SEPTEMBER 19, 2026 / A HIKE WITH FRIENDS
Mount Lafayette,
with good company.
Gajendran sent out the invitation earlier in the week: a hike up Mount Lafayette with friends. On September 19, this brave group heeded the call and rose to the challenge of a difficult hike. I’m so very glad that I accepted.
From the parking lot to the trail.
The mountain walls of Franconia Notch came into view on the ride up. We met at the Cannon Mountain parking lot, gathered together, and set out on the Greenleaf Trail.
Once on the trail, the view narrowed to roots, boulders, and the person ahead. We stepped up and over rocks, chose our footholds, and made room for one another as we climbed.
The Greenleaf Trail.
Our trail sign pointed toward Greenleaf Hut and Mount Lafayette. The route climbs beneath Eagle Cliff, reaches the hut, and continues up to the open summit. AMC describes the approach from the Cannon Tram area as approximately 3.8 miles one way, with 3,400 feet of elevation gain—a substantial climb that put the group’s determination to work. AMC’s trail description.
The sign in our photograph gives 3.7 miles to Lafayette from its location. These are route-reference distances, rather than a GPS measurement of our day.
Company along the way.
Early in the hike, a saying came up: go up the mountain together and come back together. It became the motto of the hike.
There were pauses between the climbing: a conversation in the shade, a smile for the camera, and a break together on a broad slab of rock. Those small moments belong alongside the mountain views. They show the people who made this a shared day out.
Above the trees.
Above the trees, the setting changed completely. Low evergreens gave way to open rock, and the view stretched across wooded valleys and overlapping ridgelines beneath streaks of cloud.
We could look across the mountains and down into the valleys, then turn back toward the rocky trail and its stone cairns. After the close quarters of the woods, there was room to take in just how far we had climbed.
Back through the woods.
The return brought us back beneath the trees, still picking a way over rocks as the light faded through the canopy.
As evening settled in, lights picked out the ground and the hikers ahead while a little remaining sky showed between the branches. We kept making our way down together, carrying the same spirit that had brought us up the mountain.
We answered the call.
This was a difficult hike, and this brave group rose to the challenge. We encouraged one another, kept going, and shared a day that reached well beyond an ordinary Saturday.
Gajendran, thank you for sending that invitation earlier in the week. I’m so very glad that I accepted. These are the faces—and the moments together—that I want to remember.
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