HockeyPuck
Active member
This is my first trip report on VFTT. I always enjoy reading other reports and have never been brave enough to post one of my own. This was a difficult hike physically and emotionally and I thought I'd share this one with the community.
The hiking agenda for Saturday is to hike the entire presidential range from North to South starting at 3 AM from Dolly Copp Campground hiking over Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, Pierce, Jackson and Webster then descend the Webster – Jackson trail to Rt 302. I'm a bit nervous because I'm not sure if my body can handle the abuse of over 9000 Ft elevation and 23+ miles that I’m about to put it through, I've never started a hike in the dark and am a bit scared of what we may encounter on the trail. I'm excited to see the sunrise from above tree line and am looking forward to revisiting each of these mountains that I hiked individually while completing my NH48 a few years ago and remember the sense of accomplishment I enjoyed as I completed each.
I met Mark & Heather for a car spot at the Crawford Path parking area on Rt 302 Friday night. We made our way over to Dolly Copp campground and setup camp as dusk was turning to night. We set our alarms for 3 AM and went to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep due to the anxiety of the following day and kept waking up due to the bitter cold temperatures. The 3 AM wake up call came much too quickly. We had a quick breakfast, threw on the headlamps and were at the Daniel Webster scout trailhead for 3:30 AM. We quickly got into the rhythm of hiking as our bodies woke up and heart rate increased. I am new to night hiking and it was difficult to adjust to the tunnel vision of hiking with a headlamp. As we increased elevation we could see the lights of Gorham off in the distance and made it to tree line by 5 AM. At 5:30 the headlamps were no longer needed. A few minutes before 6:00 AM I saw my first mountain sunrise and the sun peeking over the Carter Range was a spectacular sight to see. I hope my pictures show the beauty of the rainbow of colors. We arrived at the Madison summit for 6:15 AM and descended the Osgood trail to arrive at Madison Hut for 6:45 AM as the caretakers were preparing breakfast for the overnighters and the overnighters complained about the snoring. We refilled out water and headed up the Star Lake trail to Mt. Adams. The rock scrambles were steep and drained a lot of energy but we arrived on Adams at 7:30 AM. We had the summit to ourselves and the views of Jefferson and Washington were great on this crystal clear morning and worth the effort.
We descended the gulfside trail, it was nice to give the "up" leg muscles a break and use the "down" muscles into Edmands col. I was starting to get discouraged looking up at the summit of Jefferson and knowing how much farther we still had to travel. I tried not to look at the summit of Washington and focused my attention onto the trail and into the Great Gulf Wilderness. We arrived at the Jefferson summit at 9:00 AM and had another peak all to ourselves. We could now see the sun reflect off the windshields of the cars on the auto road and the smoke of the cog railway. The mountains were waking up..
We arrived at Clay our 4th summit of the day at 10 AM. A solo hiker making the same traverse caught up to us at the summit and we chatted and ate sandwiches a bit longer than we should have. The extended rest was nice on the legs and gave me an energy boost for the push up Washington. We followed the Gulfside trail as it paralleled the Cog railroad. I felt like a zoo animal as the cog passed and passengers were pointing, waving and taking pictures of us. The monkey feeling wore off quickly as I noticed that they were the ones in the cage and I was free to roam as I pleased. We arrived at tourist central for 11:00 AM and refueled ourselves with a pizza lunch and some R&R. The time flew by and before we knew it 45 minutes had passed and we still have 6 more summits as our goal.
I knew most of the difficult hiking was behind us and from the top of Washington everything was downhill. I got my 3rd wind as we descended Crawford Path and found the drones of people that we didn't see on the Northern Presidentials. We arrived at Lake of the Clouds at 12:30 and Monroe at 1:00. The summit was busy and it was nice to get a change of scenery looking West at the Crawford notch area and the Bonds, and looking North East to Isolation and Boott Spur. We continued along Crawford path over Mt. Franklin and reached Eisenhower at 2:00. We stopped for a celebration of a Snickers bar and Charleston Chew for Mark's 48th and continued on.
The almost sidewalk like conditions of Crawford Path made the pounding in our legs seem bearable and I was pleased to be on one of the most heavily traveled routes in the Whites. After 12 hours and over 18 miles of hiking we arrived at Mitzpah Springs Hut. I chugged 2 glasses of lemonade and rested. We knew we only had 2 peaks left but had a hard time getting motivation to proceed and discussed taking Crawford path back to the car. We all decided that it would be a disappointment to "almost" complete a presidential traverse so proceeded along the Webster Cliff trail. I was a walking robot; putting one-foot in front of the other, after an hour that seemed like an eternity we arrived at Jackson. I shared my sandwich with a gray Jay that was brave enough to eat out of my hand and continued on the Webster Cliff trail. At 5:15 PM and after almost 14 hours of hiking we reached our 11th peak, Mt. Webster. I used any and all of my reserve energy to descend the Webster - Jackson trail, I hiked quickly and made the 2.5 miles to 302 at 6:15 PM. I felt great but was too sore, tired, sore and sore to reflect on the long day and achieving the goals that had been only in my dreams.
The hiking agenda for Saturday is to hike the entire presidential range from North to South starting at 3 AM from Dolly Copp Campground hiking over Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, Pierce, Jackson and Webster then descend the Webster – Jackson trail to Rt 302. I'm a bit nervous because I'm not sure if my body can handle the abuse of over 9000 Ft elevation and 23+ miles that I’m about to put it through, I've never started a hike in the dark and am a bit scared of what we may encounter on the trail. I'm excited to see the sunrise from above tree line and am looking forward to revisiting each of these mountains that I hiked individually while completing my NH48 a few years ago and remember the sense of accomplishment I enjoyed as I completed each.
I met Mark & Heather for a car spot at the Crawford Path parking area on Rt 302 Friday night. We made our way over to Dolly Copp campground and setup camp as dusk was turning to night. We set our alarms for 3 AM and went to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep due to the anxiety of the following day and kept waking up due to the bitter cold temperatures. The 3 AM wake up call came much too quickly. We had a quick breakfast, threw on the headlamps and were at the Daniel Webster scout trailhead for 3:30 AM. We quickly got into the rhythm of hiking as our bodies woke up and heart rate increased. I am new to night hiking and it was difficult to adjust to the tunnel vision of hiking with a headlamp. As we increased elevation we could see the lights of Gorham off in the distance and made it to tree line by 5 AM. At 5:30 the headlamps were no longer needed. A few minutes before 6:00 AM I saw my first mountain sunrise and the sun peeking over the Carter Range was a spectacular sight to see. I hope my pictures show the beauty of the rainbow of colors. We arrived at the Madison summit for 6:15 AM and descended the Osgood trail to arrive at Madison Hut for 6:45 AM as the caretakers were preparing breakfast for the overnighters and the overnighters complained about the snoring. We refilled out water and headed up the Star Lake trail to Mt. Adams. The rock scrambles were steep and drained a lot of energy but we arrived on Adams at 7:30 AM. We had the summit to ourselves and the views of Jefferson and Washington were great on this crystal clear morning and worth the effort.
We descended the gulfside trail, it was nice to give the "up" leg muscles a break and use the "down" muscles into Edmands col. I was starting to get discouraged looking up at the summit of Jefferson and knowing how much farther we still had to travel. I tried not to look at the summit of Washington and focused my attention onto the trail and into the Great Gulf Wilderness. We arrived at the Jefferson summit at 9:00 AM and had another peak all to ourselves. We could now see the sun reflect off the windshields of the cars on the auto road and the smoke of the cog railway. The mountains were waking up..
We arrived at Clay our 4th summit of the day at 10 AM. A solo hiker making the same traverse caught up to us at the summit and we chatted and ate sandwiches a bit longer than we should have. The extended rest was nice on the legs and gave me an energy boost for the push up Washington. We followed the Gulfside trail as it paralleled the Cog railroad. I felt like a zoo animal as the cog passed and passengers were pointing, waving and taking pictures of us. The monkey feeling wore off quickly as I noticed that they were the ones in the cage and I was free to roam as I pleased. We arrived at tourist central for 11:00 AM and refueled ourselves with a pizza lunch and some R&R. The time flew by and before we knew it 45 minutes had passed and we still have 6 more summits as our goal.
I knew most of the difficult hiking was behind us and from the top of Washington everything was downhill. I got my 3rd wind as we descended Crawford Path and found the drones of people that we didn't see on the Northern Presidentials. We arrived at Lake of the Clouds at 12:30 and Monroe at 1:00. The summit was busy and it was nice to get a change of scenery looking West at the Crawford notch area and the Bonds, and looking North East to Isolation and Boott Spur. We continued along Crawford path over Mt. Franklin and reached Eisenhower at 2:00. We stopped for a celebration of a Snickers bar and Charleston Chew for Mark's 48th and continued on.
The almost sidewalk like conditions of Crawford Path made the pounding in our legs seem bearable and I was pleased to be on one of the most heavily traveled routes in the Whites. After 12 hours and over 18 miles of hiking we arrived at Mitzpah Springs Hut. I chugged 2 glasses of lemonade and rested. We knew we only had 2 peaks left but had a hard time getting motivation to proceed and discussed taking Crawford path back to the car. We all decided that it would be a disappointment to "almost" complete a presidential traverse so proceeded along the Webster Cliff trail. I was a walking robot; putting one-foot in front of the other, after an hour that seemed like an eternity we arrived at Jackson. I shared my sandwich with a gray Jay that was brave enough to eat out of my hand and continued on the Webster Cliff trail. At 5:15 PM and after almost 14 hours of hiking we reached our 11th peak, Mt. Webster. I used any and all of my reserve energy to descend the Webster - Jackson trail, I hiked quickly and made the 2.5 miles to 302 at 6:15 PM. I felt great but was too sore, tired, sore and sore to reflect on the long day and achieving the goals that had been only in my dreams.
