sapblatt
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WARNING: This report is ridiculously long and you may be bored to pieces - please read at your own discretion…long hikes lead to long reports.
Since I restarted my hiking last year I have been dreaming of some sort or another of a Presi Traverse. My initial plans for this were to just hike up and out via the Valley Way, Gulfside, Westside and Crawford Path as I really did not think I was fit enough to do it with all of the summits. Eric (Tuco) and I have been out hiking a few times now and he decided he was going to do this too. We both wanted a full day of travel above tree line. During the last week of preparations we had decided that we were in better shape than we thought and updated our plans to include Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Ike and Pierce. SherpaKroto also talked me into doing at least Madison and Adams as I needed them for my 48 and it would be crazy to have to go up the ridge again this summer just to bag them. Thank you!
A few things in this hike worked out real well for us. The first of those was acknowledging that we are not speed demons and it would be real smart for us as we venture out on a 19-mile hike to start early, and I mean real early! We were camping in Crawford Notch which was really too far of a drive for an Appalachia start, was not so smart (my fault). We set our alarms for 1:00 AM with the hopes of being on the trail for 2-2:30 AM. I had never hiked in the dark before and was a little apprehensive but as long as I was not alone I did not really mind.
After a run in with “Barney Fife the Younger” and the long arm of the law in Gorham we eventually made it Appalachia around 2:20 and we were walking by 2:30 AM. For anyone who does not know or care, the speed limit in downtown metropolitan Gorham is 30! Interestingly the officer who was citing us seemed shocked that we were not on our way home from a drunken party, but rather two guys on the way to an early morning hike; he also did not notice the teenager that was staggering home across the street from us.
Back to your regularly scheduled trip report…
So much for not being apprehensive about hiking in the dark – as we crossed the clearing at the parking area we heard something - a loud series of barks. About fifty feet to our left we saw the shadow of a good-sized dog. Turning our heads our headlamps caught the dogs eyes and they lit up! The dog kept slowly coming towards us and barking and we kept talking to him and I pulled out some amateur pepper spray. We kept talking and he finally stopped coming toward us and left us alone. A great first minute.
After that the trek up the Valley Way was really great except for the temperature (70) and the humidity (tropical rain forest like!) It was very hard to believe we were hiking in the mountains in the middle of the night and it was so muggy. We made good time up the trail and managed to see all of the trail crossings and had no problems finding our way and staying on the trail (thank you Kevin Rooney and others who put me at ease about hiking in the dark last week.) We took many quick breaks to catch our breath and eat junk and took one longer break near the junction with the Watson Path. By this time it was 4:30 and the headlamps were not required.
The Valley Way continued upwards at a steady clip after this junction. There were one or two very minor snow patches as we neared the top. The fog was getting thicker and thicker and as we reached the Gulfside Junction Eric and me kept looking for the hut. Finally we saw it through the clouds and fog, it was right in front of us! We stopped for a bit too long at the hut and headed up to Madison. The rocks were a little slick from the fog but this was not too difficult. As we topped out at the summit the wind was whipping and there were no views. We stayed for a minute or two and headed back down for another quick stop at the hut before proceeding along the Gulfside, our major route for the day.
The Gulfside Trail is something I had wanted to walk along for a long time. It just seemed so cool to me to be able to walk among the giants. As the skies cleared with the sun heating up even more the views to JQ Adams, Durand Ridge and over King’s Ravine were spectacular. I have made mental notes about wanting to stay at Crag Camp and hike the entire Air Line! We made our way to the Air Line for our journey up to Mount Adams in pretty good time. As we headed up the Air Line towards Adams we were beginning to truly understand how much we were attempting to take on today! I would say this stretch of trail is one of the longest half miles in the Whites; it seemed to go on forever! The views were wonderful and we would have loved to stay on the summit for longer but it was completely infested with dozens of varieties of insects that were all over us. We met some people from and AMC trip doing the traverse and there very experienced and friendly hiking dogs, Pork Chop and Paprika. These two dogs often followed Eric and me during the day! To escape the bugs we quickly descended the summit via Lowe’s Path and the Israel Ridge Trail back to the Gulfside just west of Thunderstorm Junction. Onward to Edmand’s Col.
We had now hiked for 7-8 hours and hit two five thousand footers. The effects of the day were being felt with the distance, heat, humidity and elevation gain. Somewhere in this stretch we began to realize how long all of this was taking and that it would be smart to stop thinking about summiting Jefferson. We made it to Edmand’s Col and its surreal feel around 11:15 AM and took a fifteen-minute lunch before heading up towards Jefferson. Approaching the col I loved the views down into the Great Gulf and looked at amazement to the area that holds the Six Husband’s Trail and wondered how any trail could go up there! The Castellated Ridge also looks very impressive from this side – add that trail to the must do list!
Going up towards Jefferson we kept noticing a person in the snowfield just short of the north end of the Jefferson Loop Trail. I figured the person was working on glacier training or something of the sorts, I even joked to Eric that he was probably shoveling. Well, so much for jokes. We met John who was shoveling out a 2-3 foot wide path across the 100 plus feet of the snowfield. He was doing this because he heard about a young woman who took a bad spill there last week and fell down the snow and ice for about 100 feet before stopping against scrub trees and rock. She was pretty banged up but was able to walk out. We thanked him for his efforts as we proceeded around the east side of Jefferson.
As we headed towards the Cornice and Sphinx Col we were still feeling pretty good about making at least to the Edmand’s Path. We had pretty much abandoned any thought of making it to Crawford Notch. We were just to beat and had been out for over ten hours now. We were planning on evaluating the weather and how we felt at Lakes of the Clouds. After passing through another out of this world location, Sphinx Col we started heading up the flank of Mount Clay hoping to get to Lakes. About 100 yards from the junction of the Jewell Trail we began to feel first some rain drops and then some light sprinkles. Because of the fog and overcast conditions of the day the skies had not really darkened so it was hard to tell if a storm was approaching. We met two other hikers at the junction who were coming down from Ike, Monroe and Washington and they said that they had heard some thunder. That was enough for Eric and me and we decided to pack it in and head down Jewell. This was the third good decision of the day. I should add that at this point we were dog-tired and we were only hoping to hike to Edmand’s Path. With or without the weather we were not going to reach Ike, Pierce or the Mount Clinton Road Parking Lot.
We had both read a lot and knew all of the various ways to escape our traverse. Even though we knew the top mile or so of the Jewell Trail was exposed to all of the elements we knew it would be longer and more exposed to make it to Lakes and even riskier to go around Lakes, Monroe and Franklin and try to make it to the Edmand’s Path in a thunderstorm, or in threatening conditions. Also, we knew that the footing on the Jewell Trail was pretty good and this would allow us to move at a decent pace. At 1:30 PM, before hearing any thunder we began to book it down the trail. Within two or three minutes it was raining cats, dogs, orangutans and fruit bats! I have never seen such big raindrops! Just when you could not think it could get any worse the thunder started and because it was foggy and bright it was impossible to see the lightning and there was no way to gauge how close the storm was. There is nothing like fear of being cooked by a lightning bolt to make a tired, beat body move quickly down a trail that now resembled a river! Eric and I were very motivated to get down to the tree line as quickly as we could. Fortunately, even though the rain kept up for quite awhile, the thunder soon stopped.
During the descent on Jewell it dawned on met that the couple we met at the junction were hiking where Jamie (Artex) told me he was going to be hiking on this day. When we caught up to him again I asked if his name was Jamie and it was. We also met Hannah (Abster) and they were kind enough to hike down with us and give us a ride back to the Mount Clinton lot. The Jewell Trail is very nicely graded and was a great way to end the day. The bridge closest to the parking area had been moved by water and rock the winter and it was propped up in a way that allowed for crossing it, but it was a little unnerving at that point in the day. All in all this was a great day for us.
Since I restarted my hiking last year I have been dreaming of some sort or another of a Presi Traverse. My initial plans for this were to just hike up and out via the Valley Way, Gulfside, Westside and Crawford Path as I really did not think I was fit enough to do it with all of the summits. Eric (Tuco) and I have been out hiking a few times now and he decided he was going to do this too. We both wanted a full day of travel above tree line. During the last week of preparations we had decided that we were in better shape than we thought and updated our plans to include Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Ike and Pierce. SherpaKroto also talked me into doing at least Madison and Adams as I needed them for my 48 and it would be crazy to have to go up the ridge again this summer just to bag them. Thank you!
A few things in this hike worked out real well for us. The first of those was acknowledging that we are not speed demons and it would be real smart for us as we venture out on a 19-mile hike to start early, and I mean real early! We were camping in Crawford Notch which was really too far of a drive for an Appalachia start, was not so smart (my fault). We set our alarms for 1:00 AM with the hopes of being on the trail for 2-2:30 AM. I had never hiked in the dark before and was a little apprehensive but as long as I was not alone I did not really mind.
After a run in with “Barney Fife the Younger” and the long arm of the law in Gorham we eventually made it Appalachia around 2:20 and we were walking by 2:30 AM. For anyone who does not know or care, the speed limit in downtown metropolitan Gorham is 30! Interestingly the officer who was citing us seemed shocked that we were not on our way home from a drunken party, but rather two guys on the way to an early morning hike; he also did not notice the teenager that was staggering home across the street from us.
Back to your regularly scheduled trip report…
So much for not being apprehensive about hiking in the dark – as we crossed the clearing at the parking area we heard something - a loud series of barks. About fifty feet to our left we saw the shadow of a good-sized dog. Turning our heads our headlamps caught the dogs eyes and they lit up! The dog kept slowly coming towards us and barking and we kept talking to him and I pulled out some amateur pepper spray. We kept talking and he finally stopped coming toward us and left us alone. A great first minute.
After that the trek up the Valley Way was really great except for the temperature (70) and the humidity (tropical rain forest like!) It was very hard to believe we were hiking in the mountains in the middle of the night and it was so muggy. We made good time up the trail and managed to see all of the trail crossings and had no problems finding our way and staying on the trail (thank you Kevin Rooney and others who put me at ease about hiking in the dark last week.) We took many quick breaks to catch our breath and eat junk and took one longer break near the junction with the Watson Path. By this time it was 4:30 and the headlamps were not required.
The Valley Way continued upwards at a steady clip after this junction. There were one or two very minor snow patches as we neared the top. The fog was getting thicker and thicker and as we reached the Gulfside Junction Eric and me kept looking for the hut. Finally we saw it through the clouds and fog, it was right in front of us! We stopped for a bit too long at the hut and headed up to Madison. The rocks were a little slick from the fog but this was not too difficult. As we topped out at the summit the wind was whipping and there were no views. We stayed for a minute or two and headed back down for another quick stop at the hut before proceeding along the Gulfside, our major route for the day.
The Gulfside Trail is something I had wanted to walk along for a long time. It just seemed so cool to me to be able to walk among the giants. As the skies cleared with the sun heating up even more the views to JQ Adams, Durand Ridge and over King’s Ravine were spectacular. I have made mental notes about wanting to stay at Crag Camp and hike the entire Air Line! We made our way to the Air Line for our journey up to Mount Adams in pretty good time. As we headed up the Air Line towards Adams we were beginning to truly understand how much we were attempting to take on today! I would say this stretch of trail is one of the longest half miles in the Whites; it seemed to go on forever! The views were wonderful and we would have loved to stay on the summit for longer but it was completely infested with dozens of varieties of insects that were all over us. We met some people from and AMC trip doing the traverse and there very experienced and friendly hiking dogs, Pork Chop and Paprika. These two dogs often followed Eric and me during the day! To escape the bugs we quickly descended the summit via Lowe’s Path and the Israel Ridge Trail back to the Gulfside just west of Thunderstorm Junction. Onward to Edmand’s Col.
We had now hiked for 7-8 hours and hit two five thousand footers. The effects of the day were being felt with the distance, heat, humidity and elevation gain. Somewhere in this stretch we began to realize how long all of this was taking and that it would be smart to stop thinking about summiting Jefferson. We made it to Edmand’s Col and its surreal feel around 11:15 AM and took a fifteen-minute lunch before heading up towards Jefferson. Approaching the col I loved the views down into the Great Gulf and looked at amazement to the area that holds the Six Husband’s Trail and wondered how any trail could go up there! The Castellated Ridge also looks very impressive from this side – add that trail to the must do list!
Going up towards Jefferson we kept noticing a person in the snowfield just short of the north end of the Jefferson Loop Trail. I figured the person was working on glacier training or something of the sorts, I even joked to Eric that he was probably shoveling. Well, so much for jokes. We met John who was shoveling out a 2-3 foot wide path across the 100 plus feet of the snowfield. He was doing this because he heard about a young woman who took a bad spill there last week and fell down the snow and ice for about 100 feet before stopping against scrub trees and rock. She was pretty banged up but was able to walk out. We thanked him for his efforts as we proceeded around the east side of Jefferson.
As we headed towards the Cornice and Sphinx Col we were still feeling pretty good about making at least to the Edmand’s Path. We had pretty much abandoned any thought of making it to Crawford Notch. We were just to beat and had been out for over ten hours now. We were planning on evaluating the weather and how we felt at Lakes of the Clouds. After passing through another out of this world location, Sphinx Col we started heading up the flank of Mount Clay hoping to get to Lakes. About 100 yards from the junction of the Jewell Trail we began to feel first some rain drops and then some light sprinkles. Because of the fog and overcast conditions of the day the skies had not really darkened so it was hard to tell if a storm was approaching. We met two other hikers at the junction who were coming down from Ike, Monroe and Washington and they said that they had heard some thunder. That was enough for Eric and me and we decided to pack it in and head down Jewell. This was the third good decision of the day. I should add that at this point we were dog-tired and we were only hoping to hike to Edmand’s Path. With or without the weather we were not going to reach Ike, Pierce or the Mount Clinton Road Parking Lot.
We had both read a lot and knew all of the various ways to escape our traverse. Even though we knew the top mile or so of the Jewell Trail was exposed to all of the elements we knew it would be longer and more exposed to make it to Lakes and even riskier to go around Lakes, Monroe and Franklin and try to make it to the Edmand’s Path in a thunderstorm, or in threatening conditions. Also, we knew that the footing on the Jewell Trail was pretty good and this would allow us to move at a decent pace. At 1:30 PM, before hearing any thunder we began to book it down the trail. Within two or three minutes it was raining cats, dogs, orangutans and fruit bats! I have never seen such big raindrops! Just when you could not think it could get any worse the thunder started and because it was foggy and bright it was impossible to see the lightning and there was no way to gauge how close the storm was. There is nothing like fear of being cooked by a lightning bolt to make a tired, beat body move quickly down a trail that now resembled a river! Eric and I were very motivated to get down to the tree line as quickly as we could. Fortunately, even though the rain kept up for quite awhile, the thunder soon stopped.
During the descent on Jewell it dawned on met that the couple we met at the junction were hiking where Jamie (Artex) told me he was going to be hiking on this day. When we caught up to him again I asked if his name was Jamie and it was. We also met Hannah (Abster) and they were kind enough to hike down with us and give us a ride back to the Mount Clinton lot. The Jewell Trail is very nicely graded and was a great way to end the day. The bridge closest to the parking area had been moved by water and rock the winter and it was propped up in a way that allowed for crossing it, but it was a little unnerving at that point in the day. All in all this was a great day for us.
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