Double Bow
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- Apr 29, 2005
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Well, all the talk last week about what is a "true" Presidential traverse kinda made me want to get out and revisit some old friends, especially since Gator (formerly Ryan) still needed Big George and Monroe for his list. Besides, I'd never been over Franklin! 
I thought that a Southern Presidential traverse would fit the bill nicely. It didn't take much convincing to get Gator to see that it would be a great opportunity. After much discussion which way to get up Washington (we agreed from the stat that we would be coming down Webster Cliff), we decided that we would go up Tucks to Lion Head. I'd never done Lion Head before.
We wound up meeting later than I had wanted but conditions were perfect. As we were driving to Pinkham Notch, we could clearly see the summit buildings. At 8am, we started up Tuckerman Ravine noticing the sign saying that the trail was closed from the lunch rocks up to ? (don't remember). Good thing we had been planning to take Lion Head. We checked out the cascades on our way up and just had a great time enjoying the weather and climbing at a comfortable pace. That was the theme of the day, takin' it easy. I enjoyed revisiting Tucks. I hadn't been on that trail for almost 11 years. We turned onto Lion Head trail and foundd that to be pretty cool too. We stopped to snap some pics and have a snack at this point where it was open and you could see well into the ravine. I couldn't believe there was still snow not only in the ravine but in patches higher up! Of course, I had only been up Washington in the fall.
As we had been going up, I had been wondering about the Lion Head and if it would be visable from the trail or not and if it would actually look like anything. Yup! Definately visable, very cool! Almost as cool as the views of Slide Peak.
We continued on and before we knew it, we reached the road. Just for the heck of it, I had timed our ascent to compare it against book (I didn't time any other segments of this trip). I was very happy with what I saw. We reached the summit 45 minutes ahead of book time and we weren't even trying. Very cool!
It was really nice to see that there weren't really that many people up there. We only had to wait for one group so we could get a pic of Gator at the sign and were able to take pictures from all directions. Then we went in and had a bite. I went for the hot dogs and bought a muffin to bring home to Shammy, call it a condolance muffin. Gator, against his own better judgement had the clam chowder! Remarkably, he didn't seem to get sick. After an hour in the food court, we desided it was time to move on.
It wasn't long before we were stopping in at Lake of the Clouds and Gator was munching on not-quite-fully-baked pumpkin bread. I stuck with the lemonade. Moving on, we hit Monroe and Little Monroe and helped a group take a group shot.
From here over Franklin (we did do the short spur) and over to the Eisenhower Loop was fantastic. The views were far and wide in all directions and we were just soaking in more than our fill of the alpine sights.
I hadn't been up Eisenhower since the Saturday after 9/11 (a very solumn hike) and was quite suprised to find it much greener than I had remebered. Not lush or anything but, there was short green growth. From here, the trip went downhill figuratively and literally.
The trip over to Pierce was fine although it paled compared to all the alpine miles before. I was a little upset because by the time we got to Mizpah, they had already started dinner and I had been hoping to see what baked goodies they might have had.
I was still looking forward to revisiting Jackson since of all the 4Ks I've been to, it was the only one that I didn't have a recollection of what the summit was like. When we got there, I understood why. It's nice but not extraordinary. By the time we got to Emmanuel Lewis (Webster), I knew we weren't going to have a whole lot of fun going down. Sunset would happen before we got to the car. We were going to pay the price for our leasurly hiking. Nevertheless, we continued with our plan.
We went down as fast as we could racing against the sun (it had been quite awhile since I had to do that) and continued without stopping for as long as we could until I could hardly see (there was no moonlight). We then stopped to take out the headlamps. Headlamps? Headlamp? Yup, Gator forgot his lamp. I had my big ol' Petzle with it's four fresh AA batteries and I fished out my Ion for Gator to use. Dead battery. Great. Lesson learned.
The rest of the way was slow going and at one point Gator took a slight fall and then less than a minute later, I took a worse fall. Nothing serious. Been through worse. We finally made it out, later than expected but, no worse for the wear.
Overall, it was a great hike with plenty of alpine time, fantastic views, and a wind that was cooling but not harsh. We couldn't have asked for much better!
Total: 17.1mi, 5500' climbed, time around 14hrs?
I thought that a Southern Presidential traverse would fit the bill nicely. It didn't take much convincing to get Gator to see that it would be a great opportunity. After much discussion which way to get up Washington (we agreed from the stat that we would be coming down Webster Cliff), we decided that we would go up Tucks to Lion Head. I'd never done Lion Head before. We wound up meeting later than I had wanted but conditions were perfect. As we were driving to Pinkham Notch, we could clearly see the summit buildings. At 8am, we started up Tuckerman Ravine noticing the sign saying that the trail was closed from the lunch rocks up to ? (don't remember). Good thing we had been planning to take Lion Head. We checked out the cascades on our way up and just had a great time enjoying the weather and climbing at a comfortable pace. That was the theme of the day, takin' it easy. I enjoyed revisiting Tucks. I hadn't been on that trail for almost 11 years. We turned onto Lion Head trail and foundd that to be pretty cool too. We stopped to snap some pics and have a snack at this point where it was open and you could see well into the ravine. I couldn't believe there was still snow not only in the ravine but in patches higher up! Of course, I had only been up Washington in the fall.
As we had been going up, I had been wondering about the Lion Head and if it would be visable from the trail or not and if it would actually look like anything. Yup! Definately visable, very cool! Almost as cool as the views of Slide Peak.
We continued on and before we knew it, we reached the road. Just for the heck of it, I had timed our ascent to compare it against book (I didn't time any other segments of this trip). I was very happy with what I saw. We reached the summit 45 minutes ahead of book time and we weren't even trying. Very cool!
It was really nice to see that there weren't really that many people up there. We only had to wait for one group so we could get a pic of Gator at the sign and were able to take pictures from all directions. Then we went in and had a bite. I went for the hot dogs and bought a muffin to bring home to Shammy
, call it a condolance muffin. Gator, against his own better judgement had the clam chowder! Remarkably, he didn't seem to get sick. After an hour in the food court, we desided it was time to move on.It wasn't long before we were stopping in at Lake of the Clouds and Gator was munching on not-quite-fully-baked pumpkin bread. I stuck with the lemonade. Moving on, we hit Monroe and Little Monroe and helped a group take a group shot.
From here over Franklin (we did do the short spur) and over to the Eisenhower Loop was fantastic. The views were far and wide in all directions and we were just soaking in more than our fill of the alpine sights.
I hadn't been up Eisenhower since the Saturday after 9/11 (a very solumn hike) and was quite suprised to find it much greener than I had remebered. Not lush or anything but, there was short green growth. From here, the trip went downhill figuratively and literally.
The trip over to Pierce was fine although it paled compared to all the alpine miles before. I was a little upset because by the time we got to Mizpah, they had already started dinner and I had been hoping to see what baked goodies they might have had.
I was still looking forward to revisiting Jackson since of all the 4Ks I've been to, it was the only one that I didn't have a recollection of what the summit was like. When we got there, I understood why. It's nice but not extraordinary. By the time we got to Emmanuel Lewis (Webster), I knew we weren't going to have a whole lot of fun going down. Sunset would happen before we got to the car. We were going to pay the price for our leasurly hiking. Nevertheless, we continued with our plan.
We went down as fast as we could racing against the sun (it had been quite awhile since I had to do that) and continued without stopping for as long as we could until I could hardly see (there was no moonlight). We then stopped to take out the headlamps. Headlamps? Headlamp? Yup, Gator forgot his lamp. I had my big ol' Petzle with it's four fresh AA batteries and I fished out my Ion for Gator to use. Dead battery. Great. Lesson learned.
The rest of the way was slow going and at one point Gator took a slight fall and then less than a minute later, I took a worse fall. Nothing serious. Been through worse. We finally made it out, later than expected but, no worse for the wear.
Overall, it was a great hike with plenty of alpine time, fantastic views, and a wind that was cooling but not harsh. We couldn't have asked for much better!
Total: 17.1mi, 5500' climbed, time around 14hrs?
