The White Mountains are something else. They challenge even my writing skills. Where to start. Well, first of all, the infrastructure and community are both unlike anything I’ve seen in the United States before. Spread throughout the forty-two infamous peaks is over twelve thousand miles of rigorous trail. There are many who walk every inch of it just like thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail. The trail winds its way through New Hampshire summiting about twenty peaks. The steep inclines are strenuous and rugged. A lot of this section requires the use of both hands and feet so we fastened our trekking poles to our packs and got ourselves ready.
One of the difficult parts about the New Hampshire section of the AT is figuring out how to resupply. Most of the towns are quite a ways away and there are barely any established hostels or shuttle drivers around here. Luckily for us, Lil Bell has family in this area and her aunt and uncle have been our trail angels throughout this state. They are well versed in the white mountains, having done all of peaks twice: once by themselves and once with their four year old granddaughter. Yes, you read that right, their granddaughter hiked all forty-eight of these legendary peaks before her fifth birthday. (Something that would inspire me whenever I would doubt if I could make the climb that day.) we were lucky to have family in the area, we were especially lucky because they understood hiking. They knew where to go to get the gear we needed and then grub we wanted. Without them we would probably still be thumbing down route 302.
Moosilauke is the first White Mountain the AT climbs. Whose steep ascent makes it obvious that the trail has stepped it up a notch. Though we didn’t get much of a view from the top, due to weather, we got enough to give us a taste of the distance and scale the peaks in the white mountains have to offer.
Franconia Ridge is one of the most popular trails in the White Mountains. It is a thin stretch of ridge line running from Little Haystack mountain to mount Lafayette, passing over mount Lincoln between. This was our first real taste of hiking above treeline. The “alpine zone” as they call it allows for some of the most spectacular views either of us have ever seen.
The trouble with cameras is that they don’t capture the breathtaking majesty that we felt seeing these mountains above treeline for the first time. Our day on Franconia Ridge was magical. There were clouds enveloping us one moment just to pass and allow for us to see the exposed ridge line and distant views. We could see how the clouds would spiral and twist up those vertical cliff sides with great gusts of wind. Then those clouds would pass and everything would be clear once again. It was like something out of Lord of the Rings.
Well, Lil Bell and I were just chatting away about how great of a day it was, and how this was the most beautiful hike we have ever been on, so we decided to walk as slow as we could off the last mountain. We sat down and watched the clouds rollover the mountain and then pass over the valley below us. It was there that I asked Bell to marry me. I couldn’t have asked for a better spot.
From the other side,
Pan and Bell
from the other side 