Recap

This was one of the longest, most fun, most physically intense hikes I’ve done so far. For four days we trekked a thirty mile loop up and down ten mountain peaks in the western half of the Pemigewasset Wilderness. The weather reports mentioned chances of thunderstorms, but since our rule is to hike rain or shine, we went anyway. Well the reports were mostly right, as we got rain on three of the four days we were there. On the first day, as we were descending Mt. Flume, we actually got some hail! But somehow luck was with us – we only had bad weather on one peak, most of the thunderstorms passed in under and hour, and we got great views for the most important parts of the hike.

We had actually planned the hike so we could do it in four or five days depending on if we were up for a long (11 mile) walk on the last day. That’s what we opted for, so we made it out in four. We skipped North Twin because we wanted to beat the weather to Guyot Campsite, but other than that the hike went exactly as planned.

Route

Day One

  • Osseo Trail from Route 112 to Mt. Flume summit via Wilderness Trail - 5.6 miles
  • Mt. Flume summit to Mt. Liberty summit - 1.2 miles
  • Mt. Liberty summit to Liberty Spring Trail - 0.3 miles
  • Liberty Spring Trail to Liberty Spring campsite - 0.3 miles

Day Two

  • Liberty Spring campsite to Franconia Ridge Trail - 0.3 miles
  • Franconia Ridge Trail to Mt. Lafayette summit - 3.8 miles
  • Garfield Ridge Trail from Mt. Lafayette summit to Garfield Ridge campsite - 3.9 miles

Day Three

  • Garfield campsite to Galehead Hut - 2.7 miles
  • Loop to Mt. Galehead summit and back - 1 mile
  • Twinway to North Twin Spur at South Twin summit - 0.8 miles
  • Twinway to Bondcliff Trail - 2 miles
  • Bondcliff Trail to Guyot campsite - 0.6 miles

Day Four

  • Guyot campsite to Wilderness Trail - 6.3 miles
  • Wilderness Trail to Route 112 - 4.7 miles

Total: 33.5 miles

Pictures

Full gallery here.

PemiLoop-082

PemiLoop-033

PemiLoop-043

PemiLoop-061

PemiLoop-089

PemiLoop-139

PemiLoop-146

Notes

  • Longest hike, day-wise, that I have ever done up to this point!
  • It rained on three of the four days, and on the first day we got hail!
  • However, most of the time we got a window of good weather to summit peaks