I think 2005 must be the year of the one-day Presidential Traverse. It seems everybody around here is doing them. Yesterday was my turn.
For those who don't know, the Highpointers Club Konvention was in town this past week and was attended by about 300 of its membership. The Club had its official Presidential Traverse on Friday but I was unable to do it then due to work obligations. However, I was fortunate enough to hook up with a 36 state completer from Colorado Springs for an attempt on Sunday.
Kevin and I started up the Pine Link Trail around 5:30 AM, which was a little later than the 4 AM start we had planned. This trail has a reputation for being rough, but really wasn't any more so than anything else we would be on all day. It quickly became apparent that the day was not going to be as nice as had been forecasted all week. The Mount Washington Weather report had called for fair skies but as it turned out, we were socked into the clouds for the majority of the day. I felt bad for Kevin who wanted to see the White Mountains in addition to hiking them.
Our hike was pretty standard. We bagged Madison and then Adams via Star Lake. Thanks to a navigational error by me, we descended the wrong trail off of Adams and had to partially retrace our steps to correct the mistake. Adams to Jefferson was probably the roughest part of the day hiking wise. The incessant boulder hopping was starting to get old. After tagging Jefferson, we continued on to Washington, reaching the summit just after 3 PM ... later than we had hoped. We fueled up in the cafeteria and set back out convinced we had enough daylight to get at least most of the rest of the trip in before being benighted.
After hitting Monroe and Franklin, the day finally started to clear up a bit and by the time we were on top of Eisenhower, it was absolutely beautiful. The skies had cleared and panoramas were visible in every direction. We summited Pierce at nightfall and hiked the final three miles back to Crawford Notch on the Crawford Path in the dark, finishing our day at 9:30 PM.
Trip stats: 20 miles, 9500 elevation gain, 7 official 4K peaks, 9 bottles of Gatorade.
It was a good day although very physically demanding by any standard.
For those who don't know, the Highpointers Club Konvention was in town this past week and was attended by about 300 of its membership. The Club had its official Presidential Traverse on Friday but I was unable to do it then due to work obligations. However, I was fortunate enough to hook up with a 36 state completer from Colorado Springs for an attempt on Sunday.
Kevin and I started up the Pine Link Trail around 5:30 AM, which was a little later than the 4 AM start we had planned. This trail has a reputation for being rough, but really wasn't any more so than anything else we would be on all day. It quickly became apparent that the day was not going to be as nice as had been forecasted all week. The Mount Washington Weather report had called for fair skies but as it turned out, we were socked into the clouds for the majority of the day. I felt bad for Kevin who wanted to see the White Mountains in addition to hiking them.
Our hike was pretty standard. We bagged Madison and then Adams via Star Lake. Thanks to a navigational error by me, we descended the wrong trail off of Adams and had to partially retrace our steps to correct the mistake. Adams to Jefferson was probably the roughest part of the day hiking wise. The incessant boulder hopping was starting to get old. After tagging Jefferson, we continued on to Washington, reaching the summit just after 3 PM ... later than we had hoped. We fueled up in the cafeteria and set back out convinced we had enough daylight to get at least most of the rest of the trip in before being benighted.
After hitting Monroe and Franklin, the day finally started to clear up a bit and by the time we were on top of Eisenhower, it was absolutely beautiful. The skies had cleared and panoramas were visible in every direction. We summited Pierce at nightfall and hiked the final three miles back to Crawford Notch on the Crawford Path in the dark, finishing our day at 9:30 PM.
Trip stats: 20 miles, 9500 elevation gain, 7 official 4K peaks, 9 bottles of Gatorade.
It was a good day although very physically demanding by any standard.
