Kelly and I reached the Edmands Path Trailhead at 7:30 AM on Saturday morning. The weather report said clouds and thunderstorms, plus muggy weather and an occasional glimpse of sun. We were hoping, with the early start, to get up and down while seeing some views.
We quickly realized we were the first on the trail that day (as if the empty parking lot wasnt clue enough) as we kept smacking into face high strands of spider web across the trail
Edmands Path is a pretty gentle and forgiving route to a 4000 footer. It took us a bit to get our second wind and really hit our stride, but the path was really not overly tough at any point during the hike. Bugs were active at the lower elevations, but the higher we got the less there were.
We were moving at a pretty good rate and sweating (alot for me) under the toil. We were rewarded with some excellent views along the way as we had some clear views looking off to our north west. Before we knew it, we busted out above treeline and could see Crawford Path. Up till this point, we had not seen anyone except for one hiker who passed us on the way at a pretty good clip.
Where Edmands Path was a pretty much solitary journey, we saw "tons" of people crossing on their way either to or from Lakes to Mitzpah Springs Hut. Eisenhower was in the soup when we got to the top - we couldnt see more than 10 feet off the summit cone and the clouds were swirling all around us. We stopped for a few minutes and then headed down the Crawford Path and decided, clouds permitting, to head to Pierce. Lo and behold, the views cleared as we headed down from Ike and we had some amazing sights on the pretty easy journey over to Pierce. We were truly amongst the multitudes at this point as in the hour walk, we saw about 50-60 people along the way.
At Pierce, we were still feeling pretty good and it was only 10 minutes to 11, so we decided to head down and see the Mitzpah Springs Hut. We walked/slid down a pretty steep trail on the way to the hut. The rocks were wet, the grade steep and people were having a tough time of it. Kelly fell back on the tried and true butt sliding method while I tried to maintain my dignity slipping and sliding away
We reached the hut and stopped off for some Lemonade and Snickers for me and Tomato Soup and some dark bread for Kelly. I bought a shirt and we headed over to check out the Nauman Tentsites.
Nauman was a bit of a disappointment. The whole area has a swampy kind of feel in the humid day. I had hoped for a little better and to be honest would prefer a site off the trail rather than the platforms there.
We headed down the Mitzpah Cutoff and relinked with the Crawford Path. We were both dragging at this point and lost ourselves in the rhytm of pounding boots on stones as we headed down the pretty comfortable grade. We saw plenty of people on their way up to the hut including a Boy Scout Troop, a little girl charging ahead of her family while eating a PBJ and telling them to hurry up, and a group of people smoking cigarettes carrying no packs no water and pretty much nothing else except for a flashlight.
Tired and weary, we wound our way down to the Mount Clinton Auto Road, where with aching feet we walked 2.3 more miles up the road to our car. We got back to the car at 2:50.
All in all, I think it was roughly 7 hours, 11 or so miles, 2 4000 footers, and a good trial run for our trip to the Bonds in a couple weeks.
We quickly realized we were the first on the trail that day (as if the empty parking lot wasnt clue enough) as we kept smacking into face high strands of spider web across the trail
Edmands Path is a pretty gentle and forgiving route to a 4000 footer. It took us a bit to get our second wind and really hit our stride, but the path was really not overly tough at any point during the hike. Bugs were active at the lower elevations, but the higher we got the less there were.
We were moving at a pretty good rate and sweating (alot for me) under the toil. We were rewarded with some excellent views along the way as we had some clear views looking off to our north west. Before we knew it, we busted out above treeline and could see Crawford Path. Up till this point, we had not seen anyone except for one hiker who passed us on the way at a pretty good clip.
Where Edmands Path was a pretty much solitary journey, we saw "tons" of people crossing on their way either to or from Lakes to Mitzpah Springs Hut. Eisenhower was in the soup when we got to the top - we couldnt see more than 10 feet off the summit cone and the clouds were swirling all around us. We stopped for a few minutes and then headed down the Crawford Path and decided, clouds permitting, to head to Pierce. Lo and behold, the views cleared as we headed down from Ike and we had some amazing sights on the pretty easy journey over to Pierce. We were truly amongst the multitudes at this point as in the hour walk, we saw about 50-60 people along the way.
At Pierce, we were still feeling pretty good and it was only 10 minutes to 11, so we decided to head down and see the Mitzpah Springs Hut. We walked/slid down a pretty steep trail on the way to the hut. The rocks were wet, the grade steep and people were having a tough time of it. Kelly fell back on the tried and true butt sliding method while I tried to maintain my dignity slipping and sliding away
We reached the hut and stopped off for some Lemonade and Snickers for me and Tomato Soup and some dark bread for Kelly. I bought a shirt and we headed over to check out the Nauman Tentsites. Nauman was a bit of a disappointment. The whole area has a swampy kind of feel in the humid day. I had hoped for a little better and to be honest would prefer a site off the trail rather than the platforms there.
We headed down the Mitzpah Cutoff and relinked with the Crawford Path. We were both dragging at this point and lost ourselves in the rhytm of pounding boots on stones as we headed down the pretty comfortable grade. We saw plenty of people on their way up to the hut including a Boy Scout Troop, a little girl charging ahead of her family while eating a PBJ and telling them to hurry up, and a group of people smoking cigarettes carrying no packs no water and pretty much nothing else except for a flashlight.
Tired and weary, we wound our way down to the Mount Clinton Auto Road, where with aching feet we walked 2.3 more miles up the road to our car. We got back to the car at 2:50.
All in all, I think it was roughly 7 hours, 11 or so miles, 2 4000 footers, and a good trial run for our trip to the Bonds in a couple weeks.
