On September 15, Margot, Kathy, Hunter, and I set out from the Lafayette Place parking lot to climb Mts. Lafayette and Lincoln, the two highest peaks on the Franconia Ridge. The day was mainly sunny and rather brisk, but since this was a Sunday and Greenleaf Hut was still open, we met many hikers going both up and down the Old Bridle Path on our way toward Lafayette. Those coming down were bundled up, indicating much cooler temperatures up on the ridge, although we began shedding our heavy clothing soon after starting up the mountain.
As we reached the first good outlook on the trail, I noticed that Hunter was nowhere in sight. I called to two hikers up the trail and asked if a dog had passed them. They said no dog had gone by them, so we stopped to call Hunter. Getting no response, I started down the trail until I encountered several hikers coming up toward me. I asked if they had seen a dog fitting Hunter’s description, they responded that they had, and that he was following one of the hut crew down the trail. I immediately headed down the path, calling as I went, and hoping that Hunter would not go all the way to the trailhead below. As I descended I encountered several groups of hikers, all of whom had seen Hunter headed down, and I became more and more worried that I would be unable to catch up with him until I got to the trailhead. Fortunately, after I had gone about a half a mile down the trail, a group of four hikers said a dog fitting Hunter’s description was following behind them, and there he was! He was panting heavily and appeared very tired, but we made our way back up the trail to where Margot and Kathy had been waiting for us for perhaps half an hour. Margot put Hunter on a leash and we resumed our journey upward, disappointed to have lost so much time and upset that Hunter had not stayed with us.
After a brief stop at Greenleaf Hut, we headed up the Greenleaf Trail toward the summit of Lafayette. Just before reaching treeline, Margot tired and decided to turn around, saying that she would only hold up Kathy and me if she continued. We soon got to the summit, along with the somewhat disgraced Hunter, and encountered a stiff northwest wind as we topped the ridge. We hunkered down behind some large boulders, ate a brief lunch, and then began our trek across the ridge to the summit of Lincoln. I pointed out to Kathy that some years ago, I had gone down the east side of Lincoln by following a slide down to the valley and bushwacking up to the Lincoln Brook Trail and then out to Lincoln Woods on the then Wilderness Trail. From the top of Lincoln, we continued along the ridge and headed down the Falling Waters Trail.
The top of the Falling Waters Trail is very steep and full of large boulders, making a rapid descent very difficult. Cursing the slow going down, we finally came to the waterfalls from which the trail derives its name, made our way down along the stream, and after numerous stream crossings, arrived at the trailhead. There we found Margot, who had waited for us about two hours following her descent back down the Old Bridle Trail. Even though it was late in the afternoon, I persuaded the others to stop for the obligatory milkshake in Lincoln before heading home.
Upon reflection, I think we lost Hunter on the way up Lafayette due to the large number of people on the trail that day. He often strays off-trail and then returns to us by following the trail in the direction we are headed. In this case he apparently got confused as to the direction we were going, picked up our scent, may have seen the hut crew member down the trail thinking this fellow was one of us, and headed the wrong way. Thankfully he realized he was headed in the wrong direction and turned around. I’ve no idea how far down the trail he actually went, but fortunately I did not have to travel as far as he did!
