mountaingirl
New member
Here’s the belated trip report of our so pleasant hiking along Northern Presidentials on April 6th (sorry, I have been busy with rock climbings and the Southern Presidentials between then and now)
After some easy strolling in the Willey Range on Tuesday, I stayed at the bunker house of Hiker’s Paradise at Gorham for the night. So anxious about my first trip in the Northern Presidentials, I kept waking up to check time every other hour. 10 minutes before 6am, my alarm woke me up. As I just came out of the washing room, Spider walked in at 6am sharp before I even had time to turn on the lights. He seemed even more excited about this trip as he had arrived well ahead of our scheduled meeting time, and had been anxiously waiting for the 6am to come in!
After some final packing, eating, and parking the cars, we started hiking from Appalachia at 7:30am. In the contrast to the high wind and dark cloud of the day before, which had been forecasted to be a perfect day, today, which was forecasted to be no better, turned out to be surprisingly perfect – blue sky without a single cloud, bright sunshine without even a breeze. I was hiking in T-shirt for most of the trip. The way up the Valley Way was very enjoyable with the snow still hard packed along the trail at the early morning. At one point, we stopped to joke about a giant piece of wood washed into the river, and hoped that was not a bridge we needed to cross.
Within three hours, we reached the Madison hut and took our first break. We were the first trace of life at the hut, and the peace of sunbathing on the spring-like winter snowfield made me so reluctant to get up. After the brunch, Spider threw down his backpack and flew up Madison; I took this trip as training, so still carried my full pack to move up with my steady slow pace. The Madison summit provided a great view of the Northern Presidentials, and we made up our trail strategy for the Adams – bypass the fake peaks and avoid rocky trails to go straight toward the summit. Spider’s GPS has been our very valuable hiking partner – it saved us from being fooled by those view-blocking bumps and kept us clear minded of our “true north”.
On the way down from Adams, we were surprised to find human footprints! It seemed someone had came up from the hut and went back the same way. As we moved toward Jefferson, it became clear that we were the only human lives on the whole mountain. I haven’t owned much thing in my life, but owning the untouched snow and fresh air between this gorgeous mountain range and endless blue sky is more satisfying than owning anything else. That said, we were not only ones in the mountains! From below Eisenhower to Washington, we had a smart companion all the way. You may not believe it, but check the clear foot prints in my pictures – a coyote had been doing the Presidential traverse ahead of us, and he clearly knew the trail really well even we were sure he didn’t have a GPS. Many times we lost our trail, only to find our little fury friend’s footprint right up the hill. So if you are tempted to do a solo traverse in moonlight, we suggest you hire this coyote to your guide!
After enjoyed many great views and shared endless fun story telling along the way, we finally made to the summit of Washington just before sunset. Being the last persons of the day to visit Washington was another exciting accomplishment! We were so happy all the way that almost wanted to sing on the summit!
As we stumbled down the Lion Head, we were guided by the remote light from Pinkham Notch, which appeared to be so close. But as we finally hiked out, the light disappeared – it was so late that people all had gone to sleep, even Burger King had closed! So we had to delay out celebration dinner to the next morning!
Thanks to Spider, thanks to Coyote, what a nice day up there!
Pictures are at :
http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=317668186
After some easy strolling in the Willey Range on Tuesday, I stayed at the bunker house of Hiker’s Paradise at Gorham for the night. So anxious about my first trip in the Northern Presidentials, I kept waking up to check time every other hour. 10 minutes before 6am, my alarm woke me up. As I just came out of the washing room, Spider walked in at 6am sharp before I even had time to turn on the lights. He seemed even more excited about this trip as he had arrived well ahead of our scheduled meeting time, and had been anxiously waiting for the 6am to come in!
After some final packing, eating, and parking the cars, we started hiking from Appalachia at 7:30am. In the contrast to the high wind and dark cloud of the day before, which had been forecasted to be a perfect day, today, which was forecasted to be no better, turned out to be surprisingly perfect – blue sky without a single cloud, bright sunshine without even a breeze. I was hiking in T-shirt for most of the trip. The way up the Valley Way was very enjoyable with the snow still hard packed along the trail at the early morning. At one point, we stopped to joke about a giant piece of wood washed into the river, and hoped that was not a bridge we needed to cross.
Within three hours, we reached the Madison hut and took our first break. We were the first trace of life at the hut, and the peace of sunbathing on the spring-like winter snowfield made me so reluctant to get up. After the brunch, Spider threw down his backpack and flew up Madison; I took this trip as training, so still carried my full pack to move up with my steady slow pace. The Madison summit provided a great view of the Northern Presidentials, and we made up our trail strategy for the Adams – bypass the fake peaks and avoid rocky trails to go straight toward the summit. Spider’s GPS has been our very valuable hiking partner – it saved us from being fooled by those view-blocking bumps and kept us clear minded of our “true north”.
On the way down from Adams, we were surprised to find human footprints! It seemed someone had came up from the hut and went back the same way. As we moved toward Jefferson, it became clear that we were the only human lives on the whole mountain. I haven’t owned much thing in my life, but owning the untouched snow and fresh air between this gorgeous mountain range and endless blue sky is more satisfying than owning anything else. That said, we were not only ones in the mountains! From below Eisenhower to Washington, we had a smart companion all the way. You may not believe it, but check the clear foot prints in my pictures – a coyote had been doing the Presidential traverse ahead of us, and he clearly knew the trail really well even we were sure he didn’t have a GPS. Many times we lost our trail, only to find our little fury friend’s footprint right up the hill. So if you are tempted to do a solo traverse in moonlight, we suggest you hire this coyote to your guide!
After enjoyed many great views and shared endless fun story telling along the way, we finally made to the summit of Washington just before sunset. Being the last persons of the day to visit Washington was another exciting accomplishment! We were so happy all the way that almost wanted to sing on the summit!
As we stumbled down the Lion Head, we were guided by the remote light from Pinkham Notch, which appeared to be so close. But as we finally hiked out, the light disappeared – it was so late that people all had gone to sleep, even Burger King had closed! So we had to delay out celebration dinner to the next morning!
Thanks to Spider, thanks to Coyote, what a nice day up there!
Pictures are at :
http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=317668186
Nice report! Your link doesn't work, but 
