Adventurous
New member
The hike started at 5am from the Daniel Webster Scout trail with plans to hike Madison, Adams, Jefferson and over to Isolation. The crew – Una_Dogger, Michael J, Terra and myself. The rest of the gang had already taken off to do the full traverse. Despite being 5am, it was quite warm and humid. We lingered in spots where we found natural air conditioning and there were quite a few of them. The views of the undercast were amazing – not a sight that you get to see too often. The trail itself is in great shape and is a steady moderate climb to tree line. From there, it was a bit hard to follow the trail since markers and/or cairns are far apart. When we reached the ridge, there were thick clouds over Madison and Adams and the winds were strong. MJ was feeling a bit under the weather so we decided to take the Parapet trail to Madison Hut and come up with a game plan from there. After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the hut (with the realization that it would have been faster to go over Madison). To our surprise, there were a few people from the group ahead of us that were going to head down to Appalachia due to injuries and not feeling well. MJ was going to head down with them and we would stay behind and hike Madison and Adams. We decided to bail on the rest of our plans because of the ominous clouds and forecast for isolated t-storms. MJ would pick us up at Appalachia after he picked up his car.
Off we went to Madison. The clouds seemed to be lifting which made us rethink our current plan. Five minutes from the summit, we ran into Dave Bear. We chatted for a bit, found out that he wanted to do the same traverse and had a phone with him. One problem…we couldn’t remember MJ’s number or anyone else’s that might have it. There was no way to get in touch with him to say don’t pick us up. So…we headed to the summit and planned to meet Dave Bear at Adams. The wind was really strong so we stayed long enough to take pics. This was NH #9 and NE111 #64 for me. On the way back to the hut, both of my knees began to have mild pain. I started having flashbacks to 2 years ago when I had knee pains so bad that I had to use my trekking poles as crutches. I didn’t want to end up there again so I descended slowly. By the time we arrived at the hut, the pain was no worse than it was when I started the descent which was a good sign. We topped up the water before heading over to Adams.
The clouds were still rolling in and out. They were fast moving but there were thick black clouds in the distance. We met Dave Bear at the junction to Adams and took a snack break before proceeding. We were still unsuccessful in remembering MJ’s number so we tried my phone and Una_Doggers in hopes that he was back at the car and might hear them. Nope…no such luck. We started the hike up Adams, it was still quite windy and the summit was socked in. By the time we reached the summit, the clouds had lifted and offered great views of Madison. Still couldn’t see the summit of Washington though. We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the views. This was NH #10 and NE111 #65 for me. Finally double digits in NH!!
Since we had no way of communicating our desire to change our plans, we began our descent to Appalachia. This was probably the best choice for me because of the knee pain I was having and descending Adams only further aggravated it. It was a slow descent for me…not a snails pace but fairly close. Slow enough that the black flies had plenty of time to plan their attack on me. Una_Dogger and Terra went ahead of us in hopes to meet MJ before he started to wonder where we were. This plan was successful. Dave Bear patiently continued down with me. We didn’t stop too often because the black flies would attack even worse than they already were. So…we kept a slow steady pace and talked the entire way back to the car – talking made me forget about the pain that my knees were experiencing.
Overall, a great day with a fantastic group of people!!!
Off we went to Madison. The clouds seemed to be lifting which made us rethink our current plan. Five minutes from the summit, we ran into Dave Bear. We chatted for a bit, found out that he wanted to do the same traverse and had a phone with him. One problem…we couldn’t remember MJ’s number or anyone else’s that might have it. There was no way to get in touch with him to say don’t pick us up. So…we headed to the summit and planned to meet Dave Bear at Adams. The wind was really strong so we stayed long enough to take pics. This was NH #9 and NE111 #64 for me. On the way back to the hut, both of my knees began to have mild pain. I started having flashbacks to 2 years ago when I had knee pains so bad that I had to use my trekking poles as crutches. I didn’t want to end up there again so I descended slowly. By the time we arrived at the hut, the pain was no worse than it was when I started the descent which was a good sign. We topped up the water before heading over to Adams.
The clouds were still rolling in and out. They were fast moving but there were thick black clouds in the distance. We met Dave Bear at the junction to Adams and took a snack break before proceeding. We were still unsuccessful in remembering MJ’s number so we tried my phone and Una_Doggers in hopes that he was back at the car and might hear them. Nope…no such luck. We started the hike up Adams, it was still quite windy and the summit was socked in. By the time we reached the summit, the clouds had lifted and offered great views of Madison. Still couldn’t see the summit of Washington though. We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the views. This was NH #10 and NE111 #65 for me. Finally double digits in NH!!
Since we had no way of communicating our desire to change our plans, we began our descent to Appalachia. This was probably the best choice for me because of the knee pain I was having and descending Adams only further aggravated it. It was a slow descent for me…not a snails pace but fairly close. Slow enough that the black flies had plenty of time to plan their attack on me. Una_Dogger and Terra went ahead of us in hopes to meet MJ before he started to wonder where we were. This plan was successful. Dave Bear patiently continued down with me. We didn’t stop too often because the black flies would attack even worse than they already were. So…we kept a slow steady pace and talked the entire way back to the car – talking made me forget about the pain that my knees were experiencing.
Overall, a great day with a fantastic group of people!!!
