Presidential Traverse 7/19/14

Last year Kyle and I had intentions and made an attempt at an endurance hike called the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  This hike was approximately 19 miles and we would summit 8 peaks including Mt. Madison, Mt. Adams, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Clay, Mt. Washington, Mt. Franklin, Mt. Eisenhower, Mt. Pierce, Mt. Jackson and Mt. Webster.  It's a monster hike and ideally we wanted to complete a few long hikes before attempting this.  Despite our lack of hiking, I had been pretty much training all winter for this at the gym doing various versions of squats, other leg exercises and core work.  We had originally penciled in the weekend of the 19th to get this hike in and despite rain earlier in the week, Friday looked to be the best day of the weekend.

So, I booked a campsite at Moose Brook State Park in Gorham, NH for two nights.  We both met up in Hudson and started the 3.5 hour ride up to Crawford Notch State Park where I left my car in the same spot as last year, directly across the street from the rock outcrop known as Elephant Head.  The spot was right across the street from the Webster Jackson trail where we intended on finishing. Before heading to the state park we went out to a strange brick oven pizzeria.  It was a typical pizza joint but with a hostess and waitress.  The pizza was pretty good but would end up costing me later on in this adventure.  After dinner we made our way to the state park where the ranger warned us that there were bears throughout the park and told us what to do if one came in our camp.  She said if one comes in your camp throw something at it or make some noise to scare it.  I've seen one bear in my life and that was from the inside of a White Mountain Chalet and although I was pretty excited to see the bear it did get a little scary.  My worst fear was to come across a bear while I was taking an early morning piss or if I came nose to nose to a curious bear sniffing out my tent.  I don't deal with bears very often in West Boylston!

Leaf looking moth I found on a tree near our campsite hunkering down for the night.

We made it through the night with no incidents and I forced myself out of my sleeping bag at 4 AM.  We made our way to the Appalachia trail head and started hiking on the Valley Way trail with our headlamps on at exactly 4:41.   There were plenty of well marked trail junctions at the beginning of and after hiking for 2.4 miles we connected with the Watson Path.  We chose the Watson Path because it would eliminate an up and back to summit Madison from the Valley Way.  At first the Watson Path was steep and wooded and we both took our time to conserve energy.  Eventually we reached the boulder field which was Mt. Madison (5,367’) and had to follow cairns which sometimes were only two or three rock stacked on top of each other.   After 3 hours and 4.1 total miles, we reached the cloudy, cold and very windy summit of Mt. Madison.   The temperature on my thermometer read 50 degrees and the northeasterly wind gusts were strong enough to push me while I was tiptoeing on the boulders.  We took some refuge behind some boulders to eat a snack and check the map before heading to Madison Hut.  It was cold and we were already wondering what the heck we were getting ourselves into.   Book time was 4.5 hours, so we were making good time although it certainly didn’t feel like it. 

Moon over a cloudy Mt. Madison.

First views above treeline.

Webster Path above treeline.

The cold helped us make a speedy 0.5 mile descent on the Osgood Trail to Madison Hut where we took a break and warmed up for about 20 minutes before we were on our way to Mt. Adams (5,774’).  To get to Mt. Adams we took the Star Lake Trail.  Star Lake was a sleepy little spot nestled in between Mt. Madison and Mt. Adams and just beyond the lake we had our first glimpse of Mt. Washington which really didn't look that far away.  Some breaks in the clouds also gave us views of the Moriah Range to the East.  It was a relief to be hiking this area, but soon enough we started boulder hopping in the clouds again and the trail got steep.  At one point we had to scramble up this shoot that reminded me of the chimney on Osceola.  We carefully maneuvered over the boulders while keeping an eye out for the cairns marking the trail up ahead. After 1 mile we finally summited Mt. Adams at 9:21 and the wind seemed to be whipping even more than it was on Madison.  We found some cover to take a quick break and unfortunately on the way down Mt. Adams the need for me to use the bathroom had overcome me.  Because of the fragile alpine zone we were in, I decided I would wait until we reached Mt. Washington to use the visitor center bathroom which was over 5 miles away.  And these 5 miles may have been the longest 5 miles I have ever hiked in my life!

Star Lake

First view of Mt. Washington.

Carter Range from Star Lake trail.

Clouded over looking back at Star Lake.

Kyle at top of scramble section heading up to Adams.

Follow the cairns to the top of Mt. Adams.

Me on Adams for #2 of the day with my pants billowing in the wind.

From Mt. Adams we followed Lowe’s Path for 0.3 miles into Thunderstorm Junction and the Gulfside Trail which would eventually lead us to Mt. Jefferson (5,712’).  At Thunderstorm Junction there were busted up trail signs everywhere including a wooden post sticking out of a giant pile of rocks, it almost felt like we were on the moon. The Gulfside trail gave us some areas of relief from the rock hopping with some worn down trails.  We passed by the massive Castle Ravine and after 1.5 miles, we made it to the base of Mt. Jefferson where two couples were taking a break at the beginning of the Jefferson Loop Trail.  As we were walking towards them, they yelled out to us "These guys look like they know what they are doing" and I thought to myself "Yeah right!"  After chatting with them for a minute or two we started our ascent up to Mt. Jefferson which consisted of more boulder hopping, but the clouds were breaking up nicely and we were getting some great views.  After 0.4 miles and a couple of what I’m calling false summits, we reached the actual top of Mt. Jefferson at 10:10.  The peak looked like a pile of rocks were dumped there and there were a bunch of people hanging out on them.

Heading down Mt. Adams into Thunderstorm Junction.

Pile of rocks at Thunderstorm Junction.

Following the cairns on the Gulfside trail.

Castle Ravine from Gulfside trail.

Mt. Washington from Mt. Jefferson.

After a quick break, we headed back on the loop trail for 0.3 miles to the Gulfside Trail and towards our fourth peak for the day, Mt. Clay (5,533).  The clouds were just puffs at this point and Mt. Washington was getting closer with every step.  And with Mt. Washington, the bathroom!  We reached Mt. Clay via the Mt. Clay Loop trail (1.1 miles) at 12:18.  Kyle had predicted to be on Washington by now, but at this point that was wishful thinking.  During our climb onto Clay some older woman who said she was a cook for Mt. Washington told us that there were three other groups doing the traverse ahead of us one of which started at 4:30 and was an hour ahead of us.  Kyle and I couldn't understand how this could be and how this was taking us so long.

On to Mt. Washington and Clay

Mt. Washington looking massive

Mt. Clay for peak #4

Looking back at Madison, Adams and Jefferson

After descending Clay, we saw a sign that said 1 mile to Mt. Washington (6,288’).  This had to be the longest mile I have ever hiked.  We got to see the Cog Railroad making it's way down the mountain.  We meandered through boulder field following the tracks and then crossed them at the site of a cairn.  We both couldn't get there fast enough and when we finally reached the visitors area I made a B-Line to the bathroom.  When I came out, I joined Kyle on a bench for a snack.  I think I was dehydrated at this point even though I had easily drunken over a gallon of water already.  It was a pretty low point mentally for me at this point and I looked at pictures of Kayla and Emma that were in my wallet as if I would never see them again.  I tried to call Leah, but there wasn't enough service in this area.  Knowing that the only way back was to continue on to my car, I muscled down some food and sucked down a pre-workout drink mix.  After 10 minutes or so I was ready to go!  Kyle and I made it out to the summit sign which was packed with tourists to take our summit photos.  After those pictures, I was running around silly and energized looking for Crawford Path.

Cog Railroad

At the Mt. Washington summit cairn ready to go!

The remainder of the hike was a blur as the hiking on Crawford Path was so much easier and much more like the trails we were used to.  Our first destination was Lake of the Clouds Hut then Mt. Monroe (5,384'), Mt. Franklin (5,001), Mt. Eisenhower (4,780') and Mt. Pierce (4,310').  7.9 miles of relatively smooth trails made for fast hiking as we tried to catch up to a big group of hikers ahead of us which we eventually did on Mt. Eisenhower.  The group was made up of about 10 young kids and 2 chaperons.  On Mt. Pierce we caught up to one of the couples that had done the traverse that day.  They were from San Francisco and convincingly made the point that Jackson and Webster were not presidents.  Mt. Jackson looked to be miles away from here.  We continued on towards Mt. Jackson and during the descent down to the Mizpah Spring Hut my final decision was made that I wasn't going to make it to the last two peaks.  The descent was steep and each step down was torture on my knees.  When we reached the Hut we took another break and took the Webster Cliff Trail back to the car.  On the trail we ran into a mother and her son who were made up another group that had done the traverse on this day.  The boy had worn basketball sneakers for the hike and he was hurting.  Once again I was mentally wearing down as I just wanted to stop hiking and couldn’t wait to get back to the car which we finally reached at around 7:40.  The entire hike took a total of 14 hours and around 20 miles and according to the AMC White Mountain Guide, we finished in "book time" which was a great gauge on what we had accomplished.

 

Looking ahead from Mt. Franklin

Looking back from Mt. Franklin.

Kyle's expression says it all.

Looking back from Mt. Eisenhower.

On the way back to pick up Kyles car we stopped for dinner at another atypical White Mountain restaurant below someone’s house that I will never go to again.  When we got back to the campground we saw a young shy bear poking around a dumpster.  At the campsite, I started a fire and had a beer before settling in for the night.  Kyle was up at 4:00 and started packing up to leave while I stayed in my tent.  I wanted to leave early too, but it was probably about 40 degrees outside and my sleeping bag was pretty cozy.  While he was packing his stuff he took the rest of my Cinnamon raisin bread that I had brought for breakfast out of his car.  I guess he left it on top his car while he was packing his stuff up and I unlocked my car so he could throw it in there.  After he left, I heard something moving around my car.  Not even thinking that it was an animal, I grabbed my knife in case I heard my door open.  I'm not sure what it was but after telling him about this "encounter", he told me that he heard something rustling around in the woods and that it even sounded big.  Could it have been a bear?  Who knows...  I finally got out of my sleeping bag at about 6:00 and happily started making my way home.