Travelogue

Liberty Springs Trailhead in Franconia Notch State ParkOn departure day, I woke up bright and early – tired but excited. Everything had been packed the previous night and divided between Nik and I. We each weighed in at about 55 lbs, which was certainly more than I had ever planned on carrying on a trip after purchasing all my “lightweight” gear. I said farewell to the parents, ensured them I’d call often, and drove to Nik’s house. He wasn’t quite ready yet – still throwing in a few extra items. Finally we hit the road around 8:30. The drive went smoothly with a nice, spontaneous pit stop at Dartmouth to visit our good friend Ted Lesher, who would’ve been the 3rd member on our journey had he not still been taking his final exams. Nonetheless, we enjoyed a nice lunch with him outside the student center, catching up and rubbing in his face what he’d be missing out on.

We got back on the road quickly after lunch. I had never been in the White’s before and I was pretty shocked at how spectacular the view was as we drove through Franconia Notch State Park. While most of my traveling has been done out west, it goes to show you that there is plenty of great places within a day’s drive of New York City.

At last we arrived at the Liberty Springs Trailhead. We double checked to make sure this was the correct place, and even used my GPS to send our coordinates to my Dad so that he too knew exactly where my car would be parked for the next week. We spent way too much time at the trail head lounging around and deciding on which last minute items should stay and which should go. We opted to leave behind the powdered Gatorade because of the bulky container it was in – a decision I definitely regretted in the latter stages of our trip.