Its going to be difficult to put into words just how exhilarating this hike was. Chances are, the pictures are going to need to convey that. (
Skip to the full set of pictures here.)
At 4am we made the coffee, packed the car and headed north. Unlike our trip two days ago, the ride up was a smooth one - no getting stuck behind snowplows or driving through heavy snow. We made it from home to Peg's in Woodstock in just under two hours. And if there is a better way to prep for a long hike than a plate of blueberry pancakes at Peg's, then I haven't found it yet.
The sun had just begun to brighten the sky a bit when we arrived at the trailhead. And I guess at this point I should warn you - the theme of this story is COLD. We had to put on or boots and top layers before throwing on the backpacks, and it was so damn cold out, that by the time we had spent only a few minutes doing that, we had to climb back into the car in order to thaw our hands before heading up the trail..
Once we could feel our fingers again, we headed up the Old Bridle Path which would shortly (0.2) lead us to the Falling Waters Trail. Just before we left the lot I shot this picture of the cliff side of Cannon Mt (where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be)...
The bitter cold was manageable. With the proper gear and layering, -2 degrees is a long way from the maximum that I could stand. There was virtually no wind until we reached the ridge, and the trail was completely broken out for us. Add in the fact that there were no clouds all day, and the result is amazing.
At 0.2 miles we hit the start of the Falling Waters Trail where it branches off to the right over a river. Hard to imagine there is water flowing under all that ice and snow...
With it being so cold (damn, there's that word again) every little bit of moisture in the air seemed to find my beard. As it never warmed all day, the icicles grew longer and heavier util we returned to the car at the end of the day. Thus an hour into the hike the beard was frozen and I even had ice forming on my damn eyelashes...
The first waterfall we came to had very little visible water (as with all of the falls we would encounter). But it was still impressive, even though this would be the smallest of them..
Gunn hiked up ahead in an attempt to get a picture of him at the top of these falls, but there was no safe way for him to get out there...
While Gunn may not have been able to set up a good shot, it is good to know that he has superpowers that come in handy when the need arises...
As we approached the next set of falls, Gunn played photographer - probably in hopes of catching his old man break through this ice bridge...
This next set of falls was much larger. Here is Gunn ascending to the left....
(By the way, these early shots are a bit dark as the sun did not come over the ridgeline until much later. On the way back down we took many more shots as the sun was shining.)
The next set of falls is the largest. I would estimate the height at 90 feet....
On the trail just above those falls there is a magnificent ice display that overhangs the cliff...
Beard update: By the time we reached the top of the falls, I was doing my best to blend in with my surroundings...
Eventually we were able to drop our parkas, even if only for a couple of hours. The air temp hadn't climbed a lot but our body temps certainly were after all the climbing we had done...
Eventually (long after I had expected to) we reached the spur path to Shining Rock (4,130'). At this point we had traveled 2.8 miles and gained 2,350' of elevation. In the summer, Shining Rock is pretty cool. Its a massive slab of exposed rock as big as a city block. But the spur trail had not been broken out and we decided to pass on it.
Instead, we layered back up due to the temps beginning to drop and headed for the ridge...
Onward we marched and about a half mile above Shining Rock, we reached treeline on the shoulder of Little Haystack...
As we approached the summit of Little Haystack the air temp on the ridge was bitter cold - I would estimate it at -5. But what made it bearable was that there was no wind. Pretty amazing to be at that elevation (4,760') and find it so calm...
We took a breather at the summit before moving on...
The views from the ridge on such a clear day are breath-taking....
Here's one looking down at Cannon Mt - quite a different perspective than when we were back in the lot...
No time for a long break so we headed north along the ridge towards Mt Lincoln. This section of this trail, the Franconia Ridge Trail, is also part of the Appalachian Trail...
Most of the ridge is exposed rock, but here and there you will find small batches of krummholz where snow has a chance to collect. Here is Gunn scaling a 6'+ drift...
The stretch to Lincoln consists of a few large rock crossings. I found myself silently cursing a few...
0.7 miles from Little Haystack we reached the final climb up the cone of Lincoln...
Within 100 feet of the summit, the wind showed up. Gusting from 20-25 made the below zero air feel like flying ice swords that pierced every pore on your face. Needless to say there would be no chance of exposing any skin up there, so our traditional summit cookies - those delicious Pepperidge Farm Double Chocolate Milanos - would have to stay in the pack until we got back down out of the wind. But there ain't nothin' that can keep us from performing our other tradition - the Hailing of the Mountain Gods!!
The largest peak in the distance (far right) is Mt Washington (6,288').
After less than 5 minutes on the summit of Lincoln we headed back down to get out of the wind...
Once we were safely out of those upper level winds we took a break to drink some Powerade and consume some chocolate - just the fuel we would need to finish the 3.5 hour trip down...
With a summer book time of 3.5 hours to summit Lincoln via Falling Waters I had hoped to do it in 4, maybe 4.5 hours. But it took a full 5 for us to reach our destination. Fortunately we knew that we still had the daylight required to get back to the car without needing to don our headlamps.
Back at the summit of Little Haystack, we shot this picture of the trail junction sign covered in rime ice. Something I've seen numerous times before but this was pretty cool. My guess is that due to people wiping off the center of the sign, the rime ice eventually built up along the outer edges until the sign became sort of a 'rime ice picture frame'...
Dropping off of Haystack we reach treeline very quickly...
Before entering the trees, one last shot looking south...
Beard update: Not only did the beard ice up, but the ponytails on my knit hat became solid...
I had expected to find our journey down covered in dripping wet trees but with the air temp staying so low, even the sun didn't appear to have much effect on the snow pack.
As we neared the top of the falls we came to one of the most difficult sections. It was an extremely short run, but the ice we had to scale was very steep, making it difficult to traverse with our microspikes (this is the bottom of that section)...
When we were on the way up I must have been focused on climbing that section because I missed this awesome overhang right above us. Glad I noticed it on the way back down...
There are a few more pictures at the link above, but here are a couple of the ones we shot at the falls on the way down...
Eventually we returned to the end of the Falling Waters Trail - back at the bridge where it meets the Old Bridle Path...
Back at the car, we found that the air temp had climbed all the way back up to +18...
What an amazing day... Perfect weather. 360 degree views from the summits. Good trail conditions. And another chance to spend a day in the mountains with my son. Aye-yup.
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Stats:
Today we began at 1,780', climbed 3,300' over 3.9 miles. Trip up took 5 hours, 3.5 down.
This was Gunn's: 2nd climb of Lincoln, 1st in winter. His 3rd winter 4,000 footer. His 63rd successful summit.
This was my: 6th climb of Lincoln, 1st in winter (after one unsuccessful attempt). My 25th winter 4,000 footer. My 207th successful summit. My 16th peak climbed in each of the four seasons.
