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Hot take: the Franconia Ridge Loop in NH is overrated if you only do it as a day hike
Did the 8.9 mile Franconia Ridge Loop in New Hampshire last weekend and while the views from Little Haystack to Lafayette are unreal, I watched like a dozen people in jeans and sneakers suffering near the top with no water. One guy asked me if the summit was close yet about 3 miles from the actual summit. I get why everyone recommends it, the pics sell themselves, but I think it gives new backpackers a false idea of what a real overnight route feels like. Am I nuts for thinking this loop gets pushed too hard, or does the crowd factor kill the whole point anyway?
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parker_webb8d ago
Watched a buddy of mine do this exact loop last fall after seeing it all over Instagram. He showed up in borrowed boots that were half a size too small and a single liter of water, and by the time he hit that last climb up Lafayette he was toast. He's a fairly fit guy too, plays soccer on weekends, but the loop humbled him enough that he basically crawled back to the parking lot and swore off hiking for a month. My take is the loop itself is fine, it's just way too easy to get to for how much it asks of you, so it pulls in folks who have no business being up there. It's not that the trail is overrated, it's that the internet sells it like a walk in the park and nobody mentions the part where you gain almost 4000 feet.
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