Presidential Traverse 6/21

Heather · Jun 27, 2005

Much to Clayton and my surprise the week + stretch of bad weather ended and we were able to hit up the presis on the solstice (which also was a full moon BTW). Since I had put in for the day off work nearly six months ago it was safe to say that I was damn near giddy that the weather was cooperating. We had camped out at the Dolly Copp campground Monday night (having already ditched a car @ Crawford notch). As usual, my plan of hitting the sack early did not work out and by the time we got zipped up in the tent it was eleven pm….needless to say, 3:30 am came pretty quick. After brewing some coffee , packing up camp, and driving up the road, we hit the Pine link trail at 5:00 am. I had read and been told that pine link was a miserably steep trail with bad footing but I have to say that I disagree (although it was a bit wet in places). The pine link gets up the ridge in a hurry and we made the Madison summit at about 7:45. We met a couple of really nice women at the top , one from Maine one from Vermont, which was eat because Clayton and I had hit up the Bigelow’s and the Crockers in Maine the previous weekend and all the Vermont 4ks the weekend before that, so we had plenty to chat about. We descended into the metropolis that was the Madison springs hut. Breakfast must have just wrapped up because people were just pouring out of the place. We fought our way through the crowds and beat feet up the Gulfside passing a procession of about 15 people who seemed to try as hard as they could to not let us pass, but we did anyway and headed up airline to Addams summit at 8:30. Not much time was spent at the summit due to being in a swarm of big weird bugs that appear to be somehow attracted to the wooden summit sign (perhaps eating it) Clayton and I split a PBJ as we hopped down to thunderstorm JCT . The Gulfside between Addams and Jefferson is so nice and easy (even it is the most dangerous) we were at the Jefferson loop split before I knew it. We peaked Jefferson at 10:00, and again we had a summit to ourselves (this time no flying bugs….but a few big spiders….maybe they ate the other bugs???) I re-tied my boots and we set off as we wanted to hit top of Washington at of before noon. As I came around to the top of the great gulf headwall, a little ways before you cross the tracks I met a very nice man and his young daughter who were enjoying a great day of hiking and were about to descends the Jewell trail. We made the summit of Washington at 11:45, and it was….well…Mt. Washington, although not as crowded as it was last time I was up in October, I still found it irritating and too busy for my liking and after splitting a $4.00 turkey sandwich (just turkey and bread) and a $2.00 snickers bar we made haste to evacuate the city that is the summit of Washington. Making our way down to lake in the clouds hut we noticed the trail traffic defiantly increase with many people (probably from LITC hut) making their way to Washington. I peeked my head in the hut to see if there was any leftover grilled cheese of anything from lunch but , to my dismay there was not. We were on Monroe pretty quick after that (didn’t stop to look at watch) which was also populated by winged insects. I was pretty excited for the next stretch of trail to Eisenhower because it was the only part (except for pine link) that I had not previously been on. Shortly after descending Monroe I noted that a couple of guys were beginning to gain on us (or at least me, Clayt is usually a good charge ahead of me) so I picked up the pace a little more. Briefly chatted with a hut worker on the top of Franklin but move out quickly when I heard the voices of the guys behind me. We were at the summit of Eisenhower at 2:00 pm. We sat down to split another PBJ. The two guys made the top shortly after us. They were also doing the full Presi traverse, starting from Appalachia. They said that they had been trying to catch up with us since Monroe and said that they were surprised because they usually pass everybody with no problem.( which made me feel good because I usually feel slow hiking with long- legged , speed-demon Clayton) We said good bye to the two guys, knowing that we would see them a few more times before the day was out. We were on Mt. Clinton 45 mins. later. The black flies were full force form this point on I used some of the Bens 100 from the two guys and we joked briefly about now being able to take out small birds should they fly too close. Clayton and I again set off before the two guys, they were going take a few extra mins to refuel as it was much more hot since getting of the higher part of the ridge. We made the Mitzpah hut pretty quick and there was a group of nice people. After getting slightly confused on which way to head to get to Jackson ( which I also did last time I was at Mitzpah…duh) We headed down the Webster cliff trail. I found the relatively flat trail and long stretches of boardwalk nice to hike on considering my brain was no longer communicating with my feet and I was tripping over some pretty stupid little stuff. There were quite a few people on the summit of Jackson but it was nice and looking back at where we had just been was pretty neat. I was ready to end the hike now as my feet were getting sore and it became apparent that my one application of sunscreen at 5am was not enough. The two guys, who had also originally planned to do Webster cliff as well, decided to head down too. The rest of the hike was pretty uneventfully except for the excess of mosquitoes and chattering red squirrels. We made it down to the vehicle at 5:30 pm.
Between hiking over 25 miles, having only two hours sleep and more that liking getting a little sun stroke I had a hard time keeping my eyes open on the drive back home. It was a great time and besides the sunburn(which will leave me with a tan line of my socks, shorts and camelback for the rest of the summer) I wasn’t in that bad of shape the next day. Maybe next year south to north.

Hike tally : 25.5 miles, 12.5 hours, 8 4k peaks. 1 purple toenail, 1 blister, and 1 pretty bad sunburn.

JohnL · Jun 28, 2005

Real nice report. It is always convenient to have a nice day to do the Presi Traverse but not too nice. Too bad about the sunburn. BTW, I make the wrong turn every time when I leave Mizpah Hut, too. Just one of those things I cannot unlearn. Any photos?

JohnL

sapblatt · Jun 28, 2005

Wow!

That is unbelievably fast...great job!!!

We hike for as many hours as you but got about half as far two weeks earlier.

king tut · Jun 28, 2005

dang! that's a long hike. it looks like a great hike from what i read, but i don't know if i'd want to do 25 miles in a day. i did 17 miles last month on half dome, but that's about all my knees could take. any pics of the hike?

Heather · Jun 29, 2005

Well the original plan was to snap a shot off on the top of all the peaks but I spaced it right off the bat on Madison because I was talking, so I kind of blew that plan. I think I ended up with four pictures for the day. As soon as I finish up the film. (possibly this weekend in Maine) I'll post what I have.

frytz · Jun 30, 2005

Heather said:
After brewing some coffee , packing up camp, and driving up the road, we hit the Pine link trail at 5:00 am. I had read and been told that pine link was a miserably steep trail with bad footing but I have to say that I disagree (although it was a bit wet in places). The pine link gets up the ridge in a hurry and we made the Madison summit at about 7:45.

I've always found the Pine Link to be the easiest, quickest way up to Madison. It's much quicker (and less crowded) than the Valley Way!

Fred