Hailey Lynch
Hailey Lynch was Pan American Trails 2023 Chief Summit Steward for Franconia Ridge, White Mountains, New Hampshire, United States. Previously she was a Summit Caretaker summit caretaker on Mount Mansfield for the Green Mountain Club, Vermont, United States. Hailey hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2021.
This article was originally written in English
During my last week in the field as Chief Summit Steward of Franconia Ridge, I realized that I still hadn’t seen a sunrise from the ridge. I usually have no desire to wake up that early, but with it being October and the sunsets coming sooner, that meant sunrise was at approximately 6:30 am. This was my chance!
My alarm blared and I bolted awake at 5:30 am on a crisp, autumn Saturday morning. I put my favorite wool sweater and some granola in my pack, and headed up the Greenleaf Trail, headlamp illuminating my familiar route to Mt. Lafayette. After more than a month working on the ridge, my legs felt strong, and I made it up to the summit within a half hour. I wasn’t the only person up there that morning. A man with a camera set up on a tripod stared out into the east towards the Pemigewasset Wilderness and Presidential range. I shivered at the thought of how early he must have woken up to get here just for a photo opportunity. There was another person, a woman standing by the summit sign. She had come from the hut, I recognized her. She looked cozy in her fleece pants and puffy jacket. We all sat there in silence, waiting for the sun.
At 6:38 am, we could see a thin band of orange and yellow light sandwiched between a cloudy sky and the mountains, their valleys full of Canadian wildfire smoke rather than fog. Poor air quality and frequent rain have been more present this year in New England than in recent years. Record July rains flooded rivers and streams, eroded inches of soil from hiking trails, and uprooted thousands of lives. This morning’s sunrise encapsulated both of this summer’s hardships, looming clouds and lingering smoke.
Once I had gotten enough pictures and memories, I hiked across the ridge to Little Haystack, repairing some scree wall along the way. There was still a lot of time until the first wave of weekend day hikers made it to the end of the Falling Waters Trail. I expected a big crowd on the ridge today. Good weather coupled with fall foliage tourism is what Summit Stewards across New England brace themselves for and dread all season. All jokes aside, increased hiker traffic on narrow trails, with folks not-yet educated about the fragility of alpine vegetation is a recipe for disaster.
On busy weekends, I like to move with the majority of day-hiker traffic and take care of small maintenance needs along the way. At the common places where I see hikers off trail, I take my lunch break or sit on a rock and watch what the hikers do. If I see someone off trail, I encourage them to stay within the trail corridor to help us protect the fragile alpine vegetation. A lot of people ask me if I’m a ranger, to which I reply that I am an environmental educator whose job is to keep up with trail work along the ridge and help conserve the alpine plants. I get a lot of “thanks for your service” from folks throughout the day, which I enjoy hearing, but by late afternoon I long for my wool sweater, granola, and a silent sunrise.