Norther Presi Loop - Our first trip to the Whites - not without complications!

[Spiffae]

A group of three friends and I set out on August 8th, planning to do a three night Pinkham > Hermit Lake > Perch > Osgood > Pinkham loop. It was not to be. We arrived at Pinkham and checked out the NWS forecast and saw that Friday (our big ridge day) was forecast to be rainy (1/2" to 3/4" rain) with a chance of storms, so we decided to do it in reverse, spending our rainy day climbing out of treeline and hopefully getting a sunny day for our walk along the ridge.

View from Low's Bald Spot

Friday's rain, rolling in.

After a lovely evening at Osgood, we awoke to thunder and a torrential downpour. By 8:30AM a mug I had left out as a rain gauge had accumulated almost an inch of rain. The storm abated and I figured "well they predicted about this much rain, that must be it!" - first mistake. We packed our wet gear, had a small breakfast, and hit the trail. After about an hour up the Osgood trail, it started raining again. When we hit the treeline the clouds descended on us, and it started blowing a cold wet wind. Distant thunder and increasingly heavy rain made us very nervous about exposure, so we skipped the Madison summit and took the Parapet trail around the peak. That was our second mistake as we later found out from the AMC Madison Hut caretaker, who described Parapet as being "one of the worst trails up here." The Parapet trail is exactly one mile long, but took our soaked group almost two hours to navigate it. One of the members of our group was a first-time backpacker and had a really hard time picking stable footing in the wet above-treeline rocks, and took a couple falls along parapet, none too serious but both seriously shaking him up and damaging his confidence. As our group slowed down and the rain didn't stop, I started thinking about getting us to shelter ASAP. Luckily when we reached the Parapet itself the trail flattened out, we passed by a cloud-shrouded Star Lake and then Madison Hut. Madison was warm and smelled of freshly baked bread, but unfortunately the news was not good. It was about 3pm, and NOAA was predicting more thunderstorms at 5pm. We spent the best $1 we have ever spent and partook of the hot cocoa and coffee. Puddles formed where we sat while we ate some lunch, and then at the urging of the AMC caretaker we made a mad dash for Crag Camp. About halfway along the gulfside trail near Thunderstorm Junction our unfortunate companion slipped and took another fall, this time landing hard on the front of his thigh. I knew we had another mile or so of downhill stepping, so the more experienced hikers loaded up some of his gear and too turns guiding him carefully down the Spur trail to Crag.

The 1.4 miles to Crag Camp were a long slow 1.4 but we made it. The rain had scared most everyone else off, so Crag was nearly empty when we got there. pulled our soaked gear out, put on all our dry clothes, and made some hot drinks.

Of course, the second we arrived at Crag, the sun came out.

Osgood, rainy morning - cameras were put away after this photo, and didn't come out again until Crag Camp.

Arrival at Crag Camp

Warm drinks and smiles at the end of a hard day.


Turns out that the whites got over 4 inches of rain that day - this is the flow of the Pemi River... yowch!

 

[Spiffae]

After some conferring with the caretaker and other Crag guests, we decided that given that all our gear was soaked, that one of our group had a pretty deep bruise on his thigh, and that we didn't know what our pace would be like the next day, we decided that going from Crag to Hermit lake in one day was just asking for trouble. We had never hiked the trail before and despite everyone's assurances that we had done the hardest part, we just didn't want to take any more risks. We decided to basecamp at Crag for a second night, do a day hike on Saturday, and then hike out through Spur > Randolph > Short Line > Air Line and then hitch back to the Pinkham parking lot.

Absolutely the right decision, although I can't wait to get back and do the rest of that loop! Some photos from our last two days:

Sunrise from Crag

Everybody hoping for dry boots!

Top of Spur Trail

Thunderstorm Junction

Adams summit with 90mph gusts

Feeling very light without 40 pound packs on

Stars over Gorham

We made it!

Thanks for all the advice and planning help VFTT!

 

[The Unstrung Harp]

Love the boots pic and the glow pic!! Do come back on a sunnier day.

 

[KV]

Look at it this way:

1. You did it
2. You did it in inclement weather so you know what you can handle
3. You learned a lot
4. You can come back and never have to deal with what you did the 1st time
5. You got some great photos - nice night shot of Gorham's lights w/stars, and cool alpen glow on the ridge
6. You have a lifetime's worth of "remember when...."

I just checked. The mountains are still there, waiting for you to try again.

 

[Spiffae]

Look at it this way:

1. You did it
2. You did it in inclement weather so you know what you can handle
3. You learned a lot
4. You can come back and never have to deal with what you did the 1st time
5. You got some great photos - nice night shot of Gorham's lights w/stars, and cool alpen glow on the ridge
6. You have a lifetime's worth of "remember when...."

I just checked. The mountains are still there, waiting for you to try again.

All absolutely valid points. I may have left out that even with all the setbacks, this was by far the best backpacking I've ever done on the east coast, and for a first trip on trails that I had no first-hand info on, we did pretty well - never lost, never in (great) danger, safe and sound every night. We had lunch on a rise near Thunderstorm Junction and overlooked the ridge all the way to Washington and all I could think was "I can't wait to do that next time"

 

[Woody]

Sounds like you made the best out of some wet weather. Crag Camp is a great place to get out of the storm. Glad you enjoyed your first trip to the Whites.