The Pemi

You never realize how differently you remember places until you experience them again. Things are often very different than you remember them. Trust me. For instance, the nearly two miles of wooded ridge line from Mt. Liberty to Little Haystack... completely left out of my memory from the the first time I completed this loop several years ago.

I also don't remember ever thinking Mt. Lincoln was Mt. Lafayette and being fairly disheartend summiting Lincoln, only to find Lafayette standing proudly (and much taller) behind it. I do, however, remember there being a narrow pass on Liberty right before you reach the summit. On one side is a rather imposing wall of rock, on the other a rather daunting cliff, and in between, not much more than 18" of walking room. This pass no longer exists as part of the trail, not hard to imagine why. I also remember the bare Franconia Ridge to be an inhospitable climate. It was late June when I was there last, and the ridge was frigid. The winds were gusting strongly, and a perfectly sunny day was a dark moist evening from the time we started to the time when we ended. The mild, perfectly sunny, and calm day that we experienced this past weekend proved my warnings to be trite, and the overall experience of my mis-memory took its toll on my credibility.

About the only thing I remember with any degree of certainty is just how difficult the whole trip was. When I first completed this loop, my friend and I had planned a 4 day trip to cover all 33 miles. Plotting out our course day by day, stopping nightly at thoughtfully placed tent sites placed along the trail. However, at the start of the 3rd day, we looked at each other, exhausted and hurting, and, with our tails between our legs, hiked back to the car on a low, flat wilderness tail that cut right through the middle of the loop. We had completed just 14 miles in 2 days.

I don't know why I expected differently this time around. We had planned 14 miles of the loop for the second day. The tenacity of the trail had not changed. Our ambitious day 2 hike was cut at the same spot I had made it to in my last effort. At halfway (ultimately our final destination) it was already 3 o'clock. Another 7 miles would have had us hiking in the dark, it was time to call it a day. And so, we took that same wilderness trail back to the head.

I will complete the Pemi Loop on of these days.

Pictures to follow.