July 4: Adams and Madison via Madison Gulf, Daniel Webster-Scout trails

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Date of hike: 4 July

Trails used: Great Gulf Link, Great Gulf, Madison Gulf, Star Lake, Gulfside, Osgood, Daniel Webster-Scout.

Trail conditions: Generally excellent. Some muddy spots on all trails (esp. Great Gulf Link and Great Gulf) due to recent rains, but nothing that couldn't be easily avoided. Some blowdowns on Daniel Webster-Scout, but no big obstacles. Headwalls of both Madison Gulf and Daniel Webster-Scout dry, though as always the steepness and ruggedness of these routes required caution and common sense.

Comments: *Perfect* day for hiking two of the toughest trails in the Whites -- relatively mild temperatures, humidity well below the strength-sapping threshold, sky clear as a crystal goblet. Met nary a soul on either the Madison Gulf or Daniel Webster-Scout routes except for a lone, reckless and ill-prepared young man just leaving Dolly Copp campground at 6 p.m. who thought he could make the top of Madison and back on the Daniel Webster-Scout before nightfall (I disabused him of the idea). Quite a few people on the ridge, summits and at Madison Spring hut. Summits of both Adams and Madison fairly thick with large flies, bees and wasps. At the trailhead in Dolly Copp I DEET'd up in the morning and had no trouble with bugs throughout the day.

Steve B

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