Aug 18

After a great night sleep in an illegal stealth camp site, Leaks, Jerry Rigg (sunshines dad) sunshine and I headed north. We had just a little bit of water for the first 3.5 miles of the day. Normally we would do the 3.5 miles in an hour ten min. but not in the Whites. A mile is now taking us about 30 min. but everything is so beautiful it really doesn't matter. Our first climb started out gradually well gradually for the Whites but soon turned into a hand over hand rock scramble.  At the summit of mt. Lincoln was a beautiful view of Mt. Moosilauke and Mt. kinsmans two peaks which we had climbed in the previous couple days. The new found team and I kept on trekking to the start of the exposed Franconia Ridge. Franconia ridge was absolutely amazing,  with vast views and huge rock formations continuously for 2+ miles.  We took our time crossing the ridge stopping a lot for pictures and to watch the Glider Planes swoop by. Unfortunately the ridge was also covered with tourist coming up from the hut a whopping 1.1 miles away. At the summit of Lafayette the highest point on the ridge we took a break and went down hill .2 to get water.

Once back below tree line a few miles past the summit we stopped for lunch before taking on the huge decent.  The decents in the Whites slow us down the most and are really taking a toll on my knees. I find myself more times than not getting down on all fours and doing the crab walk down steep sloped rocks. Heading towards Garfield pond the four of us took another break. Leaks got up to move for an oncoming hiker and I realized it was Whistle, and Grim was right behind her! Finally we were reunited we all hugged and began telling stories, shortly after Dump truck and Clever Girl came walking up! Now we were a gang of hiker trash. Sunshine and I hadn't seen them since New Jersey so we had a lot of catching up to do. Continuing up to the pond we began climbing Mt. Garfield. The ascent was pretty lax just tons of rock on a continuous climb, but of course right before the top....more rock scrambles.
On the summit the shanangins started of course and we were all laughing and carrying on. One more decent down Garfield and we would find a stealth camp, the decent was steep and rough with one part of the trail being shared by a creek. I finally found a stealth site and luckily it was big enough for everyone. 
After camp was set up we all sat in a circle, cooked dinner, told jokes, sang songs and just had a good ole time. Sunshine' s dad must think we are all loonies but I think he is having a good time.