Bobby
Active member
It seemed like a great plan. Tuco, Sapblatt and I planned a north to south Presidential traverse by the light of a full moon on Saturday night. The weather forecasts showed some rain in the afternoon, with continued clearing overnight, so we went ahead with our plan. We left cars at Appalachia, Crawford and the Ammo lot.
We aimed for a 3:00 PM start, but we waited out some rain, and started on Valley Way at about 3:45 PM. Part of our plan was to catch the sunset from the Mt. Adams area. There were many people descending Valley Way. Most of them were talking about the thunderstorms and rain they were caught in earlier in the day. We continued up in the sun, with nice temperatures.
At Madison Hut, we reloaded our water. The skies were still mostly clear, but the wind was picking up. We added some layers and we were soon on our way on the Gulfside Trail. We missed sunset on Adams, but did enjoy it as we approached Thunderstorm Junction. Some fog began to roll in about now, but we had pretty good visibility and continued on. Using headlamps, we made our way on the Gulfside.
As were moved along, the fog got thicker. We could just about go from cairn to cairn. Still believing the forecast for overnight clearing, we sent Sapblatt out to find cairns, with me staying at the previous cairn, and Tuco splitting the difference. We would meet up at the cairn, then do it again. We were always in sight of one another, and communicating constantly. This worked well for a little while.
On the descent into Edmands Col, the fog got significantly worse. The wind was blasting us. We guessed 35 mph constant and gusts at about 50 mph. The air temps were in the high 40's, the wind chill should have been colder, but didn't appear to be. Sapblatt and Tuco were searching for a cairn, to no avail. Shouting at one another so we could hear, we decided to bail. There was no reason to continue if we couldn't do so safely. I could see Sapblatt head of me, but couldn't see Tuco anywhere. Before turning around, I yelled out "where's Tuco?", when right behind me I hear "right here." I wasn't ready for that and jumped a little.
We began to backtrack and came to the Israel ridge junction, but decided to get back to Thunderstorm Junction. We were concerned that the Israel Ridge Trail might be hard to follow in the fog. We each had enough gear and food with us that if we had to dig into some scrub for the night, we would be alright.
Sapblatt and I were on cairn search and saw a head lamp approaching us. One other hiker, Rick, was also on a "full moon" traverse. We told Rick what was up at Edmands Col, and he decided to hike out with us. Back to T-Storm junction, then onto the Airline Trail. Tuco took a good spill on the Airline, but recovered nicely and we eventually got to the Airline Cut-Off and out of the wind.
We moved slowly down Valley Way. As we got closer to the parking lot, we passed a hiker heading up for a daylight Presi Traverse. We told him what we faced and wished him well. There were two other hikers in the Appalachia lot planning their own traverse. I hope they all did well.
Sapblatt, Tuco, Rick and I piled into my car. We saw a large moose crossing the base road just before the Ammo lot. He was huge. We let Tuco out, and then dropped Sapblatt and Rick at the Highland Center. I got my sleeping bag and slept in the car for an hour or so, then drove home.
We had a good plan in place for this trip. We made our decision to start the hike based on a favorable forecast. We evaluated our situation constantly during the hike. We evaluated each other at all times. Each of us was equipped for a night out, including stoves and hot food. We have hiked together before and knew each others capabilities. When the decision to bail out was made, there was no discussion. We simply turned around and headed home. I never felt that we were in over our heads, there was just no point in continuing.
While I wish this hike turned out better, it was still a good time.
Just a few pictures from this one.
We aimed for a 3:00 PM start, but we waited out some rain, and started on Valley Way at about 3:45 PM. Part of our plan was to catch the sunset from the Mt. Adams area. There were many people descending Valley Way. Most of them were talking about the thunderstorms and rain they were caught in earlier in the day. We continued up in the sun, with nice temperatures.
At Madison Hut, we reloaded our water. The skies were still mostly clear, but the wind was picking up. We added some layers and we were soon on our way on the Gulfside Trail. We missed sunset on Adams, but did enjoy it as we approached Thunderstorm Junction. Some fog began to roll in about now, but we had pretty good visibility and continued on. Using headlamps, we made our way on the Gulfside.
As were moved along, the fog got thicker. We could just about go from cairn to cairn. Still believing the forecast for overnight clearing, we sent Sapblatt out to find cairns, with me staying at the previous cairn, and Tuco splitting the difference. We would meet up at the cairn, then do it again. We were always in sight of one another, and communicating constantly. This worked well for a little while.
On the descent into Edmands Col, the fog got significantly worse. The wind was blasting us. We guessed 35 mph constant and gusts at about 50 mph. The air temps were in the high 40's, the wind chill should have been colder, but didn't appear to be. Sapblatt and Tuco were searching for a cairn, to no avail. Shouting at one another so we could hear, we decided to bail. There was no reason to continue if we couldn't do so safely. I could see Sapblatt head of me, but couldn't see Tuco anywhere. Before turning around, I yelled out "where's Tuco?", when right behind me I hear "right here." I wasn't ready for that and jumped a little.
We began to backtrack and came to the Israel ridge junction, but decided to get back to Thunderstorm Junction. We were concerned that the Israel Ridge Trail might be hard to follow in the fog. We each had enough gear and food with us that if we had to dig into some scrub for the night, we would be alright.
Sapblatt and I were on cairn search and saw a head lamp approaching us. One other hiker, Rick, was also on a "full moon" traverse. We told Rick what was up at Edmands Col, and he decided to hike out with us. Back to T-Storm junction, then onto the Airline Trail. Tuco took a good spill on the Airline, but recovered nicely and we eventually got to the Airline Cut-Off and out of the wind.
We moved slowly down Valley Way. As we got closer to the parking lot, we passed a hiker heading up for a daylight Presi Traverse. We told him what we faced and wished him well. There were two other hikers in the Appalachia lot planning their own traverse. I hope they all did well.
Sapblatt, Tuco, Rick and I piled into my car. We saw a large moose crossing the base road just before the Ammo lot. He was huge. We let Tuco out, and then dropped Sapblatt and Rick at the Highland Center. I got my sleeping bag and slept in the car for an hour or so, then drove home.
We had a good plan in place for this trip. We made our decision to start the hike based on a favorable forecast. We evaluated our situation constantly during the hike. We evaluated each other at all times. Each of us was equipped for a night out, including stoves and hot food. We have hiked together before and knew each others capabilities. When the decision to bail out was made, there was no discussion. We simply turned around and headed home. I never felt that we were in over our heads, there was just no point in continuing.
While I wish this hike turned out better, it was still a good time.
Just a few pictures from this one.
