Day 172

8/24/21 Hiked only 11.4 miles but 5,500 feet of elevation gain. Michele drove me to Plymouth where I met Barb. We drove to the Whitehouse trail parking lot and got on AT (Liberty Spring Trail) climbing to Franconia Ridge Trail then to Little Haystack Mountain(4,729 ft) with great views. My left ankle was hurting hopefully that will go away. Yesterday at home both ankles were hurting maybe because I only had one trekking pole as the other one broke. We climbed to Mount Lincoln (5,089 ft) again with amazing views. It was surprisingly not very crowded. Clouds/ fog rolled in and we continued to Mount Lafayette (5,246 ft). Windy and in the fog. We said our goodbyes as she had to head back to the car. She is a strong hiker and it was fun to hike with someone. I continued on the AT( called Garfield Ridge Trail) in the fog down to the col and back up to Mount Garfield (4,451 ft). Great views from the summit.That trail is difficult with moderate size rocks which were wet and took forever to hike. Finally got to Garfield Ridge Campsite checked in with caretaker paid 10 dollars and set up my tent on a platform that already had 2 tents on it. Campsite was crowded. Of note on the ridge and mountains ravens were close to us trying to get food. I never saw this behavior from Ravens before.