With the Mount Washington forecast calling for fantastic weather, dry,
light breeze, and "great horizontal visibility" (the web showed 90
miles of it late this afternoon), it looked like a good day to play
hooky from work. I had originally planned to do some hiking over the
weekend, but family obligations, an iffy forecast and plenty of
available vacation made it an easy decision. There was only one
catch: my wife was doing the CIGNA 5K in Manchester so I had to be
home by 5.
I woke up an hour before the alarm, and was on the road just before
4:30am. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of traffic at that hour.
I enjoyed watching the sun come up as I drove through the notch. The
clouds clung to Cannon, but Lafayette and company were in the clear.
Likewise, turning east on 302, the northern Presidentials were clear,
but the lower peaks on the southern end were completely in the clouds.
The first part of the forecast was spot on. I hoped the second part
would follow.
I got a nice close space in the Mt. Clinton lot, did all my warm-up
exercises, rolled out the leg muscles, stretched, etc. (an advantage
of hiking solo today is that nobody had to wait while I did the
warmups.) I was off by the stroke of 7am. I stopped only briefly to
take photos of Gibbs Brook and its various cascades. I've been
working on my composition and manual camera work, and I'm pretty happy
with the in-camera outcome of at least half of the shots. I didn't
feel like I needed much, if any, cropping.
Once past the falls, I made it to the Mizpah Cutoff split in 1:10,
well ahead of book time. There were some birds here that were clearly
curious about me, and they hopped from tree to tree. I presumed they
were gray jays, but they would come to a peanut on an outstretched
hand. I also nearly stepped on (twice) a red squirrel. I'm guessing
it has seen handouts before and was looking for one now.
At 8:40, I hit the outlook and trail junction, and by 8:45 I was
standing on the summit of number 16 - Pierce. I had it all to myself
for about 10 of the 15 minutes I spent there. Just before leaving,
along came a man and about 10 teenage boys. They had come up Jackson
Webster without a plan--"Do you guys want to keep going?" he asked.
They all agreed. He asked if this was Pierce, which I confirmed, and
then asked what was the next peak. At least they looked like they had
pretty full packs. Probably all food, given the caloric needs of guys
that age.
By 9:00 I left for Eisenhower, stopping every so often to check out
the views, get my bearings and identify all the Pemi peaks I know from
the south side. At 9:45, I stood alone on the top of Eisenhower,
although within a minute, someone came from the Monroe side. Since he
was wearing a Red Sox hat (as was I) we immediately struck up a good
conversation. We weren't not alone for long and soon the circle
around the cairn was pretty full. I ate lunch, watched the cog make
its way up Washington, leaving the ravine full of gray smoke. It is
noteworthy that I was comfortable in shorts and short sleeves, and
there wasn't much more than a whisper of a breeze.
By 10:15, I thought I might add Jackson. I would go to Mizpah, get
some water, have a snack, and decide from there. I was back to Pierce
just past 11, and at the hut by 11:45. There I consulted the map
again and talked with the croo, and decided that if I had gone on to
Jackson, all of the cushion I had for getting home in time would be
gone. Instead, I took on water and headed back down the Mizpah
Cutoff. Besides, getting home earlier than I promised put some
goodwill in the bank for the next trip.
On the way home, I ran into a group of 40 (yes that was FORTY)
teenagers with one adult chaperon. Based on the three DC-plated big
vans in the lot, I'm guessing they were city kids on an adventure. I
could hear them coming up for quite aways away. Eventually I realized
they were singing. When they got close, I recognized that the songs
were all from Fiddler on the Roof. Words came back from probably 25
years ago, and I joined them where I knew the words. They took
notice. Probably not something you see every day.
Total trip was ~9.5 miles, ~3300', and 6:15, including all breaks.
Photos here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560229648szFZWC
Tim
light breeze, and "great horizontal visibility" (the web showed 90
miles of it late this afternoon), it looked like a good day to play
hooky from work. I had originally planned to do some hiking over the
weekend, but family obligations, an iffy forecast and plenty of
available vacation made it an easy decision. There was only one
catch: my wife was doing the CIGNA 5K in Manchester so I had to be
home by 5.
I woke up an hour before the alarm, and was on the road just before
4:30am. Needless to say there wasn't a lot of traffic at that hour.
I enjoyed watching the sun come up as I drove through the notch. The
clouds clung to Cannon, but Lafayette and company were in the clear.
Likewise, turning east on 302, the northern Presidentials were clear,
but the lower peaks on the southern end were completely in the clouds.
The first part of the forecast was spot on. I hoped the second part
would follow.
I got a nice close space in the Mt. Clinton lot, did all my warm-up
exercises, rolled out the leg muscles, stretched, etc. (an advantage
of hiking solo today is that nobody had to wait while I did the
warmups.) I was off by the stroke of 7am. I stopped only briefly to
take photos of Gibbs Brook and its various cascades. I've been
working on my composition and manual camera work, and I'm pretty happy
with the in-camera outcome of at least half of the shots. I didn't
feel like I needed much, if any, cropping.
Once past the falls, I made it to the Mizpah Cutoff split in 1:10,
well ahead of book time. There were some birds here that were clearly
curious about me, and they hopped from tree to tree. I presumed they
were gray jays, but they would come to a peanut on an outstretched
hand. I also nearly stepped on (twice) a red squirrel. I'm guessing
it has seen handouts before and was looking for one now.
At 8:40, I hit the outlook and trail junction, and by 8:45 I was
standing on the summit of number 16 - Pierce. I had it all to myself
for about 10 of the 15 minutes I spent there. Just before leaving,
along came a man and about 10 teenage boys. They had come up Jackson
Webster without a plan--"Do you guys want to keep going?" he asked.
They all agreed. He asked if this was Pierce, which I confirmed, and
then asked what was the next peak. At least they looked like they had
pretty full packs. Probably all food, given the caloric needs of guys
that age.
By 9:00 I left for Eisenhower, stopping every so often to check out
the views, get my bearings and identify all the Pemi peaks I know from
the south side. At 9:45, I stood alone on the top of Eisenhower,
although within a minute, someone came from the Monroe side. Since he
was wearing a Red Sox hat (as was I) we immediately struck up a good
conversation. We weren't not alone for long and soon the circle
around the cairn was pretty full. I ate lunch, watched the cog make
its way up Washington, leaving the ravine full of gray smoke. It is
noteworthy that I was comfortable in shorts and short sleeves, and
there wasn't much more than a whisper of a breeze.
By 10:15, I thought I might add Jackson. I would go to Mizpah, get
some water, have a snack, and decide from there. I was back to Pierce
just past 11, and at the hut by 11:45. There I consulted the map
again and talked with the croo, and decided that if I had gone on to
Jackson, all of the cushion I had for getting home in time would be
gone. Instead, I took on water and headed back down the Mizpah
Cutoff. Besides, getting home earlier than I promised put some
goodwill in the bank for the next trip.
On the way home, I ran into a group of 40 (yes that was FORTY)
teenagers with one adult chaperon. Based on the three DC-plated big
vans in the lot, I'm guessing they were city kids on an adventure. I
could hear them coming up for quite aways away. Eventually I realized
they were singing. When they got close, I recognized that the songs
were all from Fiddler on the Roof. Words came back from probably 25
years ago, and I joined them where I knew the words. They took
notice. Probably not something you see every day.
Total trip was ~9.5 miles, ~3300', and 6:15, including all breaks.
Photos here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560229648szFZWC
Tim
