The big hiking trip was last weekend. Eric, Chad and I drove up to Appalachia, a general parking spot just west of Randolph, NH, and embarked on a three-day, two night hike up the Northern Peaks of the Presidential mountain range in the White Mountain National Forest. At first, we took some side trails that meandered up the river and past some waterfalls (Coosauk and Hitchcock Falls), taking pictures and getting our legs underneath us. It was slow going, since it had rained for the last two/three days and, despite the otherwise dry spring, the water was flowing quickly and the rocks were slick. Chad got a good pix of me flailing about as I tried to regain my footing after slipping during one traverse of the river. However, this stretch of the trail was short, and we soon met up with the Randolph Path, which was to take us to our first night’s destination: the Perch Tentsite. The RP basically works its way up the northern presidential range sideways, so you avoid most of the severe elevation gain. This is not to say it’s an easy trail; we were steadily climbing all the way until we found the tent site, but, as we were to find out at the end of the trip, this path was nothing compared to the more direct ways to the top (Valley Way, Air Line, etc.) However, our hike was pleasant, not too hot, and mainly through birch forest as we traversed over the Nowell ridge and over to the Israel Ridge, arriving at the tent site by 2:00.
The Perch Tentsite is a smaller lean-to, with four tenting platforms. We were the second group there; the first group being a couple and their dog who had hoped to do a presidential traverse that day but found that the winds were too intense. We set up our tents and set out for Edmunds Bluff, a viewpoint just down the Israel Ridge trail from us. Or so we know now. One consistent problem that we had over the weekend is that due to the large amount of trails running over the northern portion of these mountains, a lot of the trails were not clearly marked on the AMC WMNF guide, just because there wasn’t enough space for them all. (It turns out that you can get a more detailed map of all of these trails from the Randolph Mountain Club (RMC), the association that maintains a lot of these trails and also runs four shelters in the area, including the Perch.) So, a bit confused, we headed up the Israel Ridge trail rather than down and soon found ourselves at the tree line. Wow. We were looking west, with views all the way to the north, Mt. Jefferson looming above us and Israel Brook flowing away beneath us. The winds were intense, blowing all of the storm clouds from the previous days away, and we decided to keep at it, climbing up all the way to the ridgeline to look over the other side into the Great Gulf. Here, the winds were the most intense, and we met up with a large group of hikers making their way from the Lake of the Clouds hut to the Madison Springs hut (a common traverse via the Appalachian Trail) who were having troubles keeping their feet in the ~40 mph gusts, exasperated by the poor footing of the scree that makes up the trail. The rocks are strewn about, and while you can mostly find a good path, it’s not flat by any stretch of the imagination, so you spend a lot of time balancing on rock edges or points, so take that, add the heavy winds and a heavy pack, and you can see why these people were having issues. However, not us; we had ditched our packs at the campsite, and so we scrambled over the rocks with relative ease, relaxing in a small seating spot out of the wind for a snack and to enjoy the panorama from Mt. Adams over to Mt. Washington.
Typical stream view
On the way back, we stopped off at one of the numerous snow fields
that remained in shadowy alcoves and Chad took a quick ski using Eric's
hiking poles for balance.
Back at the tent site, we relaxed, stretched, and cooked up a dinner of
pre-prepared Indian food. The other tent platforms filled up with a group
of Quebecquois who were working their way south (we met a large number
of Canadians on this trip; a function of their strong dollar or just the
lack of large mountain ranges in eastern Canada?)… as sunset approached,
we hiked the half-mile or so to Edmunds Bluff to watch; it was a nice
viewpoint, with 270 views of the Israel valley, but the black flies –
young ones – were so bad, that I only lasted about 10 minutes. Chad and
Eric toughed it out, pulling their shirts up over their heads and down
over their legs as they squatted in the fetal position, and while they
did get good pictures, I’m not sure poor Eric’s legs ever recovered from
all the bites.
The rest of the night was uneventful; we hung our bear bag and hit the sack so we could get an early start in the AM. I slept in Eric’s tent to avoid Chad’s “Dutch Oven” tent (as he does every hike, Chad had been farting up a storm ever since we started) and, despite the occasional toots from across the platform, we had a good sleep, being woken up just after sunrise by the laughing François. (Not that I would have slept in anyways, my son has conditioned me to get up no later than 6:30.) One lazy breakfast later, we left the tent site and were still up on our way to Edmunds Col by 7:30. Edmunds Col is basically the peak of the Israel valley, right at the base of Jefferson on the way towards Adams. It was a quick hike from the tent site and we ditched our packs here in order to peak Jefferson without them.
Sunset from the Edmunds Bluff
Sunset looking up at the ridgeline from the North
Jefferson, like all of the Presidentials, was a tough climb. The elevation gain is steady, the footing a bit rough, and you’re completely exposed to the elements so you occasionally have to deal with wind gusts. We timed it perfectly; as we climbed up, Jefferson was completely socked in by clouds, but by the time we were peaking, these had mainly burned off, leaving only the sun to beat down on us as we wormed our way up to the large rock hills that make up Jefferson’s three peaks. Chatting with a guy and his dog, we took in our first 360 view of the day, relishing the crystal clear views of Mt. Washington and the rest of the ridgeline eastbound to Eisenhower, and catching quick glimpses of our upcoming hike to Mt. Adams (Adams was still cloud covered for a while). There really isn’t any way to describe how sublime the views were when we were above the ridgeline; the views were open for miles, and the terrain changes what seems like ever y minute so there’s a lot of detail to take in. Plus, the sky is filled with fascinating clouds, with other mountain ranges squatting in the distance, saturated in the hazy mist of New England humidity. Distance is all Echered; from the top of Jefferson, it looks like quite a distance to the top of Adams, and while it’s certainly not easy, it’s only a few miles.
Rough panarama of the view to Adams from Jefferson
The open face of the Whites. This is looking towards Adams. Note the snow fields.
Back down Jefferson to get our packs, and then with the extra weight on our shoulders, we headed east on the Gulfway trail towards Adams. At this point, the wind was really non-existent, and the sun was making it very hot. At Thunderstorm Junction and its 10 ft. high cairn, we jumped back onto the Israel Ridge path up to the summit of Adams. The funny thing was that while checking out the fascinating sky, we saw a small ridge of white clouds headed our way and being paranoid from all of the warnings you hear about being caught up above the tree line in bad weather, we assumed the worst and so rocked up Adams as fast as we could. Again, this mountain is not a joke: consistent elevation gain and you’re scrambling over rocks the entire way. However, the top is worth it; this time the 360 views contain a shot of the Randolph Valley, and the ridgeline over to Madison, with Washington right there to the south.
Probably the funniest moment of the weekend came when we met a large group of (mainly) women who were moving along slowly, enjoying the sun and nice weather; the same people we saw struggling through the wind yesterday! “My God,” one of them said, a taller woman with curly brown hair and a lilting Canadian accent, “how do you guys hike around here without any packs?” Laughing, we realized that they had never seen us with our packs since we’ve been ditching them most of the time above the ridgeline--for, after all, we were the Packless White Wanderers! “Oh, those packs, you mean, the ones with all the money?” she joked, and we joshed around with them in the sun for a few minutes. There were about 10 of them altogether, and they had hiked over from the Washington area to the Madison Springs hut, informing us that despite the crowd (there were about 49 people there last night in a hut that sleeps 56), it was quite pleasant, for they provide you with linens and a pillow (!) and cook you up a nice hot meal, last night of which was a big Turkey dinner.
View of Washington from top of Jefferson
Probably the coolest thing about hiking are the fun people you meet along
the way – there’s a lack of pretention amongst people on the trail that
is extremely refreshing. More… For example, we met another large group
of Canadian women at the hut both before and after we summited Madison,
and we were able to joke and flirt around with them as well.
Thought about going down the Star Lake,but looking at its vertical (1000'
in 1.0 miles) smartly thought better of it (remembering Zeacliff), so
took the Airline back down to the AT and then down to the Madison
Springs Hut.
Now, we weren't sure how we were going to climb Madison; should we go down the alley Way to the tent site first, drop our packs, and then peak Madison, or should we simply climb the mountain now and get it over with? Remembering our previous year's experience on the Zeacliff Trail, we chose the former, so we worked our way 1+ miles down the suprisingly steep trail to the Valley Way tentsite. It was the right decision, because there's really no experience like hiking on top of the world without your packs. All hail the Packless White Wanderers!
After setting up or tents and chatting with a Park Ranger that stopped by ("no charge here; the price is just right!"), we jetted up the Valley Way with newfound energy now that we didn't have the 30+ pd packs weighing us down.
The trip up Madison wasn't all that difficult, and the view, as you can see from our celebratory picture on the right, was amazing.
We went over the far side of Madison and decided to circle around rather then tracing our steps. We were never in any serious danger of being lost, but our tired legs kept telling us that we made a mistake. Fortunately, we found the Traverse trail before too long and worked that back to the hut, passing a large chunk of quartz (?) called Moon Rock.
Celebrating peaking Madison, our third peak of the day
