Hiking on the AT

A visit to the mountains wouldn't be complete without some good ol' hikin. Apparently, when Nicholas and Jeremy were younger, they made plans to conquer the Appalachian Trail. I wouldn't say that the 3 of us conquered it on that beautiful afternoon in New Hampshire, but we did experience 1.5 miles of "stay away from poison ivy" goodness.

We started just inside Franconia Notch State Park at The Basin, a pretty naturally carved pool. Then we hiked on the Cascade Trail for a little over a mile, uphill. We saw many "cascades" and waterfalls.

In many places the trail was just tree roots.

Along the way, Nicholas spotted a hiking pole...which looked remarkably like a ski pole. Hmmm.

After about an hour of hiking, we connected to the Appalachian Trail. It was more woods and less water on rocks, so I took fewer pictures. I did get proof I was on the AT.

After hiking on the AT for about 1.5 miles, we took a 0.8 mile trail back to our car. It followed the Pemigewasset River, so the trees weren't marked with nifty colors to help keep you on track. At some point, when the trail was supposed to cross the river, we lost the trail and had to do some creative trail tracking and rock hopping to get back on course.