September 18, 2010
I have four peaks left for my September Grid: Flume, Liberty, Lincoln, and Lafayette. I was planning on a casual hike of the 4 peaks when Jeremy informed me that he was hiking Lafayette, Lincoln, heading down Lincoln Slide, and then up to Owls Head. I had never been on Lincoln Slide so I decided to join him. The idea of hiking Owls Head another time when I didn't "need" it wasn't too appealing but it is a tough peak to get. Since I'll be in the neighborhood, I might as well bag that too.
Madison and I left Lincoln Woods at 6:30. I would have to make good time if I wanted to meet up with Jeremy so I didn't bother with too many pictures. I made the long but gradual climb up to Flume and then over to Liberty.
My next target was Little Haystack, a subpeak of Lincoln.
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There was a nice undercast as I looked through Franconia Notch.
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Looking back to Flume and Liberty.
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I reached Little Haystack and headed up to Lincoln. I had a nice view of Lincoln Slide which I would be heading down later.
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I reached Truman, another subpeak of Lincoln. On to Lafayette.
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A little before the summit I ran into Jeremy, Patrick, Sabrina, and her dog, Terra. They still needed Lincoln. I continued up to Lafayette.
Looking back to Lincoln
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Looking north from Lafayette
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This finished my September Grid. I headed back to Truman, catching my friends as they were about to head over to Lincoln. I hadn't had a break yet so I figured it was a good time for a nap on the rocks. I waited for them as they went over, tagged Lincoln, and returned.
I got a picture of Terra. I love her colors.
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Sabrina and Terra
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Now it was time for Lincoln Slide. We headed down the east face of the ridge. After following an open area for a couple of minutes, we had a short bushwhack through some thick spruce but it was just for a few yards. Then we were on the slide. Very cool.
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Jeremy and Madison
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Looking straight ahead to Owls Head
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Careful on the loose rocks
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I turned around often. It was more impressive to look up the slide.
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Madison rarely poses for a photo, but she did here.
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Down, down, down.
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The slide got narrower and narrower as we neared the bottom.
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There had been some small brooks feeding into the slide. As the slide got narrower, they were all channeled together making the bottom of the slide a bit slick.
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The slide became more of a stream so we decided to start our bushwhack.
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We had about a mile to cover to reach the trail. Near the end we went by a couple of small ponds where we had a unique view of Mount Garfield.
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At last we reached the trail. I thought we were going to take the trail down to the Owls Head slide and then take the trail up. Jeremy wanted to bushwhack. I'm not too big on bushwhacking. We would be doing two more bushwhacks later so I decided to take the trail. We'll see which way is faster. I had to cover two to three times the distance. Bushwhacking can be very slow going especially if you run into thick spruce so I figured I could beat them. What I forgot to figure on was the fact that as I headed down the trail I would lose about 400 feet of elevation that I would have to make up. Now I was beginning to think that their way would be faster.
I headed up Owls Head Slide turning around once and a while to enjoy the view of Franconia Ridge.
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I reached the false summit and proceeded another quarter mile to the true summit. As I neared, I heard voices. Rats!! They beat me. I arrived to find out they had been there for 15 minutes. They had all open woods with just a little bit of spruce near the summer. I gave it a good run, but this time the bushwhack was definitely a time saver. If I ever head down Lincoln Slide again to get Owls Head, I'll bushwhack.
This finished Jeremy's September Grid. We all headed out together using the Brutus Bushwhack and the Black Pond Bushwhack. The last hour or so we needed our headlamps. We finished about 8:30.
Grid Peaks to go: 24
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