Mt. Adams 5774' - Mt. Madison 5367' - (48/48) - The Finish!

Well folks, that’s a wrap!  Paloma and I officially finished the 48 New Hampshire 4000+ footers list after completing Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison on Sunday, September 24^th.  I am going to split this post into two.  This post will be about the hike, the next post will be a “reflection” on the past several years of our pursuit.

Appalachia Trail-head

We had plans on Saturday, so decided to finish our quest on Sunday.  Bonus – the weather was looking absolutely gorgeous, unseasonably warm for the time of year, so we were excited to take advantage of it and get on the trails.  Weather this time of year in the Presidential Range can be tricky so we absolutely lucked out.  70+ degrees and sun in the forecast.  Paloma and I set off for the Appalachia trail-head at approximately 6:15AM, and after making a quick stop for a coffee, arrived at the trail-head at 8:45AM.  It was a bit later of a start than we had wanted but that was ok.  There was an AMC worker and Park Ranger at the trail-head – we talked to them a bit about our plan for the day and the ranger was kind enough to take our pre-hike photo.  They both congratulated us on our upcoming completion of the 48.

Airline Trail

We officially hit the trail at 8:55AM.  Our route for the day was to take the Airline trail to the summit of Mt. Adams, then descend to the Madison Hut via the Airline and Gulfside trail.  From the Hut we would the climb the Osgood trail to the summit of Mt. Madison, and descend via Watson Path and Valley way back to the trail-head.  A total distance of just shy of 10 miles.  We knew this wasn't going to be an easy hike as the elevation gain is pretty significant but we were excited to finish our final two mountains.

Steep Trail!

After crossing some power lines, the Airline trail immediately begins to climb.  I wasn't feeling that great at the start of the hike - I think it was a combination of the warmth/humidity, the multivitamin I had just taken on an empty stomach, oh and the 15lbs of Chipotle I had consumed at a birthday party the day before.  Yep, definitely the Chipotle.  To cool myself down I decided to hike without a shirt on for a bit (don't worry, I won't post any shirtless photos) - this seemed to do the trick and I started to feel better about a mile or so in.  I quietly apologized to the hundreds of chipmunks that seemed to be in this area as they had to witness me topless.

Gorgeous Ridge

Once we passed the intersection with the Randolph Path the trail became steeper.  We were hiking now!  The Airline Trail doesn't mess around.  It is basically a straight shot to the top of Mt. Adams, meaning that it is decently steep the entire way.  We passed the Scar Trail intersection at 10:30AM and then finally broke tree-line at a few minutes past 11.  Wow - once you break tree-line you are treated to the most amazing, yet intimidating views I have ever encountered.  At this point the Airline Trail crosses a ridge, in front of you looms Mt. Madison to the left and Mt. Quincy Adams and Mt. Adams to the right.  Off to the far right you can see Mt. Jefferson.  The ridge is flanked by King Ravine. Amazing views all around.

Rock Pile Leading to Mt. Adams

The terrain across the ridge is quite rocky and requires a bit of scrambling at different points.  The sun was beating down on us which felt great but induced some serious sweating.  We plodded along the ridge until we met up with the Gulfside trail and continued on Airline.  Yikes - ahead of us was nearly a mile-long, steep rock pile. Thankfully the trail skirts along the side of Mt. Quincy Adams instead of going over it, which saves you some in the elevation department.  We decided to stop and have our sandwiches before summiting Mt. Adams, as we could tell we would need as much energy as possible.  We soaked in the views for a few minutes before proceeding.

Summit of Mt. Adams

The final half mile or so to Adams is brutal.  Very steep and very rocky.  We took our time climbing
up as we knew we still had to summit Mt. Madison after and didn't want to completely run out of energy.  We officially reached the summit of Mt. Adams at 12:40PM.  We sat down for a quick breather and took a few photos at the top.  The views over to Mt. Washington were nothing short of amazing.  I could have spent hours on the summit, especially considering the weather was remarkably calm for this elevation - only a little bit of wind.  The view over to Mt. Madison was absolutely gorgeous as well, and it was extra special given that we were able to look at our final peak!

View from Mt. Adams to Mt. Madison

We started our descent at 12:48PM.  The going down was much easier but we still weren't able to go too fast, as you literally have to jump from boulder to boulder.  We reached the intersection with the Gulfside trail at 1:25PM and proceeded down the short path toward the Madison Hut, reaching it at 1:40PM.  We stopped in to check out the Madison Hut and fill up with some water.  Much like the other huts throughout the White Mountains, this one was set in  gorgeous spot between Adams and Madison, with a small pond a few hundred yards behind it.  The AMC caretaker generously offered us a free meal of leftover roasted turkey and mashed potatoes - it took all of our might to pass it up but we figured we still had a ways to go and a big meal might weigh us down.

We left the hut a 1:48PM and began our climb to the summit of Madison via the Osgood trail. 

Madison Hut & Mt. Madison

Similar to the ascent to Adams, the Osgood Trail is rocky and steep but relatively short at only a half of a mile.  About halfway to the summit the trail turns a bit to the right and flattens out somewhat.  When we finally caught a glimpse of the summit we were both filled with joy - not only were we reaching our final summit but we were also done gaining any serious elevation for the day (though little did we know that the descent would be tough as well).  We held hands as we "crossed the finish line," officially reaching the summit at 2:25PM (aww, how cute).

Summit of Mt. Madison - we did it! 48/48!

We quickly threw down our packs and began to celebrate.  Thankfully there was only one other group on the summit and they were hunkered down behind some boulders so we basically had the place to ourselves.  I had brought two mini bottles of champagne in my pack to drink at the top and we enjoyed them with some goldfish crackers (how classy)!  We took a bunch of photos with a sign Paloma had made marking our final peak.  It felt as though we were meant to finish on this day as the weather was absolutely perfect.  We spent 20 minutes or so at the top, soaking in the views and the sense of accomplishment we had.

We had originally planned on descending back to the hut the way we came up to meet up with the Valley Way trail, but in looking at the map it appeared we could cut off some mileage by taking the

Champagne to Celebrate

Watson Path down and meeting up with Valley Way further down the mountain.  We started down the Watson Path at 2:45PM.  We quickly realized that maybe we hadn't made the best choice.  The top part of the Watson Path was incredibly rocky and fairly steep, making our descent quite slow.  When we finally got into the trees the trail was quite rough and seemed to stretch on for an eternity.  The trail was also deserted - which normally I would enjoy but to me it indicated that this wasn't a very popular path - I wonder why!  As we approached the river I could tell that we finally nearing the intersection with the Valley Way trail, officially meeting the trail at 4:38PM. 

Watson Path

By this point we were both pretty exhausted - that descent was rough!  Thankfully the remaining hike out via Valley Way was incredibly easy - so much so that we were able to break out into a slow jog for most of it.  We passed numerous trail intersections and had to look at the map a couple of times to ensure we were going the right way, thankfully we didn't get lost.  I'd love to return to this trail as there are a number of paths leading to different waterfall viewing points that seem like they would be neat.

We reached the parking lot at 5:30PM.  We were both wiped out.  This was easily one of the, if not the, more challenging hikes we have done on our journey.  We shed our sweaty boots and hopped in the car and began the drive back home, reflecting on all of the great hikes we have done.  We finally reached our commitment of hiking them all!

Hike Stats

Trails: Airline, Gulfside, Osgood, Watson Path, Valley Way

Total Time (Including Breaks): 8:35

Distance: 9.7 Miles
Elevation Gain: 5000'

Mt. Jefferson - 5712' Mt. Washington - 6288' (42/48)

Bundled-up Vivian

Paloma and I finally committed to getting back on the trails and finishing up our quest to hike the 48.  We had our sights set on summitting Mt. Jefferson via the Caps Ridge Trail on Sunday, August 20th, however poor weather and the fact we were hiking with our 16-month old, Vivian, caused us to turn around about a half-mile from the summit.  We were bummed but knew that we made the right decision, especially after talking with others who did go to the summit and told us it was miserable.  I will say, though, she looked pretty cozy bundled up in my Deuter Kid Comfort Air carrier!

We decided to return to conquer Jefferson less than a week later, on Saturday, August 26th.  This time, however, we decided to up the ante and add Mt. Washington to the plan.  Given our experience the week prior, we decided that hiking in the Presidential's with a 16-month old might not be the best plan given the unpredictability of the weather and the long hours we would be hiking, so we recruited my parents to join us on our trip to hang with Vivian while we hiked.   We arrived at the Caps Ridge trail-head at just after 9:00AM, made our final preparations and were on the trail at 9:25AM.  The weather at the base was just above 50 degrees and the skies were clear.

Beautiful Day

Our route for the day was to take the Caps Ridge Trail up to the summit of Jefferson, then take a short jaunt down the Jefferson Loop Trail to connect to the Gulfside trail across to Washington.  To reach the summit of Washington we would take the Trinity Connector.  Our plan was to descend to the Lake of the Clouds hut via the Crawford Path, and finally return to the base of Washington via the Ammonoosuc trail.  A total distance of 10.5 miles or so.

Climbing the Caps

The Caps Ridge trail is unique in that the trail-head starts at such a high elevation that you break treeline within a short period of time.  The trail is relatively mild early on but was a bit overgrown - surprising since it seems like it is well used.  You are treated to some decent views pretty early on - this particular day was nice and clear so the views were fantastic.  Quite a difference from the week prior.  Once you break treeline you begin to climb over the Caps - a series of rock outcrops that require some bouldering to get over.  It is actually quite a fun trail to climb on.  As we climbed to around 5000' the temperature started to drop significantly, so Paloma and I both put on our fleece jackets and rain shells.

Summit of Mt. Jefferson

We reached the summit of Jefferson at 11:30AM.  It was quite breezy at the top and we were in and out of the clouds.  When the clouds cleared we were treated to amazing views over to Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison, as well as over to our destination - Mt. Washington.  Woof - it looked like quite a trek to get over there!  We spent only a few minutes on the summit of Jefferson as we were eager to begin our trek across the range to Mt. Washington.

The Cog Railway

The Gulfside trail is actually quite pleasant and easy going, though even though were were keeping a pretty good pace Washington still looked quite far.  Halfway between Jefferson and Washington is Mt. Clay, which although is over 5000' tall, doesn't qualify for the 4000 Footer list due to the prominence rules.  We were tempted to take the Mt. Clay Loop to bag this mountain as well, but given the time we decided to stick to the Gulfside Trail and skip the elevation gain to bag Mt. Clay.  The views along the Gulfside trail were phenomenal, and it really highlighted the scale of the Presidential Range.

 Paloma on the Gulfside Trail

After we circumvented Mt. Clay, we emerged onto the shoulder of Mt. Washington and quickly came to an intersection with the Cog Railway.  We reached the tracks just in time to see one of the trains going by - this was pretty cool.  As we waived to the passengers descending via the train, half of me was thinking about what wussies they were taking a train to visit the summit of Washington, though the other half of me was tempted to hitch a ride down.  We got a bit turned around at this point and had to backtrack a bit to get back on the correct path to the summit.  This involved climbing alongside the train tracks, which got the legs burning as the ground was quite soft and the pitch was quite steep.  We finally found our way back to the trail and began climbing steadily to the summit of Washington.  The final approach was via the Trinity Connector, and before we knew it we were standing on top of the tallest of the 48 4000 footers, the mighty Mt. Washington.  The time was 1:40PM.

Ugh!

For those unfamiliar with Mt. Washington - lets just put it this way...the summit is a shit-show.  I've purposely put off hiking Mt. Washington because most people who climb it end up being disappointed because they have found the summit to be swamped with people who either took the Cog Railway or Auto Road to the top.  Well folks, that is exactly what we experienced.  We had to wait in a twenty minute long line to get our photo with the sign at the summit.  It was not enjoyable.

Summit of Mt. Washington

Now - I am not knocking people for driving or taking the railway up - just a few months ago Paloma, Viv and I drove to the summit of 14k foot Pike's Peak in Colorado and had a great time.  But it is quite a let down to have hiked for so long and to not be able to enjoy the summit.  Oh well - I knew what we were getting into.  After we snapped our summit photo we decided to get the heck out of dodge, and began our descent to the Lake of the Clouds hut at 2:00PM.

Lake of the Clouds

The hike down Crawford Path to the hut was relatively mild.  As we hiked we watched someone fly a drone, presumably taking some cool aerial shots of the Lake of the Clouds.  We reached the hut at 2:45PM.  If I could turn the Lake of the Clouds hut into my full-time residence I would do it in a heartbeat.  What a gorgeous setting.  Flanked by Mt. Washington and Mt. Monroe, the hut sits on the shore of a crystal clear lake that Paloma pointed out almost resemble those infinity pools you see at high end Caribbean resorts.  We stopped in the hut to use the facilities and I was tempted by some delicious smelling brownies that must have just been made by one of the crew members there.  I was good though and passed.  I wanted to spend more time at the hut but it was now 3:00PM, so we decided to begin the final section of our hike via the Ammonoosuc Ravine trail.

Swimming Hole

The Ammonoosuc Ravine trail skirts down the ravine alongside the Ammonoosuc river.  It was a bit steep at the top so we had to take some care in our descent.  What a beautiful trail, though.  There are a number of small waterfalls and swimming holes along the trail, and great views back up towards Mt Washington.  We kept a decent pace as we got lower on the trail, and reached the Cog Railway parking lot at 4:50PM.  What a great but exhausting day of hiking.  We reunited with my parents and little Vivian and began the drive back home.  I was pooped!

All in all this is a fantastic hike.  It is decently strenuous but the hike along the Gulfside Trail is mild and gives you a decent recovery period before ascending Washington.  Make sure you check the weather before doing this hike, though, as you are exposed for several miles.  42 down, 6 to go!

Hike Stats

Trails: Caps Ridge, Jefferson Loop, Gulfside, Trinity Connector, Crawford Path, Ammonoosuc Ravine

Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:25

Distance: 10.5 Miles

Elevation Gain: ?? (If anyone has an accurate Elevation calculation of this route, please let me know!)

Mt. Galehead - 4024' (37/48)

Gale River Trailhead

Where has the summer gone?  Paloma and I have been so busy this summer unfortunately hiking has taken a bit of a backseat.  Thankfully, though, we have a number of free weekends coming up to get back in the woods!  On Saturday, we decided to tackle one of the easier remaining mountains on our list, Mt. Galehead.  My parents decided to join us and we all set off for the Gale River trailhead up off of Rt. 3 past Franconia Notch.  The ride up was uneventful as usual, and the 70 MPH speed limit on Rt. 93 made the miles go buy quite fast.

When we reached the parking lot at around 8:25AM, there were already quite a few cars in the lot.  I had been holding a large iced-coffee in my bladder for the majority of the ride so needless to say I had to pee.  I went to the far end of the lot down a short trail, thinking I found a nice, secluded area.  Little did I know there were two people sleeping in the back of a Subaru right next to the little trail.  Whoops, hope you enjoyed the show!  The weather at the trailhead was just over 70 degrees, a bit overcast and quite humid.  We made our final preparations and were on the trail at 8:43AM.

MUD

Our route for the day was an out-and-back up the Gale River, Garfield Ridge, and Frost trails.  A total distance of 10.2 miles.  The Gale River trail follows along the Gale River (wow, what a unique name) for the first four or so miles of the hike.  This provided a great warm-up as the trail had easy grades for nearly those entire four miles.  There were a few water crossings that were easy to navigate, but I bet during rainy periods some of them could be a bit more treacherous.  Despite some extremely muddy sections, we were able to keep up a pretty good pace until just before the junction with the Garfield Ridge trail, where things got quite a bit steeper and damp.  Even though up to this point the hike was relatively mild, we were all sweating buckets as the humidity level was high and the temperatures were rising.

Galehead Hut

We reached the junction with the Garfield Ridge trail at 10:45AM and took a quick break to cool down a bit, re-hydrate and enjoy some trail-mix. With only 1.1 miles remaining to the summit, we were in pretty good spirits and ready to tackle the remainder of the hike.  The Garfield Ridge trail was quite a bit steeper than the Gale River trail, but all in all it wasn't too difficult either.  It was still quite a bit damp so we had to take extra care to make sure we didn't slip into one of the numerous mud puddles along the trail.   We reached the Galehead Hut at 11:26PM, but decided to go for the summit first and then return to the hut for lunch.

Lookout Point

We took the Frost Trail from the Hut for the remaining half-mile to the summit.  I had read that this section was strenuous but I am not exactly sure why it got that description.  Aside from a 100 yard steep section, this was an easy and fast section of the trail.  We stopped at a great outlook point just before the summit to take in some views since the summit is just a pile of rocks in the woods with no views whatsoever.  The view from the outlook was beautiful and we could look back down over the Galehead Hut.  After we got our fill of the view, we continued to the summit, reaching it at 11:49AM.  We snapped a few obligatory summit photos and then set off back down the Frost Trail back towards the hut.  We were all starving so we had some extra pep in our step.

Summit of Mt. Galehead

We sat down on the beautiful front porch of the hut to eat lunch.  The view from the front porch was great, looking out over the valley below between Galehead and South Twin.  There were quite a few other hikers at the hut, eating, refilling water, and relaxing before continuing on their adventures.  The Galehead Hut is gorgeous on the inside as well, and it was interesting to read that this hut is the most remote in the AMC hut network, given that it is a 4.6 mile hike from the road.  I kept thinking about how awesome it would if this hut was your summer home, and how great it would be to spend a few months living here.  Dreams!  After we had our fill of sandwiches, cookies, fruit and chips we decided it was time to begin our descent, leaving the hut at 12:41PM.  The clouds were rolling in and looking a bit threatening so we figured we would get back into tree cover - the forecast did predict scattered T-storms.

Lunch a the hut

The descent was quite easy and quick and we made very good time coming down.  We reached the parking lot at 3:00PM on the dot and shed all of our sweaty clothes to attempt to freshen up for dinner on the ride back.  We stopped in Plymouth, NH at the Lucky Dog Tavern & Grille which is quickly becoming one of my favorite after-hike dinner spots, mainly due to their delicious pulled pork nachos with diced pickles.  We ordered a full size as an appetizer and the thing was so massive it nearly took up the entire table.  It proved to be no match for us hungry hikers though!  We enjoyed some sandwiches and salads and continued on our ride home, stopping briefly in Concord to visit with my Grandparents and check out their new apartment.

All-in-all a great day for a hike, a good meal, and a visit.  I'd recommend the Galehead hike for those looking for a longer hike that isn't going to kill you.  Even though the views aren't spectacular there are still a few nice vantage points along the way and the hut is a nice place to visit.

Hike Stats

Trails: Gale River Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Frost Trail

Total Time (Including Breaks): 6:15

Distance: 10.2 Miles

Elevation Gain: 2,450'

South Carter - 4430' Middle Carter - 4610' (36/48)

Trail-head

Exactly one week after our hike up Carter Dome, Paloma and I wanted to finish the other two Carters – Middle and South Carter.  In retrospect, we should have tackled these two when hiking Carter Dome, but alas, any day hiking is a good day so we didn’t mind the extra trip up.  Plus, my parents decided to join us for their first hike of the year.  We met up at the Park-N-Ride in Newburyport so that we could carpool.  The ride up Rt. 16 was pretty uneventful as usual, and I was able to relax a bit after volunteering at a beer festival the night before.

We arrived at the Nineteen Mile Brook trail-head at approximately 9:15AM, made our final preparations, and were on the trail at 9:34AM.  Our route for the day was a 10.8 mile loop up the Nineteen Mile Brook and Carter Dome trails to Zeta Pass, then along the Carter-Moriah trail over both summits, before finally descending by the North Carter and Imp trails back to Rt. 16.  Per usual, the Nineteen Mile Brook trail provided a nice warm up to the hike and we finished this section relatively quickly.  It was stunning how different the temperatures were from the previous weekend, as during that hike I was wearing a jacket and quite chilly yet was already dripping sweat on this hike by the time we reached the junction with the Carter Dome trail.

Summit of South Carter

The Carter Dome trail was a bit steeper than the Nineteen Mile Brook trail so we took it pretty easy, knowing that we had quite a bit of mileage in front of us still.  The trail gains elevation quite quickly through a series of switchbacks, but never really hits any extremely steep grades.  That being said, the humidity was catching up to us and we were all sweaty.  Unfortunately, any time we stopped to take a breather we were met with an onslaught of black flies and mosquitoes.  There is nothing worse than black flies when hiking.  Nothing!

We reached Zeta Pass at 12:25PM and chatted for a bit with a guy named Doug and his daughter Amy who were sitting down cooking some Ramen Noodles on a camp stove to the side of the trail.  Boy, did that little 50 cent package of Ramen look delicious!  We chatted for a few minutes before heading over to bag the summit of South Carter.  The going across the ridge was pretty easy with a few small PUDs along the way (pointless ups and downs), and there was still a couple piles of snow surviving the heat along the side of the trail.  A series of man-made bridges help us navigate the muddy sections and before we knew it we were at the summit of South Carter. 

Mom and Dad

It was 1:00PM on the dot and we were all hungry so we decided to hunker down and eat lunch and enjoy the views (or lack thereof…).  Seriously, the summit of South Carter is just a cairn in the middle of the woods – pretty unmemorable.  Once we sat down we were again bombarded by all sorts of flying insects – I guess it was lunchtime for them too.  We wolfed down our sandwiches, cookies, and some chips and decided to get out of there before we were fully consumed by the bugs.  We began the trek over to Middle Carter at 1:11PM.  Given the humidity I was nearly out of water already, which was impressive since I carried 3L of water to start the day.  Guess the beer festival the night before made me thirsty!

Again, the going across the ridge was pretty easy.  There were some sections of low lying brush which afforded us some pretty nice views, even though it was a bit cloudy out.  The breeze in these sections helped to keep the bugs at bay which was nice as well.  We reached the summit of Middle Carter at 2:02 PM – again, another pile of rocks in the woods.  At least here there was a little lookout point which had some pretty nice views from it.  Since we had already ate lunch we pretty much just took a few photos and continued on our way down.  Shortly into our descent we passed a couple people who warned us of a “crazy bird” that had been attacking people that afternoon on the trail.  Some sort of grouse or something.  I was actually hoping that we would run into it to see what all the fuss was about but we never had the pleasure.

Summit of Middle Carter

We reached the junction with the North Carter trail at 2:34PM and after just a few minutes we were hiking down the middle of a small riverbed.  This was interesting.  There weren’t any visible trail markings so we took a few minutes to look at the map.  I was convinced we were on the trail but it was in pretty rough shape.  The trail was extremely narrow and soaking wet with a few blown down trees.  Fun.  We finally began to see some footprints in the mud and realized we were, in fact, on the correct trial.  It took us nearly an hour to get down to the junction with the Imp trail, reaching it at 3:23PM.  Only a little over three miles were left!  At this point Paloma and I decided to take off ahead on our own as someone was going to have to hike or get a ride 1.5 miles back up Rt. 16 to retrieve our car from the parking lot since this route didn’t end at our starting point.  We figured we could cruise down, walk or grab a ride, and make it back by the time my parents were finishing.

Paloma and I at the lookout

The Imp trail, while consistently downhill, seemed to be filled with pointy and loose rocks, making it a bit difficult to go down as fast as we wanted to.  Usually we try a light jog on the descent at points but trying that here would have been irresponsible and dangerous.  We were still able to keep a good pace but with both of our waters empty and our feet starting to hurt, it wasn’t effortless!  The Imp trail taunts you a bit because you nearly get to Rt. 16 before it turns and skirts parallel alongside it.  You can hear cars but can’t see them or reach any parking lots!  We ended up passing Doug and Amy on the way down, but they caught back up to us when we stopped to determine if we could bushwhack back to the car instead of continuing on the trail.  Rather than bushwhacking, Doug offered us a ride back to our car so we decided to hike the rest with him and his daughter.  We spent the last mile or so chatting about hiking, recounting stories from our more memorable hikes.  It made the time go by very quickly.

Cloudy but beautiful!

We reached Rt. 16 at 4:44PM and followed Doug and Amy for about a quarter mile on the road to their car and they dropped Paloma and I at our car.  What nice people you sometimes meet on the trail!  Paloma and I shed our boots and drove back to where we finished the hike to wait for my parents.  It felt great to change into new clothes and clean ourselves up a bit!  My parents came out of the woods at about 5:15PM, exhausted.  A good meal was earned by all of us, so after my parents had a chance to clean up a bit we headed to the Red Fox for a delicious dinner!

All-in-all this was a decent hike but not one I would recommend if you are looking for views.  I do enjoy the Nineteen Mile Brook trail so that is a plus.

Hike Stats
Trails: Nineteen Mile Brook, Carter Dome, Carter-Moriah, North Carter, Imp
Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:10
Distance: 10.8 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3,500'

Mt. Monroe - 5384' Mt. Eisenhower - 4780' (33/48)

Edmand's Path Trail-head

With the weather forecast looking absolutely gorgeous for this late in September, Paloma and I decided to tackle the two remaining southern Presidential mountains on our list, Mt. Monroe and Mt. Eisenhower.  On Saturday morning we set off for the Edmand's Path trail-head, located on Mt. Clinton road off of Route 302 in NH, at approximately 6:40AM.  The ride up was relatively uneventful and quick - the weather was looking great, 65 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

Paloma's Best "I'm Scared" Face

When we arrived at the trail-head the parking lot was already full but we were able to find a spot alongside the road just outside of the lot.  Looked like there were plenty of others taking advantage of the weather.  We threw on our gear and made our final preparations, officially beginning our hike at 9:10AM.  Our route for the day was to hike up Edmand's Path to the junction with the Crawford Path, hike over to Mt. Monroe, and then return and summit Mt. Eisenhower, returning back to the car by Edmand's Path - a total of 9.8 miles round-trip.

The Ridge

The beginning of Edmand's Path was very easy and the trail was in excellent shape.  Early on we crossed a few streams on well-built man-made bridges.  I was surprised at how dry the trail was given that nearly every trail in the White Mountains we have hiked on have been pretty wet.  Needless to say, we were cruising at a pretty good pace.  After a mile or so the trail began to steepen a bit but remained pretty mild until only a half-mile or so before the junction with Crawford Path.  The trees began to thin quite quickly and we could begin to hear the whistles from the Cog Railway across the ridge on Mt. Washington.  We also began to catch some views of the Presidential Range and down to the Mt. Washington Resort.  Things were looking beautiful.

Shoulder of Eisenhower

When we finally emerged from the trees onto the rocky shoulder of Mt. Eisenhower, we were treated with views that were nothing short of amazing.  It seemed fake.  Both of us were in awe at how beautiful it was.  One would think that after hiking so many mountains with great views that it would get old, but no...it doesn't.  We continued skirting along the rocky shoulder of Eisenhower until we reached the junction with Crawford Path, reaching it at 10:57AM.  There were quite a few people climbing up to the the summit of Eisenhower, so Paloma and I decided to head over to tackle Mt. Monroe first.

As we eventually learned, you cannot see the summit of Mt. Monroe from Mt. Eisenhower. It is indeed, actually quite far away but is blocked by some rolling hills.  When we got to the top of the first rolling hill we realized we were only about a quarter of the way there.  The hike along the exposed ridge was awesome, though.  The sun was shining so even though it was windy it was quite warm.  I even managed to get a bit of a sunburn on my face.  We eventually passed the summit of Mt. Franklin, a non-4k and continued over towards Monroe.

Looking back towards Eisenhower

When we reached the junction of Crawford Path with the Monroe Loop, we got a bit mixed-up,  If you continue on Crawford Path you actually circumvent the summit of Monroe.  We started this way for a few hundred yards but realized quickly that it was not leading us to the summit.  We backtracked and took the Monroe loop up.  Whoever designed this trail is a sick, sick person.  The trail literally climbs up the steepest outcrop of rocks before bearing right across a field to the final climb up Monroe.  If the trail was just 100 yards to the right you would avoid this rocky mess but no, the trail decides to go right over it.  Oh well, the views from the top of this rocky mound were great.  After this we cut across an alpine field and began the final climb up the rocks to the summit of Monroe, reaching it at 12:25PM.

Summit of Mt. Monroe

There were a few other people at the summit soaking in the sun and views but it was much less crowded than the summit of Eisenhower which we could now see, miles away across the ridge.  We enjoyed beautiful views of Mt. Washington and the Lake of the Clouds while eating lunch hunkered down behind a large boulder.  It was quite windy at the top which was actually quite refreshing.  It was neat to look back across the ridge we had just hiked across to Eisenhower, though knowing that we had to hike back all that distance seemed daunting.  We let our food digest for a few minutes and were back on the trail at 12:40PM.

Summit of Mt. Eisenhower

Thankfully the hike back across the ridge was quite a bit faster than our hike out.  We were cruising back towards Eisenhower, passing many people along the way.  I had to ask Paloma what she put in our PB&J sandwiches because my energy level was at an all time high.  We reached the original junction of Crawford Path with Edmand's Path at 1:36PM, this time continuing straight towards Eisenhower.  At this point it was quite crowded, so we decided to haul ass to the summit of Eisenhower, take a few photos, and began the descent to the car.  We reached the summit at 1:50PM, snapped our photos, and were on our way down at 1:56PM.  I hate crowds.

Our hike down was the fastest hiking I have ever done.  Aside from getting stuck behind people at many points, we were borderline running down Edmand's Path.  I was treading a thin line between hiking fast and being completely out of control on the descent, grabbing onto trees and sliding down boulders.  Paloma and I both worked up quite a sweat on the way down the trail.  Unfortunately, many people on the way down seemed to have little knowledge of trail courtesy.  If someone is coming up from behind you, move aside and let them pass!  There were numerous points where we were right on the heels of groups of others and it took ten minutes for them to finally stop and move over.  Annoying!

Paloma and I at the Summit of Eisenhower

Near the end of the hike we crossed back over the streams we had crossed at the beginning.  Submerged in the last stream was a man making strange grunting noises, clearly enjoying the refreshing water as his dog sat on the shore with a bewildered look on his face as if saying "I am NOT with this guy."  Hey, to each their own I guess.  It did, after all, look quite refreshing.  We finished the final few hundred yards of the hike, reaching our car at 3:22PM.  Overall this hike was on the easier side and had some tremendous views.

We quickly changed into new clothing and began the ride home.  I was shocked at how many cars were parked along the various trail-heads that we passed on the ride.  It looked like everybody and their brother were hiking the Franconia Ridge mountains as cars were parked for what seemed like miles on each side of Rt. 93.  We stopped at the Lucky Dog Tavern in Plymouth on our way home for dinner and ate perhaps the best plate of nachos I have ever consumed - pulled pork nachos with cheddar cheese and diced pickles.  Sounds strange but was absolutely phenomenal.  All in all a solid day in the mountains!

Hike Stats

Trails: Edmand's Path, Crawford Path

Total Time (Including Breaks): 6:10

Distance: 9.8 Miles

Elevation Gain: 3,800'

Mt. Isolation - 4004' (31/48)

Rocky Branch Trailhead

The time had come for Paloma and I to stop putting off hiking Mt. Isolation.  I'll admit, I have always been a bit intimidated to do this hike just due to the sheer length of it.  I had heard it isn't overly difficult but with a name like Mt. Isolation one has to have a little fear in them of hiking it.  We set off early on Saturday morning, an after a relatively uneventful yet slow ride up Rt. 16, we arrived at the Rocky Branch parking lot at quarter of ten.  The weather at the base was a bit cloudy and warm, and the lot was relatively empty except for about four or five other cars.  Knowing that we had a long hike ahead of us and it was already later than we had hoped, we threw on our gear and officially started our hike at 10:00AM.

Sweaty Animals!

Our route for the day was a 14.6 mile hike out and back up the Rocky Branch, Isolation, and Davis Path trails to the summit of Isolation.  We started on the Rocky Branch trail which began gaining elevation nearly the minute we left the parking lot.  The weather in the woods felt like a hot blanket over us, extremely humid with little to no breeze.  Oh boy, this was going to be a long day.  About fifteen minutes into the hike and I was already sweating like an animal - the humidity made it extremely difficult to breathe in any sort of rhythm.  After we passed a place where a ski trail veers off the right, the climbing continued and steepened.  Paloma and I were praying that it would eventually even out.

We encountered our first human shortly thereafter.  Before we got even within ten feet of this individual he proclaimed "I read your blog!  You are Tom and Paloma!"  Awesome, I thought to myself, this was the most proud I have been since beginning this blog.  Someone actually read it and recognized me!  We spoke with the man, named Doug, for a few minutes and discussed some other hikes we had done.  He was on his way down at this point after spending a night at the Rocky Branch shelter.  Doug - if you are reading this post hope the rest of your hike went well and I hope to see you on the trails again!  After our brief chat with Doug, Paloma and I continued on our way.

River Crossing

After a few more minutes we final hit level land, and the hike remained this way all the way to the junction with the Mt. Isolation trail and the Rocky Branch river.  What a relief!  Paloma and I both felt a renewed sense of energy and suddenly the completion of this hike didn't seem like such a difficult task after all.  After crossing over the Rocky Branch river we reached the junction with the Mt. Isolation trail at 11:55AM.  We contemplated checking out the shelter which was a few hundred yards in the opposite direction, but decided against it since we still had over ten miles to go - maybe someday we will hike to the shelter and actually spend the night - it seems like it is in a beautiful location!

Paloma Navigating the River

The Mt. Isolation trail follows along the river for a few miles, crossing it back and forth approximately five times.  The river crossings were not too difficult but I can imagine after a lot of rain or melting snow that they could be tough.  There were a couple of points where we couldn't exactly tell if the trail crossed the river or not, but thankfully there were some makeshift cairns that helped guide the way.  We were cruising pretty good at this point, trying to get as many miles behind us as possible.  After the river section we came into some muddy and wet sections of the trail, and both of us were slowly becoming covered in mud.  

What happened here?

We finally began to catch our first "views" off to the left as we emerged onto some sort of ridge.  This was a very interesting section of the trail.  I couldn't exactly figure out what happened but it looked like one of those micro-bursts or some sort of significant wind activity bent down (but didn't break) hundreds of pine trees.  I attempted to capture this in the photo here but I don't think it does it justice.  You will have to hike there to see just how interesting it looks!  We cruised through this section and shortly thereafter reached the junction with the Davis Path trail.

The Jerk!

The Davis Path trail, though easy, had plenty of PUDs to get your heart rate going.  PUDS = pointless up and downs.  Regardless, the excitement we had that the summit was less than a mile away took our minds off of how worn out we were and before we knew it we reached the Mt. Isolation spur - a steep but short climb to the summit.  There we encountered perhaps our biggest challenge.  In the middle of the trail, perched on a rock, was a little plastic toy soldier guarding the trail, protecting the summit of Mt. Isolation.  After being nearly denied passage, I finally reached into my wallet and gave him all of its contents for the right to pass.  He obliged.  Thank God!  Would have sucked climbing all that way only to have to turn back a hundred feet from the summit!

Summit of Mt. Isolation

We finally emerged from the trees to the summit of Mt. Isolation at 1:48PM and were treated with beautiful views of the Presidential Range and surrounding mountains.  There was another couple at the top and their beautiful dog, Ginger, who just completed her (the dog) 48th 4k.  Impressive!  Ginger took a liking to Paloma and I was worried that Paloma was going to hike down with Ginger and leave me by my lonesome.  We chatted for a bit with the other couple and then sat down for a well deserved lunch of PB&Js, chips, and Gatorade.  I could have fallen asleep at the top but since we had over seven miles to get back to the car, we wolfed down our food, took a couple photos, and began the long descent back to the car.

Paloma and I at the top!

We were cruising, and at some points lightly jogging, down the Davis Path, reaching the junction in about half the amount of time it took us on the way up.  By the time we arrived back at the portion of the trail that zigzags across the Rocky Branch river, a light rain began.  It actually felt quite refreshing and I joked with Paloma that it was good that it was raining because it meant we wouldn't be as stinky and muddy at dinner after the hike.  Maybe I should have held that thought to myself, as minutes later we were stuck in a full on downpour.  It still felt refreshing so I forewent putting on a rain jacket, rather Paloma tied it over my backpack to protect its contents.  Normally rain would annoy me but in this case I welcomed it.  That is, for the first ten minutes.  When it didn't stop for the next hour it got a bit old.

The last three miles of the hike took FOREVER, or at least it seemed that way.  I think I guessed that we were just about at the car over fifteen times.  Nope, more to go.  The rain made things a bit tricky as now everything was wet and slippery - this prevented us from being able to move too fast.  Just when I was about at the point where I contemplated laying down and giving up, I spotted our car through the trees.  At last, we were at the end!  We reached the car 5:38PM and immediately shed our boots.  Relief!  

Caught in the Rain

We both changed and agreed that we were going to stop at the first restaurant we came to.  That happened to be the Red Fox Bar & Grille in Jackson, NH.  I wolfed down some meat, potatoes, and a beer, Paloma a brick-oven pizza.  After-all we deserved it!  We must have looked like two goons as we hobbled in and out of the restaurant!  The ride home was uneventful, and I immediately hit the hay after a hot shower.  What a day!

Overall this was a long but not technically difficult hike.  The trails were in decent condition and the crossings weren't difficult though the hike up doesn't offer many views.  The views at the top, however, are great.  I think we saw more toads than people so this would be a great hike for people looking to avoid the crowds.  It is called, after all, Mt. Isolation...

Hike Stats

Trails: Rocky Branch, Isolation, Davis Path

Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:40

Distance: 14.6 Miles

Elevation Gain: 3,400'