Out on the Mountain: Mt Garfield, up close and personal with the Pemi. Friday Sep. 16, 2016

After looking at the forecast early in the week and seeing a beautiful, late summer, sunny day forecast for Friday, I put in for a vacation day and began planning a hike. Mt. Garfield had been near the top of a lot of my short lists for hikes of late. Having really pushed it with a lot of big elevation gain hikes on steep trails the past few weeks, I was looking for something a little bit mellower this time out. Being a clear sunny day, another criteria for the hike was a good view. After perusing Steve Smith's trip reports for Mt. Garfield and the Garfield trail on his blog Mountain Wandering, I decided that Mt Garfield fit the bill perfectly. You can read those reviews by clicking here.

I got a nice early start from Quincy and was on the trail by 7:24. The Garfield trail is a beautiful trail with a gentle to moderate grade for the 4.8 miles till it meets up with the Garfield ridge trail near the summit of Mt. Garfield.

Some nice hard wood and conifer forests line the way as you meander gradually upward over the good footing and never overly steep terrain.

Morning sunlight streaming through the leaves of this beautiful tall White Birch along the trail.

This spindly Birches that have been stripped of their leaves made for interesting pictures against the clear blue of this late summer sky. It would be interesting to know how their leaves were stripped. Perhaps in a storm because they are so much taller than the surrounding trees.

These Hobble Bush leaves are beginning to take on a deep reddish purple hue as autumn nears.

A gorgeous stand of White Birches beside the trail.

When you reach the summit of Mt. Garfield, you are rewarded with up close and personal views of the Pemigewasset Wilderness that are nothing short of spectacular. In this picture the twin horns of Flume and Liberty are framed by Owl's Head on the left and the Franconia ridge on the left.

A great view of the Franconia ridge and the broad backside of Lafayette.

Adam, a hiker from Lowell, MA was kind enough to take my summit photo.

Owl's Head front and center. Holding court with the lofty peaks all around.

A beautiful look into the depths of the Franconia Brook Valley. From left to right can be seen, some of Guyot, West Bond, Carrigain peaking over, Bond Cliff, the Hancocks, Passaconaway in the back, the Tripyramids, the Osceolas on the right, Mt. Huntington and Hitchcock in the center of the picture and of course the ever present Owl's head dominating the right side of the picture.