naomi to the Post Office to get our bump box, (a parcel we had mailed to ourselves from New York State filled with sweaters and my boots and various other items that we knew we would need but did not want to carry). Our bump box had not arrived yet.
Cindy drove Curly Dan and I to Franconia where we waited for Kim and Naomi. When they arrived we said our good-byes. Kim drove home to New Brunswick and Curly Dan, Naomi and I started up the arduous climb. Although it was difficult, the views were spectacular. In my opinion the absolute best on the whole Appalachian Trail. Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette were beautiful. Both of these mountains are over five thousand feet high. The leaves were turning red and orange and the mountains were magnificent. We took too much time enjoying the views and we did not make Gale hut where we were planning on staying.
In the White Mountains you are not allowed to camp where ever you want. The Appalachian Mountain Club or AMC has exclusive rights. You are required to stay at one of the lodges which are very expensive. However, they allow Thru-hikers to work for stay. Thru-hikers really resent this and write all kinds of nasty comments in the log books at the lodges. After all, most of us have walked 1800 miles (2900 kms.) from Georgia without paying a cent to sleep in a shelter and camping where ever we wanted. Thru-hikers have several names for AMC like American Money Club and others that I will not repeat in this article, but use your imagination.
When we arrived at the summit of Mt. Garfield we found a burnt out basement. Flying Bear and Laughing Bird were there. We decided that we would illegally camp out in the basement. The wind was blowing a strong gale but the basement offered some shelter. I went to get water and Naomi made supper. We all bedded down at 8pm. The wind just howled and it was desperately cold. In fact, the wind was blowing so hard that my sleeping bag was slapping me in the face. Even though we had hiked over dangerous cliffs, walked inches away from poisonous snakes, had bears within a few feet of us at night, hiked through hurricanes and flash floods, this was the first time that I felt that our lives were in danger. At 9pm I told Naomi, “Let’s move before we freeze.” She agreed.
We hiked back down the mountain until we were below the tree-line. I found a spot where we could crawl under the thick, stubby spruce and put out our ground sheet. Although we spent a cold night, we survived.
The next morning we climbed back up the mountain to the basement. I was truly afraid that our friends would be froze to death. Curly Dan, Flying Bear and Laughing Bird were all still alive and did not seem any worse for the wear.
