After doing some research based on a friend’s recommendation, I found that there are a few lodges throughout the White Mountains that provide shelter for hikers. You have to pay and reserve bunks ahead of time, but it’s great if you don’t want to carry a tent or large amounts of food with you on your overnight hike. It’s a great space for Appalachian Trail hikers as well. My Dad and I wanted to do an overnight hiking trip together, but didn’t have the right gear for us both to camp out on the trail. So this was the perfect solution. We chose the greenleaf hut because it seemed to be tucked away in a beautiful location and the cabin seemed to retain a rustic charm. This is a great article to read if you’re thinking about choosing a hut to stay at.
We decided to take the Falling Waters trail up to the top of Little Haystack, then continue on to the Franconia Ridge Trail, which connects to the greenleaf trail thus leading us to the hut. It’s a 6 mile hike with an elevation gain of 3,850 feet (the majority of the elevation gain occurring within the first 3 miles). The anticipation of this trip was killing me. I was so excited to try out my new pack and hike a brand new place while spending time with my dad. I was also a bit nervous because it can get dangerous up on the exposed ridge and if you’ve been following this blog you know that weather is hardly ever on my side. When the morning of our adventure finally arrived, we checked the weather forecast as predicted by the tower at the top of Mount Washington (very important to do) and it looked clear! We made the choice to leave around 9:30am so that we would arrive around noon. I know that the normal thing to do with long hikes is to start early in the morning, but this is a popular trail and we didn’t want to get caught in the crowd. So while the weekend hikers were getting off to an early start and the day hikers hadn’t arrived yet, we aimed for that sweet pocket of time when the parking spots would start to open up and the trail wouldn’t be too crowded yet.
There is one main parking lot and one that’s supposed to be for the campground across the highway but is easily accessible with the walking tunnel that takes you under the streets. When I went through the tunnel, it almost felt like a ninja turtle was going to pop out and steal someone’s pizza. So don’t get discouraged if you have to park a little farther away because the tunnel is pretty cool. We ended up parking on the grass near a picnic bench in the main lot. Although we were a bit worried about getting boxed in since it wasn’t technically a parking spot, we never encountered a problem, so I say get creative with your parking as long as you aren’t blocking others. The trail entrance is very apparent (it was clear that this was a spot many people hiked). We even saw a shuttle drop groups of hikers off so it’s definitely a spot that’s catered towards the public. This was the first place for me that felt like the national parks service actually wanted people to hike their trails. There was even a map at the entrance! That’s some five star trail management right there.
After eating lunch at the picnic table, we strapped on our packs and began our hike up the
Falling Waters Trail, which is named for its multiple waterfalls (shocking, I know).The air was warm and the day was beautiful, but almost immediately I began to feel sick. Pushing it to the back of my mind, I kept my focus on crossing the first waterfall. It was a steep step down into the stream and then a steep climb to step out of it so it took a bit of focus to execute. The rocks were small and loose, which made crossing it even harder. I read that this river can pose a problem for people when the water levels are high, but luckily for us they were LA-drought low. So we made it across without any soggy shoes. We continued up the narrow trail, hardly running into anyone. It was really great not having to stop to let people pass going down or up. It kept us in the moment. As we hiked on, there were a few places that required scrambling up with little grip, but at that point it wasn’t too intimidating. We made our way to the second waterfall. This was a tricky one to navigate because it was uncomfortably wide with inconsistent rocks and loose logs. I didn’t think it was the trail at first and looked to walk alongside it, but eventually realization hit that I had to go through it. Taking it one rock at a time, I pushed towards the loose logs, which was a risk knowing my balancing skills, but paid off. I safely landed on the other side. When I looked back at my Dad, his foot slipped and dunked into the river. Apparently that was his cue to go aquatic because after that he disregarded the rest of the rocks/logs and proceeded to trudge through the water. At this point, my illness began to take over. We took a break and I drank some water, but I know my limits and I knew that I had some room to push, so we continued on.
We reached the third waterfall and the path through it was like a strange zigzag. We weren’t just crossing it, we were climbing it. Getting to the other side was interesting, but not as interesting as my attempt to climb out of the waterfall. I basically had to scramble up a corner layered in nothing but loose dirt. This time my Dad was the one who wasn’t sure that this was the trail, but I saw the trail marker on a tree above and reassured him that it was. With very little grace, we were able to pull ourselves up and trek on. A few minutes later though, we had to stop and this time I knew I couldn’t go on. It wouldn’t have been safe, especially if, when we got to the Franconia Ridge, I got worse. That’s not a place where you want to be in distress. Sometimes you have to assess the situation and figure out what you want vs. what you can do in that moment. I really wanted to make it to the top and I’m not one to quit when something poses a challenge, but this wasn’t put in front of me to conquer. My decision to turn around wasn’t a hard one to make. I knew that there was absolutely no way I could continue on. The hard part was being okay with that.
We made our way back down, crossing over the three waterfalls again. When we arrived at the car, instead of calling it quits, we decided to take a breather and go to the information station at the campground to get a map. This way we could assess our options. I became frustrated when I saw the map and realized we were less than half a mile away from the top of the Falling Waters trail when we had to turn around. There was nothing I could have done to change the outcome, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t disappointed. After resting in the car for about 25 minutes, I was beginning to feel better so my Dad gave me the option of either heading back home or making another attempt at getting to the hut, but this time via the Bridle Path trail. It was a shorter trail up to the hut, but I knew shorter meant steeper. Even so, not wanting to leave before trying everything we could to get to the top (safely), we decided to make a second attempt. ‘Try’ being the optimum word here because this trail ended up kicking our butts.
We were both in the middle of training for a half marathon so I had the mindset of ‘well I can run 8 miles, so I can hike two rigorous trails in one day’. Wrong. Maybe if I ran those 8 miles while on a stair-climber, but sadly I did not. This trail was a constant scramble uphill. It was well marked and had some fun terrain, but it just kept going and going. When you hike a lot, you understand what the length of a mile feels like. For some reason this trail was so disorienting and completely threw me for a loop, distance wise. When we finally got above the tree line, we figured we had to be close, but this was when the difficulty of the hike intensified. All of a sudden we were on our hands and knees climbing straight up on a narrow path. There was one part, I will never forget this, where the rock that we had to climb up had this beautiful slickness to it. It was like glazed marble. Sure, it wasn’t easy to get up, but it was a privilege to experience. That was the thing about this hike. It was difficult and there were a good amount of hiccups along the way, but no matter what, it was always a privilege to experience. The wilderness is not a place that belongs to anyone. If a mountain is hard to climb, it’s not right to blame the mountain because it does not exist for people’s amusement. We should just feel lucky that we have the opportunity to immerse ourselves in it.
The views above the tree line were exquisite. We could see straight across the valley to another gorgeous mountain. It reminded me of the beauty that we were currently enveloped in. My parents never understood why I’m always willing to drive two or three hours to spend an afternoon hiking a mountain only to have to drive two or three hours back when done. I would say ‘it’s always worth it’, but that did little to make them understand. After experiencing the view on this trail and going through all that we went through to obtain the right to see that view, my Dad now understands what I mean. Putting one’s self in the way of beauty is always worth the effort. Unfortunately, our struggle came to an end when it was about 5:30pm and we asked a hiker on her way down how much further it was to the hut. She said we had another 45 minutes of hiking to do. I looked up at my Dad and we both shook our heads no. We would have missed dinner, which would have left us with no food for the night, and our bodies were just completely exhausted. So we made the decision that our time on this mountain was up, and with heavy hearts we made our second descent of the day.
So we never made it to the hut and what was supposed to be a 6 mile hiking day turned into a 13 mile hiking day. It was hard and taxing, but sitting in the car during the long ride home, I no longer felt the disappointment I felt after leaving the Falling Waters trail. We did all that we could have done and now we have a better idea of how to tackle the trail for our next attempt. I still spent a great afternoon with my Dad, I still spent time in the mountains, and I still pushed myself outside of my comfort zone while keeping a level head about me. Maybe this wasn’t a success in the way that I originally thought it was going to be, but it was a success in many other ways. And let me tell you, there is nothing like a relaxing nighttime drive after a day of pushing your body to its limits to make you proud of what you accomplished and happy to be where you are at that very moment. So this was a hike that reminded me that, even without reaching the destination, I can find solace in fighting the battle.
Memoirs From The Trails 
2 thoughts on “What Happens When You’re Not Prepared For a Hike: Franconian Ridge Loop”