Presi traverse camping options

Ok, it pains me to start this thread. Know that I'm cringing as I write. My father in law and two of his friends have invited me to do a presi traverse in a couple of weeks. Here's the complicated part: three days total, and a strong desire to stay out of the huts. I love the huts, don't get me wrong, but $106/person per night? Really??? Anyway, I was invited on this trip, but it's looking like I'm the more experienced in the bunch, so time to do some planning. I'm not interested in illegal camping spots. So here are the spots I came up with. Night one: below Madison hut at Valley Way tent site, OR all the way to Sphinx col, drop about 500' vertical down Sphinx trail, reasonable spots north of trail? Second night: just past Lakes, down Dry River trail about 1000' vertical (ugh!) and into what I imagine to be an absolutely idyllic Oakes Gulf? Is it as beautiful as my topo suggests? Or somewhere between Franklin and Eisenhower? Or somewhere between Eisenhower and Pierce? I know all of the restrictions in this area of the Whites, and have done the loop in Winter, FWIW, when it was considerably less complicated... Please don't be too specific, "There are spots SE of Eisenhower 1000' vertical off of the ridge" is plenty of information. Or, "Forget about it, there really are no good options." Or, "Piss off, I'm not telling you my favorite spots!" Or pm me. This is a heavily used area and I don't want to contribute to any related issues. Also, I'm aware there are plenty of other great three-day loop options, but since they invited me on this trip I'd like to give it some thought before I tell anyone it's a lost cause. Thanks in advance!!!

Is camping a hard and fast rule for you? Are you up for one night at one of the Randolph Mountain Club huts? I would normaly do Madison and Adams the first day and on the way to Jefferson stay at "The Perch" tent sites; however it appears "The Perch" is closed. So I would spend the night at Crag Camp [caretaker based and not expensive]. After dropping my stuff I would dayhike to both Adams/Madison and return. With an early start, you could probably do the whole traverse and spend the night at Nauman tent sites [next to AMC Mizpah Hut]. From there you are only 2.5 miles to Crawford Notch.

my 2 cents only... and there may be more options...but from what I know:

and I think this will depend on how strong your weakeast link is. It might be a buzzkill to someone not in the best shape to keep dropping into ravines, thrashing around looking for a site and then re-gaining the ridge... just sayin'.

night one is the no brainer - valley way - if you want to be a bit more creative - there are spots down low - and there is the perch as well...bit out of the way though... if you keep going

I think the only real option you will have if you go the "legal route" is dropping down into the gulf..for something around the sphinx area - you will find something and the gulf is great - but depending on your party (i see a rainier shot in your avatar, so i assume you are in decent shape anyway) - the drop down and back up could be a buzzkill... its not a big deal for strong hikers, but non strong hikers might complain - lets say the trails in and out of the gulf aren't as user freindly as others in the whites...not to say they aren't awesome - they are.

There is hermit lake if you want to drop into tuck ravine.

I don't know about dropping into oaks or dry river area - I assume there is stuff, but can't say for sure - or how far down the good stuff would be.

for a multi-day summer traverse - the legal camping options pretty much suck IMO. I could say - bivy on mt clay at sundown...but I would never condon anything like that.

have fun.

I know of three spots, which may or may not be legal.

Sadly, I won't say more

dug said:

I know of three spots, which may or may not be legal.

Sadly, I won't say more

Click to expand...

What? No "Piss off" anywhere in that response? No worries, thanks everyone for your responses so far. Yeah I think it's kind of a drag to have to drop off of the ridge so far. In my fantasy land I'm hoping to find spots before losing too much elevation.

Could you convince your comrades to go down the Davis Path instead of the Southern Presidentials? There are plenty of nice camping options on that route.

No great camping options

Listen to what Giggy said. I've dropped down into Oakes Gulf twice to camp (fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...) and it's a good long way down and back up, with some barely viable sites unless you go waaaaay down, like to 3800 feet or even lower.

I think your energy would be better spent by going from Crag Camp or Valley Way (or the Perch, which is great but may not be open) all the way to Nauman Campsite. It's a long day, but a thrash through a Gulf to find an uncomfortable campsite might be worse.

Have fun!
Weatherman

I don't think there's anything for you down Sphinx.

I'd suggest something like this to divide the trip into roughly equal thirds, and just swallow the fact that you're going to descend & re-ascend considerably for your overnights. Night 1: The Perch; Night 2: Hermit Lakes, or vice versa.

I like the idea of Crag Camp and Naumann tent sites the best for a Presi traverse, IF one must backpack and camp. But, for much less energy expenditure, I think that it makes more sense to camp in the valley at both ends and make a long day hike of the Presi traverse. Lots of good spots to rehydrate and rest (Mad hut, Obsy, Lakes, and Mizpah) and you have roughly 16 hours of daylight at the moment, so say 12 hours to hike 20 miles, with four hour-long rest stops.

You don't have to go as far as Nauman, you can find legal sites between Eisenhower and Pierce - just check rules about distance from trail

I would agree that there is nothing to find for camping spots going down Sphinx trail. It is very steep and for anything legal you have to drop down into the Great Gulf all the way down to the Great Gulf trail and then towards the Six Husbands intersection.

There are spots on the Jewel trail down below treeline and a water source just about at treeline. Note these spots are adequate for one man tents that AT thru hikers might use but very few spots would be large enough for a two or three man tent. Flat is a relative term. If the weather acts up, its better than above treeline but not much as its got full exposure to weather from the west.

If I were planning this trip, I'd start at the Crawford Path trailhead, follow the Crawford Path to the Lakes of the Clouds, then the Camel Trail to Boott Spur and down to Hermit Lake via the Boott Spur Link. Day two would be up Tuck's (if open) or over Lion's Head to the summit of Washington, then the Gulfside trail to Edmunds Col and the Randolph Path/Gray Knob trail to Crag Camp. Day three would go over Adams and Madison and down the Osgood and Great Gulf trails to the GG trailhead. This breaks up the trip into three more-or-less equal days of hiking, and you won't need tents.

Note that there's a camping spot below treeline on the Jewell trail, but no water.

RoySwkr said:

You don't have to go as far as Nauman, you can find legal sites between Eisenhower and Pierce - just check rules about distance from trail

Click to expand...

Reading this, I looked pretty hard on a recent trip and couldn't find anything that most people would regard as sleepable.

I did find a couple of short latrine paths where you could push deeper through the brush and find a laydown spot. These are fine for me when I'm hiking solo and I used one as a "camp." But I would never be able to persuade any of my usual companions that these were camps. And I was just hoping the weather would hold because the openings were so cramped I would have had trouble pitching a tarp.

There are a huge number of spots well off the trail in the meadows between Eisenhower and Pierce, but while there are tall trees all around these meadows, the meadows themselves I have interpreted as "above treeline" and thus camping is not permitted, right?

Will said:

There are a huge number of spots well off the trail in the meadows between Eisenhower and Pierce, but while there are tall trees all around these meadows, the meadows themselves I have interpreted as "above treeline" and thus camping is not permitted, right?

Click to expand...

The alpine rule is intended to protect alpine vegetation, obviously you can camp in some meadows among trees such as at Dolly Copp

The Management Area map on p. 87 shows where they think the alpine zones are in the Presidentials and yes they show some between E & P.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/whi...documents/PLAN_PDF/0300_PLAN_ma_direction.pdf

The problem with camping out of sight of the trail is that you can't identify good campsites from the trail but have to do a lot of hunting.