Elevation gain: 3265 feet
Trails used: road walk, Garfield Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail.
Highlight(s): views from the summit of Mount Garfield, former fire tower summit.
Midweek, Kris messaged me about possibly doing a hike with him and with Brian still out of commission, I throw out Mount Garfield as a suggestion. "So it was written, so shall it be done" we said. The only concern was that we were originally going to do this on Saturday, a few days after the roughly foot of snow that blanketed the area. With no trip reports, and the possibility of having to break trail, we waited until Sunday to do this hike. I met Kris at the park n' ride and we headed up to the parking area off of Route 3. After gearing up, we began the walk up Gale River Road to the Garfield Trail starting area.
Mount Garfield is located in Franconia, New Hampshire. The Appalachian Trail runs along Garfield Ridge and over the summit of Mount Garfield on its way to Maine. Mount Garfield is a shorter hike in summer as the road to the trail head is drive-able. There are good views from the summit of Mount Garfield.
Mount Garfield is on the New Hampshire Four Thousand Footer's List, the New England One Hundred Highest List, the New Hampshire One Hundred Highest List, the New Hampshire Two Hundred Highest List, and the New Hampshire 3K List.
We parked at Five Corners and then walked up Gale River Road to the summer trail head, which is roughly about 1 mile in distance.
Kris stops to survey the landscape and hike ahead on the road walk in.
The start of the Garfield Trail. From here, to the junction with the Garfield Ridge Trail, it is roughly 4.8 miles of moderate terrain.
The woods were nice and open down low with a decent snowshoe track laid down.
The Garfield Trail starts heading up around 2300 feet, with quite a few switchbacks. The snow also started getting deeper and coated the trees more.
Winter makes a nice appearance as we are nearing the junction for the Garfield Ridge Trail.
The junction for Garfield Ridge. The summit of Mount Garfield is a steep 0.2 miles up.
Nearing the summit of Mount Garfield, with its old fire tower foundation and rime ice wonderland. Unfortunately, there were zero views today from the summit.
Kris taking a "selfie" on the summit of Mount Garfield (elevation: 4500 feet). It was VERY cold and VERY windy up here so we didn't stay long.
The views from the summit of Mount Garfield are much better than this. As usual, lately, the weather would not cooperate.
The views looking back towards the summit and fire tower foundation on Mount Garfield. You can barely see the sun trying to come out.
The woods around the old Garfield Pond Trail, which we would pass on checking out today.
So, it was time to head back down...
....and as usual, the sun comes out to put a close to the day on the long hike out.
It was a long hike, with cold temperatures and brisk winds. We passed quite a few people who had stayed at the shelter the night before, as well as several XC skiers who skinned up and skied down. It looked like it was a lot of fun.
I know both Kris and I were pretty tired from the climb up but the hike out was fairly quick and uneventful, other than coming upon a snowmobile that had missed its turn and ended up in the ditch.
It was good to hike with Kris again, but I fear if I keep beating him up on these hikes, he might not want to hike with me anymore!! It was still a good time to get out and hike, even if it was a so-so winter hike.
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