When we got up Sunday morning, there was about three inches of fresh snow on the ground in Franconia, and it was supposed to continue to snow for several hours. Driving was supposed to be better later in the afternoon, so we decided to check out the conditions on Garfield.
There were two vehicles in the winter parking lot at Gale River Rd. One vehicle had two guys getting their gear together, as we started down the road. Initially, we followed a pulk track, but that track turned off at one of the first campsites. After that there were no tracks in the fresh snow. As with our other hikes so far this year, we started out bare-booting, and would put on spikes somewhere along the trail. The snow didn't get too deep, but footing wasn't great since you couldn't tell what you would be stepping on under the snow.
Everything was white along the Garfield trail
Along the Garfield trail, snow depth maxed out at about six inches, with one small area where there were some drifts over a foot deep. We stopped at the junction with the AT, and geared up for the summit, and a little exposure to the wind. The snow did get deeper on the short section from the junction to the summit, but it was less than what we thought we might find.
There were no views on the summit of Garfield
We retreated off the summit and made our way back down to the Gale River Rd, passing the other two hikers as they made their way up. After the hike, road conditions were a little worse than they had been in the morning, and it was continuing to snow. As we drove back to the Adirondacks in the evening we would have snow on and off the whole way with varied road conditions. While the drive wasn't ideal, we were happy to be getting some snow across the region.