Lots of Colorful Action on Jackson!

[amstony]

As I parked across 302 from the Webster-Jackson Trail, I knew we'd have a crowded and gorgeous day up on Mt. Jackson. This was a day you felt you could reach out and touch the summits...an utterly fantastic day!

The roads were packed and I had the last "legal" type parking spot at the trailhead lot.

Alpinista and I headed up the Webster-Jackson Trail, and with cool temps, and never knowing for sure about the Whites, we dressed for the cool weather and carried the extra gear you might need up on the trails.

The trip up the trail was uneventful and relaxing. As we stopped at the Jackson Branch Trail junction for a break, a couple in jeans passed us, asking for directions to Jackson , which we gave them. They moved on and Alpinista and I followed along a few minutes later.

The Jackson Trail was nice, with lots of scrambling towards the end as we neared the summit. The views really began to open up as we gained elevation and you could see Willey/Field/Tom very clearly behind us. This was going to be a good day!

I reached the summit first, slightly ahead of Alpinista, to a crowd of people, there were at least 15-20 people in various groups on the summit. They were all admiring the completely awesome views. Without a doubt today was a keeper!

Off in the distance to the west you could see the Green Mountain chain, including Mansfield, Camels Hump and others clearly visible. We looked off towards Eisenhower, Clay, Washington, Jefferson - Caps ridge trail easily visible. The Cog railway was running and the smole plume looked so close. Even though that did mar an otherwise perfectly cloudless day! The colors were totally fantastic- such a beautiful view!

After a 35 minute on top, Alpinista recommended we head to Mizpah Hut, instead of Webster, since my kne had a nice 1/2" cut and golfball sized knot on it..... That would make for a longer, but less stressful descent on the knee. I agreed and we headed out. I went out ahead since I wanted to stop at the hut and ice the knee and grab a coffee.

The trip to the hut was nice. Even the bogs and mud didn't bother you, and I even saw a few bugs! It was a really pretty trail and a a nice hike over to the hut. I spoke to a German hiker, not too easily, but we spoke and we said good bye. He was here for a vacaion hiking in the Whites. The hut was nice, not really crowded. I made myself coffee, ordered up mushroom soup (delicious and went out and met Alpinista coming down the Mizpah cut off to meet me.

We took a break, chowed down on soup, and then headed out towards the Mizpah Cut off. On the way down we met Stan and talked for few minutes with him. He was leading a group of 8 up to the hut for the night and was having a fun time.

Then it was back to the trailhead, dinner at Fabyans on 302, and a return to reality.

What a day to be in the Whites.

My pics are attached, Alpinista's webshots will follow.

 

[amstony]

Alpinista and I negotiating the slabs up to Jackson on the Jackson Branch trail

 

[amstony]

Views From the Top!

 

[alpinista]

A blast from the past

I chuckle to myself when I think of this trail. It was the very first trail I ever hiked on, way back in 1999. I had no clue what I was doing and I took to heart all of the dire warnings about hiking ill-prepared in the Whites.

So I took off up the trail, carrying at least 50 lbs. of gear with a plan to tag Jackson then head to the Nauman tentsite for the night. I was not used to carrying any kind of pack, let alone a huge backpack stuffed with a tent that weighed 8 lbs. (the gear shop called the a "light" tent! ) and probably even a down jacket _ all for the heart of summer.

Well, needless to say, I never made it to the summit, let alone Nauman. If memory serves me correctly, I was on that trail for an ungodly six hours _ yikes! _ and still no summit in sight. I have no idea why or how I could have trekked for that long and still not made it to the summit, but yeah, that's what happened.

So this time, I was so pleased we were able to hike the whole thing _ up to Jackson, over to Mizpah and down the Crawford Path _ in UNDER 6 hours! What a difference all those years of hiking and backpacking makes.

It was picture-perfect weather and the leaves are at or near peak. When we made it to the summit, the views took my breath away: the prezzies, over toward Maine, all the way over to Vermont _ and having no trouble at all picking out Camel's Hump or the profile of Mansfield. Stunning.

Tony and I originally had thought of making this a loop and tagging Webster on the way back. But I was starting to get nostalgic. I remembered back to the time when I finally did tag Jackson _ July 2000 _ and that I did it by heading up Crawford Path, dropping my gear off at the Nauman tentsite, then trekking over to Jackson and back. And I wanted to do that little stretch between the hut and Jackson, remembering the tree covered trail, the puncheons and the bogs.

I had an up-close-and-personal encounter with one particularly muddy spot. Although I used the hiking poles Tony had lent me to dip into the mud and try to pick the most shallow section, I picked wrong _ and my left leg was sucked in up to its knee! Wahoo! I just started laughing out loud at the obsurdity of it all, and how much it made me feel like a kid again.

Along the way, I ran into the German fellow on vacation, and we had a very pleasant conversation about technology and how much life has changed. He's seen a lot of changes in his lifetime and marveled at what I surely will see by the time I am his age.

Back at the hut, I meandered past the tentsite and there was Tony, coffee mug in hand as my welcoming party. It was nice to spend some time inside the hut, eating a bit of mushroom soup, and admiring the mud that caked my hiking pants.

On the way back down, we were greeted with the treat of running into Stan and, a bit behind him, his son and the rest of their hiking group. His son Eric was mighty surprised to hear us greet him by his name _ since none of us had ever met before.

It was an absolutely beautiful day in the mountains. Probably one of the finest I have ever encountered.

Here are some pix

 

[Bobby]

Super pics! Nothing like a clear, crisp day in the mountains, while some of us had to work all weekend. Great reports, thanks for sharing.

 

[amstony]

The Grey Jays were actually at a lower elevation, I saw a couple around Mizpah Hut.

 

[audrey]

Beautiful pics! And on the other side of the Whites, we shared the Franconia loop with at least half of Quebec's citizens. We leapfrogged with several large groups whose style of hiking was to rush up the trail for about 5 minutes, then stop to breathe while we maneuvered through them. The net effect was that we got to Little Haystack at about the same time, in spite of our advanced age and slow pace.

The ranger on Lafayette at 2:30 pm said he'd already counted 600 hikers on the summit! Genie, er, "Jini," made lots of French-speaking friends.

 

[alpinista]

The ranger on Lafayette at 2:30 pm said he'd already counted 600 hikers on the summit! Genie, er, "Jini," made lots of French-speaking friends.

Holy cannoli! 600 hikers??!!! I'm glad we ended up on Jackson. It had plenty of hikers _ but not a massive crowd...

 

[marty]

great trip report and pix, Tony and Lisa. Guess you have not picked up the Sapblatt rain curse!

Regards,
Marty

 

[amstony]

great trip report and pix, Tony and Lisa. Guess you have not picked up the Sapblatt rain curse!

Regards,
Marty

Thankfully the rain curse, after a brief visit, seems to have "passed us by"!

 

[charlos]

600 hikers...... .action jackson!
last time i saw carl weathers was on arrested developement
come on!!!!!!!

 

[Stan]

It was a pleasant surprise to run into Alpinista and amstony as our group was heading up to Mizpah Hut. This was our annual Hooligan Hike and there were 8 of us. Over this glorious weekend we hiked Pierce and Jackson and some of us hiked Eisenhower, too. For many of the group these were their first 4000 footers. At the hut a couple of our gang did volunteer duty and we cavorted with a hiking group from Seattle. A great weekend to linger in the mountains.