Outdoor Diversion: Gridding Out Mount Garfield

Summits: Mount Garfield (4,500')

Trail route: Gale River Loop Road, Garfield Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail

Trail conditions: Spring conditions with dry trail, wet trail, some mud, ice, solid monorail with loose upper layer

Weather: Blue sky, sunshine and warm temps

Total miles: 12

Total time: 6:30

With a great day of weather in the forecast I wanted to get out and hike before the temps heated up toward the end of the week. I hadn't seen any recent trail reports but was reasonably sure there would be Spring conditions on the trail. This would be a solo hike to grid out Mount Garfield.

I got an early start and was the second car in the parking lot by the gate. The Gale River Loop Trail was still closed and I would soon find out one of the reasons the gate was not open yet. It was a cool start and I started with winter hat and gloves. About three tenths of a mile down the road there was a large blowdown that was taking up almost the entire road. This will need to be cleared before the gate opens.

There was dry trail to start with easy water crossings. I started seeing minor ice on the trail after about three miles. This graduated to an intermittent icy monorail and finally a continuous firm monorail with a soft top layer. I used microspikes and had no problem. There were some deep postholes along the side of the trail, some were very impressive since there was still deep snow on the upper part of the trail.

The last steep section to the summit was firm with some granulated snow on top. The summit ledges were bare and it was a beautiful morning at the top with clear blue skies and spectacular views in every direction. The temperature was warming up nicely and the wind was calm which brought out the black flies that were annoying but not biting. It was a great day for lingering and basking while I had the summit to myself!

With the warm temps and full sunshine I was thinking about how the trail might be softening up and provide potential posthole possibilities. I was anxious to get down past the snow line and back to bare ground again. I made it back down past the snow with only a couple of minor postholes. The temperature was really getting warm by now. I removed the microspikes, short gaiters, zipped off the pant legs and put on a short sleeved shirt.

It was an enjoyable hike back out. I saw only one other hiker and he was about a mile up the trail while I was going out. It was surprising to see only one hiker on this very popular hike on a very nice day. Back at the parking lot there were several vehicles and I'm not sure where most of them went other than the one hiker and one on a bicycle just leaving as I arrived.

I have now hiked to the summit of Mount Garfield in every month of the year. This is actually one of my favorite hikes in the White Mountains. It's a gradual ascending hike until just before the summit where there is a short steep section but not extreme. The views are amazing in every direction.

I have one more hike to grid out the month of May, Twins and Galehead. Current grid count is now 542/576!

Enjoy the photos and video!