Mainely Hilking

Franconia Notch Ridge Trail
Photo taken on 6/24/99 about 10am, very hot, humid, the air was still just the right mix for a thunderstorm. The weather called for severe thunder storms late in the afternoon so we went for it figuring we would be down by the time it hit. Boy were we wrong.




	Notice the black cloud above, I wish we would have paid attention to the warning signs. Photo taken about 10 minutes before we got dumped on.	Another group caught in the storm.

We reached the Lafayette peak about 12:30 it was dark and rainy, however no lightning or thunder. After about 10 min. the rain stopped and it started to clear so we proceeded across the ridge. We got as far as Lincoln, just cresting the top when everything cut loose.
Hail, rain, thunder and lightning started crackling around us. We got off the trail as far as we could but there was no where to go, so we sat on our packs and started waiting it out. Hail the size of BB`s then marbles was actually accumulating around us stingy are hands and heads. Strong winds along with the constant flashes of lightning appeared right in front of us, along with rolling thunder it was beginning to become quite unnerving. Thirty minutes had past with no end in sight. Here I am 5000` up, and a mile or better from any trail heading down, the realization of what a predicament I had gotten myself into was starting to sink in. About an hour into this it started changing over to all rain and the flash to bang was no longer instantaneous. I gave it a few more minutes to see if it was over, however looking back towards Lafayette it was coming around again. The thought of sitting through that again did not appeal to me. Even with Gortex jackets, I was starting to get very cold, perhaps sitting on the ground in shorts all sweaty might have had something to do with it. My choices were, hypothermia or lightning, so I decided to run as fast as I could through a slush of hail and water towards the Falling Waters Trail. Everytime I slowed down a flash of lightning or crack of thunder made me run with more intensity. Upon reaching the Falling Waters treeline I was so happy I turned and took one picture then headed down into the trees,
its now a little after three.