Franconia Ridge Loop hike

Franconia Ridge Loop hike – Lafayette, Lincoln, Little Haystack

Saturday, July 30^th - New Hampshire

** Updated with pictures (photo credits Neal C.)

Neal along the Franconia Ridge between Lincoln and Little Haystack

Nilesh along the Franconia Ridge between Lincoln and Little Haystack

Nice waterfall coming down the aptly named Falling Waters trail

Leisurely drove up late morning on a pleasant Saturday with Neal to find the parking lot full, had to put the car up on a grassy embankment to park. Turns out lots of other hikers were doing the same. The temperature at the base was a warm low 70s but the day was overcast and misty up in the mountains, probably mid-50s. The plan was for us to hike up the Old Bridle Path trail to the Greenleaf hut then continue on the Greenleaf trail to the summit of Lafayette and then along the Franconia Ridge to summit Lincoln and Little Haystack, then come down the Falling Waters trail back to the trail head/parking area.

The stats: 8.9 miles, 3,900 ft. elevation gain, 6:25 book time. Our total hike time was 5:24 - though unlike previous hikes, I really had no idea how far, how much elevation gain, or how long this hike should have taken overall. Just enjoyed myself out there and only looked up the book stats later post-hike.

We kept a steady pace up to the Greenleaf hut and filled water bottles there. Silly me, I carried far too much water and Gatorade than I really needed, but hey better to have too much than to run out. Spent about 25 minutes for lunch at the Greenleaf hut where I enjoyed my pasta, bean and tofu salad mix that I picked up from Whole Foods in Boston before driving up that morning, yum.

The hut was pretty full of hikers as were the trails throughout the day. Couldn’t see too far in terms of views during the early part of the hike, but finally caught some nice outlooks after we summited Lafayette and made our way along the Franconia Ridge above treeline. In particular the valley to the left (east) of the ridge was quite breathtaking, specifically Owl’s Head as well as Liberty and Flume in front of us. Pretty sweet lush green shadowed views down the sides of the ridge into the valley between the mountains. Also encountered lots of water crossings and pretty views of waterfalls coming down the Falling Waters trails. So nice.

We completed the hike comfortably in a total time of 5:24 which included lunch at the hut and a few other relaxing stops along the way. Came off the trail a little banged up, but all in all it was a great day to be up in the mountains and to get some fresh air. Not to mention that I got to summit Lincoln, the last 5k footer for me to hit on the NH 48 4000+ footers list. That makes 14 out of the 48 summited, still a long way to go on that list...

Warrior Dash

Warrior Dash New England - Amesbury, MA

Sunday, June 26^th – 2pm start

Signed up for this race with a bunch of friends just looking to have some muddy fun, especially after running the BAA 10k earlier that morning. Drove up and after a bit of an ordeal parking the car, we just pulled up on the side of the road and walked over to the grounds. We were quickly engulfed by the festival atmosphere of it all – music blaring, people milling about in costumes and various states of muddiness. Soon we readied ourselves, checked our bags and toed the starting line.

(click on image to enlarge)

Sandhya, Adam, Hudson, Nicole, Drew, Alyce, Nilesh
About ready to head to the starting line.

I wore an old pair of shorts and an inside out cotton t-shirt and was lucky to borrow an old pair of running shoes from Alyce’s hubby Neal. She brought a bunch of other old pairs of shoes to donate, cool thing. After the race, I made sure to tie my borrowed shoes together and toss them in the huge donate pile.

The course was 3.5 miles [50:27 finish time] with various obstacles throughout. Starting with a run up a hill, then undulating wooded trails, tangled ropes tied across trees to step through, wooden planks to jump over and duck underneath, rope wall to climb up and over, fire to jump over, long mud hill to slide down… and then there was the mud. Oh my – so much mud! Calf deep sloshy mud and sticky-pull-off-your-shoes mud. Everywhere. Throughout the course. Everywhere. On my body. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy that part. Playing in the mud was really the main attraction for me. Loved every minute of it.

Ran the whole thing with Alyce and also some stretches with Nicole. Got to talk to a lot of other ‘warriors’ out there, most were pretty astounded by the amount of mud. Did I mention there was some mud? There was. It was everywhere.

Within the first 10 minutes I was reminded why cotton is such a bad fabric to exercise in. Yes, nipple chafing is no fun. Very painful for a bit there, but alas this was the Warrior Dash – so no complaining. And well, the obstacles weren’t really that challenging, not like the ones I heard were at the Tough Mudder. I breezed through the Warrior Dash ones pretty easily. It really was all about the mud. There was a lot of slipping going on through the woods. Some ladies were stopped along one part of the trail, one of them may have dislocated a finger. Another gal was either running the race barefoot or sacrificed both her shoes to the mud gods.

The finish was fun, after sliding down a long hill on my butt, went over one final obstacle with Alyce and Nicole and finally crossed the finish line. After regrouping, we stepped in front of the big misting fan to try to clean off, not the most effective way, but got mostly clean. Then changed into some dry clothes and sat out on the fair grounds soaking in some sun, music and just hung out for a bit. It was a nice sunny day so was good fun chillin’ out. I had wanted to do an ‘adventure/mud run’ like this to see if I would like it and maybe do some more the following year. I’m undecided. I had a fantastic time, but like so many others - contracted the mysterious “warrior dash-rash” on my legs and arms. Various claims were calling it poison ivy, poison oak, infected mud, mud wrestler’s disease, etc. – I don’t know exactly what I had, but it was pretty itchy and gross for about three weeks. Ah well. I guess I'll reconsider doing another one of these next year…

Running over fire...

Nicole, Alyce and I making our way through the course.

Sticky, sloshy mud just after sliding down that big hill behind us.

Mud shoes

Crossing the finish line

Post-dash caked in mud

Warrior pose

All cleaned off from the mud and sporting my 'warrior' gear.