JasonPatrikz
Member
Pressie Traverse amongst my other travels
In wait of Tim’s “expected novel” I have decided to post my own little “novel” and my first trip report about our presi traverse and my weekend outings as a whole.
The weekend for me started off after finding out that the hike was moved from mid Saturday to Sunday 2am, which made had me ask my self how to sleep enough before hand? I knew if I slept Friday night into Saturday I would not be able to sleep Saturday night as I would have to leave the house around 10:30 pm to be at the cog for car spotting. So I made a quick call to the future father in law, and made plans to hike Flume and Liberty his 18th and 19th 4k peaks. So we hit the trail at 4am (after getting out of work at 9pm), part of the reason to choose this was to see if I could run in to Rejean and bid him some good luck.
Luck had it as we met Rejean on the Osseo just before the ladders, so I wished him luck and let him know, that this was my warm up hike for the next days event. The pace for Flume and Liberty was nice and casual as one could expect it to be when planning a longer hike the next day. On the summit of Flume it was nice to point out all of the summits to Dave and to show him the route of the Pemi Loop, where you can actually realize the whole course. Starting so early was nice too as the trails were still empty and we only ran into Rejean and one other person on the summit of Liberty, Mike, who also was doing the loop. Enjoying Dave’s comments about the scenery and views as it was his first time up there we started to move down to liberty spring and the Flume visitor center where we met the usual hoards of people coming up at the usual time between 8:30 and 9:30. Dave made the remark here about only hiking at night from here on out to avoid the crowds, one of the benefits of hiking midweek which I told him about. Well, in all the first hike of the weekend was great getting him out to two of the 4k’s that he hasn’t done and being able to meet Rejean ever so briefly.
So finally at home I was able to get some sleep and fell asleep around 1pm after being awake for 29 hours. I woke up around 6:30 with only 5:30 of sleep was a little worried about the lack of sleep so I struggled for a little more but didn’t succeed. So I ate my dinner (box of pasta with pesto), and packed the gear up slowly. Making sure to have every thing I needed having to make a bag to leave in Tim’s van and one in Mats as well as mine. Well, 1030pm came and it was time to leave, the girlfriend a little sad as it would be the second night in a row not spent at home but out on the trails.
I arrived at the cog at a just past 12am and waited for Mats he arrived right on time. We then spotted my car at the Jewell trail parking lot and headed up and over Jefferson Notch rd. We met Tim and made a pretty quick turn around dropping off gear in his car and such. We then headed back to Crawford Notch a little too quickly so the cop said as he only warned us about a $240 fine for speeding then bid us fair well. We arrived in Crawford notch about 130am maybe a little later from there I dressed down to what I was going to do the traverse in. I was actually getting chilled while standing around.
So on the trail at 1:45am the legs were feeling a little tired but knew as usual they never really warm up until I’m at least 4-6 miles in. We made the first summit Jackson and the first 10 pushups in about an hour. Then enjoyed the easy part of the trail to the first hut of the day, where we were told by one of the happy sleepers, “you’re being to loud.” So I guess a 3:30am rousting even though it was not on purpose, is not always welcomed. From there we headed up to Peirce and did the pushups on what was to be the false summit, so we skipped the pushups on the true summit. Coming down we made it through all the scrubs and such and on to Eisenhower here we put on our jackets as Tim made the comment later in the day “you have one of these light weight jackets too? Thinking some day you’ll just rip them in half.”
Some really nice views with Washington all blacked out along with the ridge that the Davis path follows, only to have the orange sky backlighting it. The wind then really kicked up once we got to Franklin and on the way to Monroe. We did the pushups on Monroe pretty quickly and moved down to Lakes of the Clouds. Here we made a quick stop filling water and such and then moved out into cold. This chill didn’t last to long once we got going. We were then able to enjoy the rising sun hitting Monroe and the southern peaks, splendid for sure, it was truly breath taking to be able to see all the way over to Franconia ridge with such clarity as with the day before I had much less visibility for a shorter distance on Flume and Liberty.
Hitting the summit if Washington we were welcomed by all he sunrise visitors for the day as the Auto road opened at 4:30am so you could watch the sunrise, one of the two days a year it does this. Sitting around for a little while being the only one in shorts and enjoying everyone else’s sweatshirts blankets and hats, was interesting. So 5 summits in fewer than 5 hours as we hit the summit after 6 but before 7.
Still pretty much alone on the trail, we made out way to Jefferson and started to run in to the first could of hikers of the day. After the pushups we moved on to run into some people that Mat’s knows and Tim as well (at least I believe), we chatted for a bit and I remembered that I had seen one of them on Mat’s and my attempt at suffer fest. So we moved on towards Adams to shock a couple of people so Tim mentioned about their face when they saw us doing the pushups. We hit the hut I opted to not fill up on water as I knew I had another bladder waiting at Appalachia. Madison went by quick and so then came the decent to the van. Passing by numerous groups on their way to the tent site or the hut we just kept moving. The lower section of the valley way is really nice so Tim and I enjoyed a nice jog down to help stretch the legs out for a bit, which felt really good.
We hit Appalachia in about 10:30 for the completion of the first traverse. I enjoyed some more of my pasta that I had made the night before, washed the feet and changed the socks. Here Mat’s made the decision to opt out on the return for personal reasons, unfortunate for sure but in his own words the best bet, rather to play it safe than to risk it all.
So the return hike was going to just be Tim and myself, we started up the valley way and made quick work of it hitting Madison (3pm) and then back down to start up Adams. We then kept moving on feeling my legs getting tired from the small steps on all of the rocks. It was nice to get over Jefferson and by clay, where Tim kept in stride and moved along the west side trail as I continued up the Gulfside later reunited just shy of the summit, we found the restaurant to be closed so we couldn’t buy any food, I had plenty so I allowed Tim to pick what he wanted.
Heading down Washington had to of been some huge mental boost knowing that we were on the easier side of the presi’s with by far a lot less to go now. We hi the Lakes hut quickly and left just as quick to avoid the so plesentful summer fragrance of the AMC hut system. The sun had not set quite yet, as we would still have plenty of time to make it to Eisenhower for sunset. The views were amazing, not a cloud in the sky to the west just open and clear. The section of trails south of Monroe are very nice and again it was nice to stretch the legs out and run theses sections, Tim and I ran a lot in this area, it was enjoyable and felt very good to be going strong with so many miles and as of now 26 hours of being on my legs since the last time I slept (which was only 5 hours). Peirce was persistent finally giving itself up, this time doing the pushups on the correct summit.
We hit Mizpah hut to a more awaken crowed then earlier this morning, filling up with water and moving out. Jackson came to us pretty quickly doing the last pushups of the day and then getting to the last decent of the day as well. This trail down seemed to take for ever; the legs at this point were too tired to jog down, but also the mental aspect of almost being done. Tim pointed this out earlier in the day, as you get closer to the end you know it’s almost over thus you begin to slow and get more tired. The Webster Jackson trail though it took us an hour to get up it was nearly two hours to get down.
In wait of Tim’s “expected novel” I have decided to post my own little “novel” and my first trip report about our presi traverse and my weekend outings as a whole.
The weekend for me started off after finding out that the hike was moved from mid Saturday to Sunday 2am, which made had me ask my self how to sleep enough before hand? I knew if I slept Friday night into Saturday I would not be able to sleep Saturday night as I would have to leave the house around 10:30 pm to be at the cog for car spotting. So I made a quick call to the future father in law, and made plans to hike Flume and Liberty his 18th and 19th 4k peaks. So we hit the trail at 4am (after getting out of work at 9pm), part of the reason to choose this was to see if I could run in to Rejean and bid him some good luck.
Luck had it as we met Rejean on the Osseo just before the ladders, so I wished him luck and let him know, that this was my warm up hike for the next days event. The pace for Flume and Liberty was nice and casual as one could expect it to be when planning a longer hike the next day. On the summit of Flume it was nice to point out all of the summits to Dave and to show him the route of the Pemi Loop, where you can actually realize the whole course. Starting so early was nice too as the trails were still empty and we only ran into Rejean and one other person on the summit of Liberty, Mike, who also was doing the loop. Enjoying Dave’s comments about the scenery and views as it was his first time up there we started to move down to liberty spring and the Flume visitor center where we met the usual hoards of people coming up at the usual time between 8:30 and 9:30. Dave made the remark here about only hiking at night from here on out to avoid the crowds, one of the benefits of hiking midweek which I told him about. Well, in all the first hike of the weekend was great getting him out to two of the 4k’s that he hasn’t done and being able to meet Rejean ever so briefly.
So finally at home I was able to get some sleep and fell asleep around 1pm after being awake for 29 hours. I woke up around 6:30 with only 5:30 of sleep was a little worried about the lack of sleep so I struggled for a little more but didn’t succeed. So I ate my dinner (box of pasta with pesto), and packed the gear up slowly. Making sure to have every thing I needed having to make a bag to leave in Tim’s van and one in Mats as well as mine. Well, 1030pm came and it was time to leave, the girlfriend a little sad as it would be the second night in a row not spent at home but out on the trails.
I arrived at the cog at a just past 12am and waited for Mats he arrived right on time. We then spotted my car at the Jewell trail parking lot and headed up and over Jefferson Notch rd. We met Tim and made a pretty quick turn around dropping off gear in his car and such. We then headed back to Crawford Notch a little too quickly so the cop said as he only warned us about a $240 fine for speeding then bid us fair well. We arrived in Crawford notch about 130am maybe a little later from there I dressed down to what I was going to do the traverse in. I was actually getting chilled while standing around.
So on the trail at 1:45am the legs were feeling a little tired but knew as usual they never really warm up until I’m at least 4-6 miles in. We made the first summit Jackson and the first 10 pushups in about an hour. Then enjoyed the easy part of the trail to the first hut of the day, where we were told by one of the happy sleepers, “you’re being to loud.” So I guess a 3:30am rousting even though it was not on purpose, is not always welcomed. From there we headed up to Peirce and did the pushups on what was to be the false summit, so we skipped the pushups on the true summit. Coming down we made it through all the scrubs and such and on to Eisenhower here we put on our jackets as Tim made the comment later in the day “you have one of these light weight jackets too? Thinking some day you’ll just rip them in half.”
Some really nice views with Washington all blacked out along with the ridge that the Davis path follows, only to have the orange sky backlighting it. The wind then really kicked up once we got to Franklin and on the way to Monroe. We did the pushups on Monroe pretty quickly and moved down to Lakes of the Clouds. Here we made a quick stop filling water and such and then moved out into cold. This chill didn’t last to long once we got going. We were then able to enjoy the rising sun hitting Monroe and the southern peaks, splendid for sure, it was truly breath taking to be able to see all the way over to Franconia ridge with such clarity as with the day before I had much less visibility for a shorter distance on Flume and Liberty.
Hitting the summit if Washington we were welcomed by all he sunrise visitors for the day as the Auto road opened at 4:30am so you could watch the sunrise, one of the two days a year it does this. Sitting around for a little while being the only one in shorts and enjoying everyone else’s sweatshirts blankets and hats, was interesting. So 5 summits in fewer than 5 hours as we hit the summit after 6 but before 7.
Still pretty much alone on the trail, we made out way to Jefferson and started to run in to the first could of hikers of the day. After the pushups we moved on to run into some people that Mat’s knows and Tim as well (at least I believe), we chatted for a bit and I remembered that I had seen one of them on Mat’s and my attempt at suffer fest. So we moved on towards Adams to shock a couple of people so Tim mentioned about their face when they saw us doing the pushups. We hit the hut I opted to not fill up on water as I knew I had another bladder waiting at Appalachia. Madison went by quick and so then came the decent to the van. Passing by numerous groups on their way to the tent site or the hut we just kept moving. The lower section of the valley way is really nice so Tim and I enjoyed a nice jog down to help stretch the legs out for a bit, which felt really good.
We hit Appalachia in about 10:30 for the completion of the first traverse. I enjoyed some more of my pasta that I had made the night before, washed the feet and changed the socks. Here Mat’s made the decision to opt out on the return for personal reasons, unfortunate for sure but in his own words the best bet, rather to play it safe than to risk it all.
So the return hike was going to just be Tim and myself, we started up the valley way and made quick work of it hitting Madison (3pm) and then back down to start up Adams. We then kept moving on feeling my legs getting tired from the small steps on all of the rocks. It was nice to get over Jefferson and by clay, where Tim kept in stride and moved along the west side trail as I continued up the Gulfside later reunited just shy of the summit, we found the restaurant to be closed so we couldn’t buy any food, I had plenty so I allowed Tim to pick what he wanted.
Heading down Washington had to of been some huge mental boost knowing that we were on the easier side of the presi’s with by far a lot less to go now. We hi the Lakes hut quickly and left just as quick to avoid the so plesentful summer fragrance of the AMC hut system. The sun had not set quite yet, as we would still have plenty of time to make it to Eisenhower for sunset. The views were amazing, not a cloud in the sky to the west just open and clear. The section of trails south of Monroe are very nice and again it was nice to stretch the legs out and run theses sections, Tim and I ran a lot in this area, it was enjoyable and felt very good to be going strong with so many miles and as of now 26 hours of being on my legs since the last time I slept (which was only 5 hours). Peirce was persistent finally giving itself up, this time doing the pushups on the correct summit.
We hit Mizpah hut to a more awaken crowed then earlier this morning, filling up with water and moving out. Jackson came to us pretty quickly doing the last pushups of the day and then getting to the last decent of the day as well. This trail down seemed to take for ever; the legs at this point were too tired to jog down, but also the mental aspect of almost being done. Tim pointed this out earlier in the day, as you get closer to the end you know it’s almost over thus you begin to slow and get more tired. The Webster Jackson trail though it took us an hour to get up it was nearly two hours to get down.
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