Independence Day visit to Jefferson and Adams

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bikehikeskifish

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal... solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States... And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Exactly 232 years ago, the Declaration of Independence, authored primarily by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted by the Continental Congress. In honor of Independence Day it seemed appropriate to hike Mount Jefferson (and Mount Adams) for my #39 and #40 respectively. I took along a parade flag to commemorate the occasion.

Larry and I met Kevin (no Judy or Emma) at Bowman shortly after 7am and by 7:20 we were under way. The plan of record was up Jefferson via the Castle Trail, over the castles, hopefully meet with Mats & Co. on the traverse, and then visit Adams, returning via the Israel Ridge Path. After a night of thunderstorms, the ground was wet and the air was humid. The forecast was for the humidity to let up throughout the day, which it did, and we were treated to a warm, dry, with (almost too) little wind. I brought sandals in case the Israel River was high. I left them at the crossing as they were unneeded. While these trails were in great shape, they appear to be less-popular than other routes. We saw nobody going up or down. Note that crossing under the powerlines goes through some tall grass and wildflowers (raspberries) and is prime tick country--I pulled one off me on the ride home.

The first 1.3 miles to the Castle/Israel Ridge split are fairly gentle and wide and we made quick work of it. It follows the Israel River and I enjoyed the sound of the running water. At the split with Israel Ridge Path, the Castle Trail bears right away from the river and begins to climb over the flank of Mount Bowman. It continues more steeply until over Bowman where it flattens out nicely and crosses a fairly open birch and spruce forest with ferns, bunchberries, and bluebead lillies carpeting the floor. After crossing The Link ("The Dink"), the trail becomes steeper and rougher as The Castles come into view.

I picked this route specifically because I wanted to visit The Castles. None of us had ever been this way before. The views live up to their reputation. The Castles themselves are pretty cool, tall and spikey granite arranged like ramparts over Castle Ravine. A bit of scrambling is required to get over and around them. At the First Castle, we broke out lunch, drinks, and took lots of pictures. After a bit the black flies found us, and we packed up and kept moving. At the Second Castle, the view is only improved, in no small part thanks to the First Castle in the foreground. Kevin mentioned that the rest of the ridge offered numerous false summits, and not to get our hopes too high. Well, he was right.


Eventually we came over the top of the Castellated Ridge and the Jefferson summit cone comes into view. Here the Castle Trail crosses The Cornice in this area. We continued on the Castle Trail towards the summit, which is still not in view. It is at this point that the hike becomes a northern presidential rock hop and the going slows down. I'm not one to risk my knees (again) or my ankles by rushing this section. We followed the cairns until the summit came into view. I knew it was the summit because there were a dozen or so nutty hikers wearing Uncle Sam hats sitting around. Yes, it was Mats and company having a break and regrouping on the summit. We all took lots of pictures and generally monopolized the summit for a while. Larry made friends by passing around a tube of Girl Scout Thin Mints.


Next on the agenda was Adams. 4200 of the 5050 feet had gone by, which of course was nice to know, but the descent into Edmand's Col and the Gulfside to Adams remained. We took our time, enjoying the views north to Adams, south to Jefferson, east to the Carters, and west towards the Pliney and Pilot ranges. The Horn stood out as the most easily identifiable peak in the east, and I recalled the view of the northern presis from when I was there last summer. We passed Adams 5 and Sam Adams. The "reliable spring" next to the "conspicuous boulder" had plenty of water, as did Peabody Spring and Storm Lake. I brought a pump, but we were all in fine shape, water-wise and didn't need it.

After what seemed like far too long, Adams got closer and larger and shortly Thunderstorm Junction and the enormous cairn appeared. From here the trail becomes Lowe's Path to the summit of Adams. The 1/3 of a mile over the rocks here was more technically challenging than the 1/2 mile ascending Jefferson, but being shorter it took less time. As pointy as Adams appears from a distance, it never really looked pointy from underneath. As with Jefferson, spectacular 360-degree views awaited, along with a plethora of blood-thirsty insects. The winds were really light -- MWO says under 10 MPH from the west while we were up there. You don't often hear people wishing for more wind while on top of Adams, but it would have limited the insects. We put up with them for 15 minutes or so and then began the long, slow, rock-hopping descent, retracing our steps along Gulfside. (It was along this way when a group came the other way and asked "How far do you think we are from Madison Hut?" I replied "About 1.5 miles give or take". She was unhappy and replied "But the sign back there said 1.5 miles!" I guess she thought my name was Garmin or something. We later decided they were hiking hut to hut.)


The Israel Ridge Path diverges from the Gulfside and descends the north side of Castle Ridge along, no surprise, Israel Ridge. In true Edmand's style, the talus field has a nicely-graded sidewalk paved right through it. This is convenient because I was inclined to enjoy the view of the Castles and not watch where I was stepping. About 1/3 of the way down, the path enters the trees again. As a side note, right after crossing Randolph Path, there is orange tape, marked with RW, everywhere in preparation for major trail work. It is not garbage. With northern exposure, the flowers are behind schedule on average. There were star flowers and bluebead lillies still in full bloom. The bunchberries were abundant yet still pale yellow in the flower. As we descended further things got more in step with expectations (hiking with Kevin was educational because he knows so many of the flowers.)

OK, so I divide the Israel Ridge Trail into three segments in my mind. There was the "views of Castle Ravine" part, the "interesting flowers and forest part" (down towards The Perch), and the "we're in the vicinity of falling water" part. This third part gives occasional views to the ravine between Israel Ridge and Nowell Ridge. It isn't given a name on any of my maps, and I assume it is still part of Castle Ravine and Israel Ridge merely juts out and divides it. Cascade Brook cascades (appropriately) all the way down the steepest fall line of the ravine. If you look carefully you can steal occasional views of it through the trees. Eventually the Israel Ridge Path crosses Cascade Brook and shortly thereafter a very slight detour to the left (south) will put you on a smooth rock slab across which the brook switfly courses. The iron content of the rock is revealed as the smaller trickles cause it to be stained rust red.

After two more brook crossings in rapid succession, the Israel Ridge Path joins the Castle Trail for the 1.3 mile return to Bowman. It was quite nice to have the softer forest floor under foot after so much rock hopping and with easier going we picked up the pace to return to Bowman about 10 hours after we left.

All in all, I was quite delighted with the choice of route, even though I was discouraged from taking this route a few weeks earlier, and if you are up for a little bit different way to the northern presidentials, I can say I highly recommend it. I would say it is probably best done in drier weather, but even with thunderstorms the day before, it wasn't dangerously wet, nor were the crossings at all challenging. It's definitely not an ideal winter route either, although there are signs of crampons marks on the rocks so it has been done.

All photos: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/564000742kSWFuu

Tim
 
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Great day in the woods, eh Tim!? I agree about the wind completely. Jen and I were going to kick back for a nice long summit stay on Madison since we were up there early enough, but the lack of breezez kept the swarm of annoying little flies smack dab on us...ick!

Glad to see you did not listen to the detractor and pushed on with your planned route. You did your thing, and I bet it made the experince all the more exciting!

Brian
 
Yes, beautiful. There were clouds even, which made the photographs more interesting. It was a very enjoyable trip for me. Given the holiday weekend, we actually enjoyed quite a bit of solitude, except from Jefferson to Adams and back to Israel Ridge Path. The only downside, if there was one, was that Larry needed Madison and we didn't plan around that. Then again, he's disavowed peakbagging on more than one prior occasion, so I don't feel too bad... twist my arm and I'll go back ;)

Tim
 
bikehikeskifish said:
OK, so I divide the Israel Ridge Trail into three segments in my mind....<snip>... This third part gives occasional views to the ravine between Israel Ridge and Nowell Ridge. It isn't given a name on any of my maps, and I assume it is still part of Castle Ravine and Israel Ridge merely juts out and divides it.

Is this still technically Castle Ravine? Or does it have a distinct name? I'm specifically talking about the ravine to the north of Israel Ridge and south of Nowell Ridge.

Thanks,
Tim
 
On Washburn's Presidential Range map, it is labeled as Cascade Ravine. And Washburn is never wrong!
 
Excellent Report

Loved the format/layout of your report + the narrative + the awesome photography!

Regarding your photo entitled “The most-challenging 15-foot section of the day”, I’ve recently been on that slab, and you’re right . . . it’s certainly a unique little section of trail!!
 
very nice report and photos. A great way to celebrate Independence Day.

bikehikeskifish said:
In honor of Independence Day it seemed appropriate to hike Mount Jefferson (and Mount Adams) for my #39 and #40 respectively.
Most appropriate as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were the only two Presidents who had signed the Declaration of Independence.
 
Thanks Larry for the Thin Mints!

You must have felt a bit like Jesus feeding so many people with one tube of girl scout cookies ;)
 
bikehikeskifish said:
And, in writing the TR, I learned they both died on the same day, July 4, 1826. Exactly 50 years after it was signed. Is that a coincidence?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_jefferson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_adams

Tim

yep - if your really interested in Adams - check out the DVD miniseries that just came out on him on HBO. I found it very well done.

Apparently, he did not get along all that well with Ben Franklin and Franklin was known to spend his time with many women of the "oldest profession". Ya don't learn that in high school. :eek:

the 7 part series was really good - shows what they all had to go through during that time period - and makes you appreciate 7/4 a bit more I think - The founding fathers were going up against the superpower at the time and they were essentially signing their death warrents if they didn't win. We all know this - but the miniseries kind of put it back in perspective - at least for me.
 
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Hey Tim,
Great report.Really nice to bump into you Kevin and Larry on the summit of Jefferson. I'm glad to so many people were able to enjoy such a fine day in the mountains and celebrate our freedom.
 
Sasquatch said:
Hey Tim,
Great report.Really nice to bump into you Kevin and Larry on the summit of Jefferson. I'm glad to so many people were able to enjoy such a fine day in the mountains and celebrate our freedom.

Ditto!! It was nice to meet up on Jefferson and share some laughs together and finally meeting! Looks like you guys had a great hike too, while teaching us all a little bit of our history!
 
bikehikeskifish said:
And, in writing the TR, I learned they both died on the same day, July 4, 1826. Exactly 50 years after it was signed. Is that a coincidence?

When you think about it, it's only 182 years ago they died......it's really not that long ago.......a friend of mine who died in 2002 told me stories of his mother who was born in 1861.

The last Civil War veteran died in 1958. Crawford Path was done before Adams and Jefferson died.
 
Mats Roing said:
The last Civil War veteran died in 1958. Crawford Path was done before Adams and Jefferson died.

I recall recently reading / hearing that number three died leaving only two living WWI veterans alive.

Nice to meet, re-meet, see again everyone and I'm glad to hear that everyone had a safe and fun July 4. It never hurts to remember why we celebrate it. Freedom is not free.

Tim
 
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