Bird and Head finish the 48!!!

I'll keep it brief. The Birdman and I started out on the Caps Trail in a misty rain, but comfortable temps. As we cracked treeline, the temps suprisingly didnt change much (to our advantage). We topped off Jefferson (#46) very quickly where Bird fell off from the summit (literally) and into a pile of rock about 5 feet below! OUCH! (It looked much worse than it actually was). He picked himself up and brushed off and we moved on. (not much to look at....just dense fog). We got to Thunderstorm Junction when the sun broke through for about 3 mins. We kicked it into high gear and motored up to the top (Adams-#47) just as the clouds rolled back in. There, we met a couple of fellas who exclaimed, "You guys just totally missed out! 10 mins ago, you could see the entire ridge to Washington and back down to Madison!" (SMACK!) We quickly became chilled, so we cruised down the ridge, straight past the hut and up Madison (#48). We reached the summit in gale force winds, and decided to save the celebration for the Madison Hut. We retreated off the ridge and down to the hut. We went in to find the place completely vacant of hikers...only the caretakers remained (they were closing for the summer season). The crew was very hospitable. They fed our cold, tired bones and we fed them a bottle of 50 year old whiskey. We stayed long enough to relax and dry off, but knew what loomed ahead...a hike down to Apalacchia in the dark! We got back a couple of hours later than we expected, wet, cold and as new 48rs!!! YESSSSSIR...one helluva day! Videos and pics to come soon....

Excellent - congratulations!!!
You'll just have to go back to the Northern Presies when the views return.

Whoooo! Hooooo! Congratulations

A big congrats to the both of yas!

way cool you guys are now 48ers. too bad the views were non-existent , but, as MichaelJ says, you can always go back and check them out.

so many congrats!

U go boyz!

The hike down Airline was excellent in good weather. Definitely wanna go back!

Congratulations!

- Ivy

Congratulations on completing the 48!!!!!!!! Reminds me of when I finished on West Bond. I didn't have a view because of heavy fog, but it still was satisfying. It's always good to know that no matter what the weather is, when your finishing there is no better feeling. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment. Job well done!

WTG guys! Can't wait to see the 50 yr old whiskey in the film.... I'll bet the caretakers at Madison don't have people show up too often with that to share with them! What, no mention of the hyena in the trip report?
I hope you aren't going to abandon the Whites now that you're done....

Wow, that's cool, did I mention I'm basically a 7? Dude, I really don't hike that much!

Bird And Head Finish The 48


What a brutal but great hike! No views, but quite the adventure! Head was wrong about my 5 ft fall, it was more like 15 ft! (just kidding) actually, i felt like sitting down at a high rate of speed, and I wanted a black and blue on my right cheek to match the one on my left!

Yeah we partied it down with the hut crew, knocked back a 50 year old bottle of whiskey (with Old Man of the Mt. carved into the bottle) I think the booze def. slowed us down (i was going zombie creeper speed) the trail out seemed and was ENDLESS!I guess we were 15 minutes away from a search and rescue being called out from our buddy at 'basecamp' in gorham.
maybe cuz of the fact that Head 'forgot' his headlamp and I had to light the way! but actually that he was going faster than me blind!
nothing like driving home (7 hours) at 11 PM and going straight to work! We zz'd a little in our fav spot in Killington, I think Heads snoring knocked some rocks loose on the cliffs behind the Longtrail Inn!

we'll be having some new vids up soon.. we filmed a Ranger Dick vid on this trip.. and it should be funny!
check out our site and see ya! MIKE BIRD MAMMY
and thanks to those who congratulated us! "It ain't easy"

mice and men

Too bad you had the foresight to save a gem like the presi traverse for #48, then had no views. Sometimes it works like that.

At least you had the same triumphant view as everyone who ends on Owl's Head.

Way to go! Too bad about the lack of view but, now you'll have even more reason to go back!

Most cool. But the following really confuses me...

Head said:

The crew was very hospitable. They fed our cold, tired bones and we fed them a bottle of 50 year old whiskey.

Click to expand...

Why spend yer nickles on 50 yo scotch when the good Lord in his wisdom has given us 8 yo bourbon? Given your monikers, I would think Wild Turkey 101 (a.k.a. the kickin' chicken) would be the obvious choice.

congrats again

hey bird and head!
congrats again, that was my friend and I on Adams!
here's a link to a view you missed, not the greatest but an idea
i'll post more when i post my trip report.
wish y'all had better weather but it was still great being up there in and out of the clouds.

http://community.webshots.com/album/456495011dgFAWY

thanks

thanks for the pics.. was that a rainbow? Head and I saw one on the drive to the trail head.
If we woulda busted our asses a little faster we might of seen it too. either that or pounded the Sam Adams beer on Adams a lil quicker~

yeah...sorry .....it was a rainbow, albiet a strange one! it kept appearing as the views went away and clouds thickened, but would dissappear when it got super thick. i reclimbed adams the next day and the weather was crazy beautiful, much clearer, but still lots of clouds enveloping the summit from time to time....and never saw the washington summit, which was nice...i hate all those buildings.

hey i tried using the "secret handshake" by mentioning there may be some views from the top on madison!!!!!not sure if you caught it or not, i had a an idea y'all post here.

Congrat's on a job well done! I can't wait to see the footage !

the starchild said:

hey bird and head!
congrats again, that was my friend and I on Adams!
here's a link to a view you missed, not the greatest but an idea
i'll post more when i post my trip report.
wish y'all had better weather but it was still great being up there in and out of the clouds.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah! Now I remember! You look much different without a thick fog in front of ya Sweet rainbow shot by the way. Didnt catch the VFTT secret handshake...sorry bout that..a little slow we were! Cool to see you fellas up there. Dave m...bout the whiskey. The Birdman got a killa deal on it (2 bucks at a garage sale and the lady that sold it to him promised it had never been opened. She was a sweet old lady so he had to believe ) Thanks everyone for all the kind words....

congrats.

those were my 45th-47th peaks. Only I went back to Caps Ridge at the end of the day. I had undercast for most of the day.

check it out.