king tut
New member
So, another hot day, another long hike. I headed out to NH monday and got a site at Dolly Copp. Thanks for everyone who recomended that campground. So, fast forward to 5:40 this morning, I started at the daniel webster trailhead inside of the campground. I thought that this would give me plenty of time to do the whole hike, and avoid some of the heat. The plan was to summit both madison and adams today. The daniel webster trail was a nice steady ascent for 3.5 miles, nothing too steep, but no flats either. Not a whole lot of views or sights to see on this trail, but a nice ascent none the less.
From there, i made my way onto the osgood trail, where it connects with the a.t. Very nice views as I was now on the ridgeline. It was about .6 mile until i got to the top of madison, at least i thought. None of the summits had any cairns or signs denoting the top of the mt or elevation. Kind of a bummer. I met two nice people up on top, one was a cool guy from northeast kingdom VT, and he was with a cool cute chick from maryland. They told me that they had come up to madison hut for a party last night, and he had played guitar for everyone. Apparently there was a big hiker party, which i was soon to find out more about. I had him take a picture of me on top of madison and then i headed down after a 15 minute break. It had taken me 3 hours to get up to the top of madison.
Then i descended 500 feet to madison hut, and took a few minutes rest. From there i took the parapet trail the next mile up to the top of adams. This must have taken at least 45 minutes, as i was pretty pooped, and had my hands on my knees as my heart was going thump thump thump. The top of Adams was very nice, pretty warm but there was a nice little breeze that helped dry my clothes out a little bit. It had been quite warm on the ridgeline ascending the two peaks, my thermometer was reading low 70's on the top of the mt's. I met two nice guys on top of the mt that had ascended the airline trail. I had a little food and some water while relaxing on top. Just as I was about to leave, 2 younger girls came up to the top of the mt. I had seen them on the lower stretches of the parapet trail as i was ascending higher up. I talked to them a little while, and they too had stayed at madison last night, and they were also 20-ish, in very good shape and attractive. Starting to sound like a theme here.
From there, i descended down the a.t. to madison hut, about another mile. I ran into another group that had stayed at Madison last night. There was a somewhat older guy and about 5 good looking 20-ish girls too. I decided that next time i come to the whites, i must stay at madison. After I got down to the hut, i went over to the madison gulf trail. From the top of Adams, the ravine looked very steep. and guess what, it was. I decided down the ravine for a mile of a steep boulder strewn path. There were a few sketchy parts descending down this trail, as it was real steep and slick.
From there it was down the great gulf trail for a long hot walk. The trail merged w/ the osgood trail and i followed that for a while until i found a nice spot in the river/brook to dunk myself in. It felt great! And it helped cool down the core body temp a good amt. I even got a great shot of myself using my delay on my camera. I was very impressed w/ myself. Then i tried to put my boots back on and ran into big problems. Cramping. I could not unbend my legs or i would get excruciating cramps. It took me about 10 minutes to put my boots back on in between severe leg cramps. I had about 3-4 miles left in the hike, so i went down the trail at a quick pace, as the bugs were annoying as all heck. I got back to the campground at around 2:40. which made this a really long day. All in all, it was about 12-14 miles and around 4800 vertical. Yea, and the weather was rather warm.
here are a few pics http://eshare.hpphoto.com/en/home/welcome.asp?JobID=393b856e-491a-4d2b-ad3d-efbfa3f3c8dc
From there, i made my way onto the osgood trail, where it connects with the a.t. Very nice views as I was now on the ridgeline. It was about .6 mile until i got to the top of madison, at least i thought. None of the summits had any cairns or signs denoting the top of the mt or elevation. Kind of a bummer. I met two nice people up on top, one was a cool guy from northeast kingdom VT, and he was with a cool cute chick from maryland. They told me that they had come up to madison hut for a party last night, and he had played guitar for everyone. Apparently there was a big hiker party, which i was soon to find out more about. I had him take a picture of me on top of madison and then i headed down after a 15 minute break. It had taken me 3 hours to get up to the top of madison.
Then i descended 500 feet to madison hut, and took a few minutes rest. From there i took the parapet trail the next mile up to the top of adams. This must have taken at least 45 minutes, as i was pretty pooped, and had my hands on my knees as my heart was going thump thump thump. The top of Adams was very nice, pretty warm but there was a nice little breeze that helped dry my clothes out a little bit. It had been quite warm on the ridgeline ascending the two peaks, my thermometer was reading low 70's on the top of the mt's. I met two nice guys on top of the mt that had ascended the airline trail. I had a little food and some water while relaxing on top. Just as I was about to leave, 2 younger girls came up to the top of the mt. I had seen them on the lower stretches of the parapet trail as i was ascending higher up. I talked to them a little while, and they too had stayed at madison last night, and they were also 20-ish, in very good shape and attractive. Starting to sound like a theme here.
From there, i descended down the a.t. to madison hut, about another mile. I ran into another group that had stayed at Madison last night. There was a somewhat older guy and about 5 good looking 20-ish girls too. I decided that next time i come to the whites, i must stay at madison. After I got down to the hut, i went over to the madison gulf trail. From the top of Adams, the ravine looked very steep. and guess what, it was. I decided down the ravine for a mile of a steep boulder strewn path. There were a few sketchy parts descending down this trail, as it was real steep and slick.
From there it was down the great gulf trail for a long hot walk. The trail merged w/ the osgood trail and i followed that for a while until i found a nice spot in the river/brook to dunk myself in. It felt great! And it helped cool down the core body temp a good amt. I even got a great shot of myself using my delay on my camera. I was very impressed w/ myself. Then i tried to put my boots back on and ran into big problems. Cramping. I could not unbend my legs or i would get excruciating cramps. It took me about 10 minutes to put my boots back on in between severe leg cramps. I had about 3-4 miles left in the hike, so i went down the trail at a quick pace, as the bugs were annoying as all heck. I got back to the campground at around 2:40. which made this a really long day. All in all, it was about 12-14 miles and around 4800 vertical. Yea, and the weather was rather warm.
here are a few pics http://eshare.hpphoto.com/en/home/welcome.asp?JobID=393b856e-491a-4d2b-ad3d-efbfa3f3c8dc
