Did you ask for pictures?
The trail leading up the first peak was called the Falling Water Trail - it ran along a cascading stream. This first mountain is Haystack, elev unknown to me, it was like climbing a 2000' plus staircase. Here's one of the river itself (not a great shot, but we didn't stop often or for very long):
After we left the river, we took a quick (but brutal) detour to a place called Shining Rock. A sheer granite face with a constant sheen of running water over it and a beautiful view of the valley from whence we came. It was beautiful, but I was too busy bandaging my blisters to get a decent photo.
As we ascended up from there, I started to think I wouldn't make it. Not that I wouldn't finish the trail, but that I wouldn't finish the trail alive. My heart was racing and I'd stop often, for long enough to get it back down to target-rate-elevated before climbing more stairs. My hiking companion (HC) would wait for me (sometimes smoking a cigaret) after jogging up the stairs, but when I got there he'd continue (no break for the out of shape - he said himself he's a hiking nazi, albeit a kind hiking nazi). I started cursing the name of the mountain (Haystack!?!? This isn't a fjicking haystack! Who the fjick decided to call it Haystack!?! And, what were they thinking?) HC kept saying, we're almost at the top! Pfffft.
We crossed the alpine threshold, wound through a path in a grove of stunted firs, and popped above the tree line. Whoa! This is the reason. this is why (some) people hike mountains. I arrive at the peak to find HC perched on some boulders and make excuses to take a longer break. i need to eat some protien, my thigh muscles want to cease flexing. I down some humus which never really seemed to help. Sugar. Sugar is the key. Oh look, a cute little alpine flower. i think I need to photograph this - hang on, let me frame the shot..... not much longer:
We then start off for the summit of Mt Lincoln, elev. 5,089'. We stop atop this peak and I eat loads of sugar (this does help). Between Mts Lincoln and Lafayette is the hogback ridge - this is where the path is. The path up toLincoln and Lafayette looks daunting from where I sat on Haystack (HA!), but we achieve the two peaks relatively easily. Before we make our final ascent onto Lafayette, elev. 5,260', we stop and I shoot back and forward. First is Lincoln and the ridgeway:
and next is (gulp) Lafayette:
After bagging our final peak (after 3.1 miles... maybe), we descend a steep scree slope made hikable by hand placed boulders. Back down into the scrubby alpine forest. We eat bunchberry berries and continuously jam our toes into the ends of our shoes. After some time we reach the Greenleaf Hut (a place where one can make reservations for a bed and meals while hiking the mountain) , use the facilities, rest, and continue onward. We watched a glider swoop and loft his way through the thermals around the peaks - quite fascinating and beautiful. The HC literally ran down the rest of the mountain. My heart rate was normal, I didn't have to pant, I could converse with him (when he was nearby) without feeling like I was suffocating. But, it was hell on my knees.
We did the hike, part of it on the Appalaichan Trail, in about 7 hours. After, on the second peak, I told him I felt embarassed about how out of shape I was and that I felt badly about holding him up, he said, don't worry about it. When we were cooling down and snacking in his car I asked why we were so ahead of his schedule (we were off the mountain at least 2 hours earlier than planned) and he told me that he'd planned for me to hike the loop more slowly. I was actually faster than he'd planned! Nice. So, maybe we could have stopped a couple more times to take pictures of things like the wild bunchberry or the monsterous trillium or the fields of ladyslippers....... ah well. I hadn't planned on doing any of that this hike anyway.
I am wired right now. I thought I'd be in bed exhausted, but I'm happy, relaxed and slightly in pain instead.
