sjk
New member
After getting some ideas and feedback from folks here, my wife and I spent three days in the Great Gulf last weekend. We've been all over the Whites, but somehow we'd never been in the Great Gulf area. Before heading out, we stopped by Ragged Mountain and ended up buying a new tent - which turned out to be a very, very good idea.
We started across from Joe Dodge and spent Saturday afternoon casually hiking into the Osgood tentsite. It was a quick trip and we were surprised to find almost no one there. Fearing other sites further into the Gulf would be taken, we went ahead and set up camp there. It's a nice site and the weather was quite good. We finished eating etc...just before the sun went down and the rain started.
It rained very hard for most of the night, hard enough that our old tent would have left us soaked - our last-second decision to buy a new tent paid off handsomely as we woke up bone dry early Sunday morning. We had breakfast in a light drizzle and tried to decide if we should hike up to the ridge in the wet or just go further up the gulf for the day. We finally decided to head up the Osgood trail towards Madison, planning a day-hike and leaving our tent etc...back at the tentsite. The first hour was drizzle and fog, but right about treeline we hiked "above the fog" and it was suddenly beatiful blue sky. The entire valley was packed in clouds, but the ridge was clear - a really amazing sight. I'd attach a picture if only I knew how!
we went over Madison, down to the hut, and decided to continue on the ridge over to Edmands col. The sun was out, the wind was low and it was one of the most beautiful days we've had in the Presis. Had lunch at Edmands col, then headed down the Edmands cutoff to Six Husbands trail. The Cutoff trail, as many of you probably know, is not well marked and we had a bit of an adventure there. I had read that Six Husbands was a very steep descent, and the reading was no lie! in several places, we had to drop our poles and packs in order to scramble down. But it's a really beautiful trail and well worth the effort. It took us the better part of two hours to get from Edmands to the bottom of Six Husbands. The hike back to Osgood from there was nice, and we both commented that there would be an awful lot of great swimming holes along the way if the temp was a bit warmer.
Our second night at Osgood tent site was another rainy affair, though we did manage to have a great meal of Indian food before needing to retreat to shelter. It was still raining the next morning, so we packed up and headed back to the car early enough to have a great breakfast in Conway.
a great trip all around. Hiking out of the fog into the sun as we headed up Madison was an experience that will not soon be forgotten! And the trip down Six Husbands added a little adventure.
We started across from Joe Dodge and spent Saturday afternoon casually hiking into the Osgood tentsite. It was a quick trip and we were surprised to find almost no one there. Fearing other sites further into the Gulf would be taken, we went ahead and set up camp there. It's a nice site and the weather was quite good. We finished eating etc...just before the sun went down and the rain started.
It rained very hard for most of the night, hard enough that our old tent would have left us soaked - our last-second decision to buy a new tent paid off handsomely as we woke up bone dry early Sunday morning. We had breakfast in a light drizzle and tried to decide if we should hike up to the ridge in the wet or just go further up the gulf for the day. We finally decided to head up the Osgood trail towards Madison, planning a day-hike and leaving our tent etc...back at the tentsite. The first hour was drizzle and fog, but right about treeline we hiked "above the fog" and it was suddenly beatiful blue sky. The entire valley was packed in clouds, but the ridge was clear - a really amazing sight. I'd attach a picture if only I knew how!
we went over Madison, down to the hut, and decided to continue on the ridge over to Edmands col. The sun was out, the wind was low and it was one of the most beautiful days we've had in the Presis. Had lunch at Edmands col, then headed down the Edmands cutoff to Six Husbands trail. The Cutoff trail, as many of you probably know, is not well marked and we had a bit of an adventure there. I had read that Six Husbands was a very steep descent, and the reading was no lie! in several places, we had to drop our poles and packs in order to scramble down. But it's a really beautiful trail and well worth the effort. It took us the better part of two hours to get from Edmands to the bottom of Six Husbands. The hike back to Osgood from there was nice, and we both commented that there would be an awful lot of great swimming holes along the way if the temp was a bit warmer.
Our second night at Osgood tent site was another rainy affair, though we did manage to have a great meal of Indian food before needing to retreat to shelter. It was still raining the next morning, so we packed up and headed back to the car early enough to have a great breakfast in Conway.
a great trip all around. Hiking out of the fog into the sun as we headed up Madison was an experience that will not soon be forgotten! And the trip down Six Husbands added a little adventure.
