For my 4th peak on challenge list, I picked Mt. Lincoln. Although this mountain can be accessed from a lot of trails, I decided to bag it as part of the famous Pemi Loop.

Pemi Loop is a 31.5 miles long loop trail on the White Mountains. This is not actually a trail, it's a series of connected trails that form a loop. It’s called Pemi Loop because encompasses Pemigewasset Wilderness. Backpacker magazine named this loop as the second hardest loop in the US. It goes over 8 mountains and has a lot of steep ascends and descends. People usually do this loop in two or three days. I decided to do it in one day, plus I added four other summits that are close by which resulted with total 35-ish miles and some 12.000 feet of elevation gain.

I started this hike at 3:30 AM at Lincoln Woods parking area. First 1.4 miles are a nice stroll on Lincoln Woods trail which is flat. After 1.4 miles I took Osseo trail that took me to the top of first summit (Mt. Flume, 4.327 feet, 5.5 miles completed). After a short break for breakfast and admiring to beautiful sunrise I continued towards Mt. Liberty (4.459 feet, 1.2 miles from Flume). Mt. Liberty offers stunning 360 views on Franconia Notch State Park and Pemigewasset Wilderness. Next peak was Mt. Little Haystack (4.780 feet, not on official NH 4000 footer list). By the time I reached this peak 8.9 miles of trail was completed. I continued on the Franconia Ridge trail (which is, in my opinion, the most beautiful trail in NH, because offers 360 views all the way) towards Mt. Lincoln (5.089 feet).I took few pictures on the summit and continued along Franconia Ridge Trail to Mt. Lafayette. Mt. Lafayette is 5.260 feet high and highest point on this trail. After this summit, I continued on Garfield Ridge trail towards Mt. Garfield (4.500 feet). This part of the trail between Lafayette and Garfield was rough because I had to descend a lot before I started the climb to Garfield. There are remains of the fire tower on top of Garfield and from there I got great views of mountains that I already passed, as well as to the remaining of the trail. Next stop was Mt. Galehead which is 4.024 feet high and has a wooded peak, so I didn’t spend too much time there. I took another break for lunch at Galehead hut which is 0.5 miles from the summit of Mt. Galehead. What followed after hut was probably hardest 0.8 miles of trail. It’s a very steep and rocky ascent to the summit of South Twin Mountain (4.902 feet). Next was North Twin Mountain (4.761 feet and 1.3 miles from South Twin). This peak was in opposite direction to the rest of trail so I had to retrace my steps to continue. Next peak was Mt. Guyot (4.508 feet, wooded summit, 2.2 miles from South Twin Mountain). After I reached Mt. Guyot 23.9 miles were completed. Next was Bondcliff trail that took me to the West Bond (4.540), Mt. Bond (4.698 feet) and Mt. Bondcliff (4.265 feet). Mt. Bondcliff was the last summit on the trail. Rest of trail was 4.4 miles long descend from Bondcliff to dense woods of Pemigewasset Wilderness along East Branch of Pemigewasset River. During hiking down at one point I lost the trail I scrambled down the stream for a while. Last 4 miles were flat, but because of tiredness and dark, it seemed to me that this stretch of trail lasted forever. Finally, after almost 18 hours on the trail, I reached the parking lot and my car.

This hike was one of the best and most challenging so far. It offered amazing and never forgetting views. but also was very hard for my body. I strongly recommend to everyone to do this trail. I am sure that will be experience for whole life. If you want to challenge yourself try to finish it in one day, but be prepared because this trail is no joke. If you want to enjoy great views then take your time and do it in 2 or 3 days, there is a lot of campsites along the trail.
Thanks for reading and happy trails 🙂