Mount Lafayette is one of the tallest mountains in NH. At 5249 feet it is the tallest mountain that is not part of the Mount Washington Massif. And it’s location next to interstate 93, AMC hut and 360 views makes it a popular hiking destination.

She is the crown jewel of the Pemi loop. An impressive peak of the beautiful Franconia ridge. And a summit with a great deal of interesting history of her own.

Despite the fact that I would not name Mount Lafayette as one of my favorite mountains, my history with her is long and I respect and love her rocky summit.

I first met Mount Lafayette in September 2001. My crew team did a team bonding exercise and hiked the New Hampshire peak. It was my first time on a mountain with intention to scale it (instead of skiing it) and most likely my first time in what is now my home state. Several members of my team had to stop at Greenleaf hut because of various aches and pains. But I was part of the group that pushed for the summit. I loved being on top of that mountain.

Many months later I was driving through Franconia Notch, the gap between Mount Lafayette and Mount Cannon, when I saw my first live wild moose (and tourists getting out of their cars to take pictures).

I would have a much scarier experience in the notch years later when I crashed and spun a school van by slipping on black ice and ping ponging on the guard rails. It remains the only time I was in an accident that caused injury to myself (it was a concussion, but still memorable to me).

As for hiking, I’ve been on Lafayette on gorgeous blue bird days, I’ve been on her in winter. I once bailed on a Pemi loop because I was on her summit as a thunderstorm gathered around her.

Lafayette has also been my beacon. I’ve seen her distinctive summit from so many other peaks. I once even tried to catch the sunrise from Kinsman in hopes of catching a view of the sun rising in the col between Lafayette and her brother Lincoln. It ended up being a cloudy sunrise.

She’s also been a beacon on my drives home. On countless trips back from Quebec, Lafayette has let me know that yes indeed I was back in New Hampshire and solidly on my way home.

And perhaps this post is a bit of a love song for the mountain, but Lafayette’s popularity also upsets me sometimes.

There is a huge parking area at her base that is often overflowing. Leading to people parking along the side of the highway. I think it’s enough of an overflow issue that a parking garage could almost be justified.

The ease of reaching the trailhead from both Boston and Southern Quebec attracts a lot of inexperienced hikers and large groups. The stunning viewpoints and great trails also mean that some never branch out to other mountains. The White mountains have so many incredible mountains to explore that this is a shame.

But this crowding issues is probably why I don’t visit Lafayette more often and why I don’t count her as a favorite summit.

But one thing is for sure, my history will continue to cross paths with this gem of geology.

We have had a strange winter here in New Hampshire. We had some great snow in December, then lost most of it in the January thaw and February rains. Even the White mountains had a relatively light snow year. Most transplants are not complaining, but I am. I didn’t move to a Northern State so that I would be lacking in something that I seem to find essential to happiness.

I was however cursing the snow this weekend.

On Saturday I decided to take a study break and go hike a quick little mountain right off the highway. It’s a four thousand footer called Cannon. It’s best known for a ski area I have never skied at.

It’s generally a fun hike, great for beginners. The shortest way up is steep but not very long (about 4 miles round trip) and offers some stunning views of Lafayette…

And Franconia Ridge across the highway.

The top has an observation tower, and the state operates a tram to the top of the ski area.

So the plan was to do a quick jaunt up this pleasant mountain with my fateful pup. The week prior had been a week of highs of 60F+ in New Hampshire. I assumed the trail would be packed down simply from the melting. So I packed my microspikes and started heading up the mountain.

I put the microspikes on pretty quickly so I could get some traction in the soft snow. But pretty quickly I was wishing I had grabbed the snowshoes. The trail was hard to follow. Not because of marking because those before me had not followed the markings and had trampled every which way. I started postholing (which is when you fall through the top layer of snow up to your knee or even hip) and falling into spruce traps (when snow is held up higher by spruce branches below the snow but the branches can no longer hold the snow up with the weight of a human). Cooper even fell through a few times despite only weighing 37 pounds.

It took us longer than I had expected, but we made it to the top. Where I proceeded to confuse the dog by asking him to stay then repeatedly calling his name.

I also took some “artsy shots”.

And some pictures of Lafayette once the dark clouds had rolled in.

Cooper was so impressed that he had to shake off to calm himself down.

On the way down we ran into a school group of kids in slacks and polo shirts. They luckily had packed down the trail for us a little better. I got them to take a picture of my “group” at the viewpoint.

A hike would of course not be complete without finding the perfect stick.

And running around wasting energy with said stick. I swear energizer should study my dog. He is capable of amazing feats as long as he’s interested.

The view of the semi frozen lake and the highway was somehow very pretty to me.

It took us longer than expected to do our hike but we still finished in less than 4 hours. For some reason only one of my running shoes was covered in a weird foam when we got back down. I think that one of my gaiters had soap left on it. And that that soap started foaming from all the melting snow. It’s the only explanation I can think of.

I was planning on linking to this webcomic in a large Link-love style post but this morning they posted something that is so true to my life that I had to share. Surviving the World is a webcomic about all sorts of random life situations.

Today’s post (Lesson 414) is about hiking. And the situation which  our group of friends often jokes about is that hiking partners have a purpose. We need to have someone to eat if we get lost.

Check them out.

Surviving the World - Lesson 414

We are still stuck on events from last weekend. We hiked the 4.5 mile Welsh-Dickey Loop.  It had been one of my first time hiking actual peaks in a while.  For a 4.5 mile hike the views were simply amazing.
View from Welsh

View from Dickey

Also, being located in the Southern White Mountains (Waterville Valley region), off I-93, the loop is an easy drive from Boston. The earliest view point is probably a mile or so from the parking lot.

The peaks are very ledgy. There are even boulders for my husband to play on. In the picture below he chose to Chimney above the trail.

It’s a really nice trail for a family. Cooper loved the trails and the crowds.

Welsh from Dickey

The mountains had these pretty pink wildflowers all over them. I really should study native botany so I know what kinds of flowers I’m blogging about.

I did all 4.5 miles in the Vibram FiveFingers. The bottoms of my feet felt great (which the large flat ledges probably helped) and I was mostly feeling the muscle fatigue in my upper shins. This corresponds fatigue from the extra use of my toes in walking. So I’d say the biomechanics experiment is working.