Early October.
When we left Jeff and Martha’s to hike up to the Franconia Ridge, we knew that we were taking some chances with the weather. Franconia Ridge is a knife-like piece of trail that is almost entirely above treeline, affording fabulous views to both sides during good weather. However, it’s quite common to have sunny weather in the valleys with some clouds sitting on the mountains. We’d heard some mixed weather reports for the day that we were planning to be on Franconia Ridge, but decided to go along with it anyway. The night before, we stayed at a campsite unlike any other we’d seen, but very typical for the Whites: tent platforms, a designated eating area away from the tent platforms, and a strong metal box for food storage, all to reduce travel impact and remedy the effects of careless hikers leaving food around, which had led to aggressive bear visits at that site. (We didn’t see any bears–it was working.) We ate dinner with a European couple about our age, Wendelin and Cécile, swapping travel stories as we watched the fog roll in.
On the way up there, we saw some more spectacular moss and lichen–New Hampshire and Vermont were taking the prize for world-class rock flora on the trail so far.
Mad Science and Sunshine 