If you don't mind a long car-spot and a hike exceeding 18 miles, I recommend that you follow the Davis Path right down to its Crawford Notch trailhead, with short detours to the summits of Davis and Stairs, as well as Isolation. (If you have time and haven't been there recently, the spur path to the summit of Crawford would add just .6 mile.)
I don't know how to attach a link to a Trip Report on this site, as when I try, it's always just to the home page. SteveHiker's account of our traversal of that route last July, without pictures and replies that you can find in the original, follows:
"Soft Corinthian Leather
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Ok, that got your attention didn't it?
On Saturday, Amicus, Damon, Rocksnrolls and I did a traverse of the Montalban Ridge.
Despite getting pulled over just south of Plymouth around 6, I still managed to pull into the Davis Path lot just after the appointed time of 7 am. The others were already there. So we were shortly off in Mike's minivan to Glen Boulder, hitting the trail just before 8.
I'm actually glad that I postponed this hike from 2 weeks ago. The weather was so much better this day. Although the near instantaneous steepness of the Glen Boulder trail combined with the high humidity really did a number on me for the first couple of miles. We made decent time up to treeline and got up close with the trail's namesake. I was surprised at how little is holding that thing in place. It's more than Bubble Rock in Acadia, but still I wonder how much longer it has.
From there we made our way to the Davis Path junction. Here, I decided to take a break, clean up my bloody knee and catch my breath while the others ascended the rest of the way up Boott Spur. None of them had been up there before. I would have liked to have gone again, but I figure the view isn't much different, and the last time I was there was on an even clearer day than this, so I wasn't missing out on much. I tried to sell their backpacks to a passer-by, but he wasn't interested. Too much to carry to his destination of Clay, I guess.
Once we rejoined, we headed down the Davis Path towards Isolation, the main objective of the hike. At least for me, as 2 years ago when I last vistited, it was too cloudy to see much of anything, and I keep hearing about the splendid view. I'm guessing it was a main objective for Ron as well as it was number 30 of 48 for him (congratulations). I really liked the above treeline section of the trail with the cairns and tall grasses. I reminded me a little of the top of Moosilaukee or the Table Lands on Katahdin. Soon we plunged into the trees and were up and down over North Isolation. As we passed where the Rocky Branch route intersects, we were greeted with the usual mud. This part I had been on before. It was muddy, but less so than I remember from last time.
Lo and behold, there is a sign for the Isolation Spur. How long it stays in anyone's guess. We reached the summit, and yes there is a view from of there. And a very nice one at that. Aided by Mike's Scudder Guidebook pages we were able to identify everything we could see. It was somewhat hazy on the horizon, but it sure beats clouds and rain. At this point, Ron switched from boots to sandals and we headed towards Mt Davis, where none of us had ever been before. (Unless Damon had, I can't remember, it seems like from his stories he's been everywhere, mostly in the same day. Wink )
The spur to Mt Davis was shorter than we expected and perhaps a little steeper as well. Despite the haze having thickened a bit, it is arguable that the view is superior to that on Isolation. Here we did come upon a small quandary. To the north was another balding knob very similar to the one we were standing on. From my vantage point it appeared to be the same height or lower. Unable to find a way over there, we concluded we were in the right spot and no one wanted to bushwhack. So off we went.
The section between Davis and Stairs begins as a nice flat woods walk, but soon begins to seem interminable. Somwhere in between in a boggy area, there was a large patch of poison ivy. I seem to have come thru unscathed, hopefully the others did too. At about the half-way point to Stairs, Damon was a minute or two (or more) ahead of me. I could hear that he had stopped and was talking to someone. As I came around the corner, I could see who it was: Hikerfast, who had started up from the other direction and hung out near Resolution for a couple hours before cruising up to meet us. Unfortunately he was Scotch-less. I'm not a big fan of Scotch, but it probably couldn't have hurt at that point.
The group, now numbering 5, made our way to Stairs. A much flatter, although seemingly longer spur path took us to a ledge with yet another fine view. We stayed for a few minutes enjoying the breeze and then headed out again, as everyone was running low on water. Next comes the part I don't quite get. The Path must have had a major re-route at sometime in the last 150 years or I don't see how a horse could have gotten up from Stairs Col to Stairs. I'm glad I was going down it at this point. We got to the spur for Resolution Shelter, where Damon was planning on making use of his filter, but then decided the shelter was too far down the hill, so off we went again. Damon struck far out in front, and the rest of us stopped for a few minutes on Crawford Dome. At this point, we were running very low on water. We caught back up to Damon at the Crawford Spur, which we all decided to bypass and headed down. At this point in the day, the last 2 miles seemed a lot longer than I recall from thsi spring, but at least the enormous blowdown has been dealt with.
As we left the Dry River Wilderness area, I finally saw the benefit of changing into sandals as Ron dipped his feet in every little brook on the way out. I was just a bit envious, and was definitely looking forward to gettting those boots off. Mike and I were the last back to the cars shortly after 8. Mountain Magic was there to greet us.
After taking Mike to fetch his car, I headed home, getting there just before midnight (yeah I drove slower what with the warning earlier in the day and all). A long day, but a memorable one. Not the usual day hike, that's for sure. I'll have to check out the map and cook up another one sometime soon, providing I can get as good company next time around."
