arghman
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I had the good fortune of hiking the northern Presidential Range on June 19 and 20; my goal was to explore as much of the area above-treeline as I could, and keep an eye out for the different plants that grow here.
First let me say that I hate felsenmeer. (Those of you who have hiked this area before are now grinning.) The word means "sea of rock" in German and refers to the large piles of rubble that have formed above treeline from freeze/thaw cycles. It takes a lot more effort to traverse this stuff than your standard trail, plus there are bonus opportunities for musculoskeletal damage and lost objects. And of course there are hardly any plants, just lichens, which are somewhat interesting but don't have much variety.
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but the southern Presidentials (south of Mt Washington) seem to have less of it; felsenmeer is on the higher summits but otherwise is the exception rather than the rule, and there is lots of exposed ledge or gravel which is fairly easy to walk on. North of Mt Washington it seems to be the other way round, that whenever you're above tree line you can expect felsenmeer; perhaps the bedrock is slightly different and lends itself more easily to fracture. Whatever.
So here was my route plan back from March:
Comment #1 -- remember weather prior to hike when stream crossings are involved. It had rained a lot, and Gordon Falls looked a bit nasty to cross, so I detoured further north near the power lines. The Howker Ridge Trail crosses Bumpus Brook at Hitchcock Falls; the brook was fairly deep. I crossed barefoot after seeing a couple of hikers on the other side who shrugged their shoulders and pointed to the socks and boots they were putting back on.
The Howker Ridge Trail immediately changes character at Hitchcock Falls; below the falls, it is a fairly dark, damp lowland woods. Above the falls, it is an open, subalpine forest with thin soil, tall spruce trees, and lots of blueberry. After a while there starts to be some views through trees, a few open ledgy areas, and then there are some ledgy knobs known as the "Howks". The vegetation here is the start of the alpine zone; it gets into scrub heath with mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), one of the blueberries (Vaccinium sp.), and black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum). The Labrador tea was in bloom, the mountain cranberry was nearly in bloom.
Comment #2 -- skip Pine Link (thumbs down) and Parapet Trail (double thumbs down). Did I mention I dislike felsenmeer? In retrospect, I should have just taken the Howker Ridge Trail to Mt Madison, then down to Madison Hut, and puttered around Star Lake for a while. Pine Link is somewhat interesting, but involves too much rock-hopping, and goes on for too long. I would nominate the Parapet Trail as Least Favorite Above-Treeline Trail. Not sure why I hated it so much more than the Pine Link; there are good views across the Great Gulf of Mt Washington, but it's extremely monotonous, has very little in the way of plant life except some spruce & fir & Labrador tea now and then when the trail dips below treeline, and when it heads across a sea of rock, the cairns are kind of obscure and hard to see. This is a little-used trail and I was rather nervous about hiking it alone.
The other trails above treeline (except for the Air Line Trail between the Gulfside Trail and Mt Adams, which has too much felsenmeer
) were well worth it. (Mt Adams has great views but there were lots of bugs including some menacing-looking bees/hornets. Still, I'll take that over all the crud at the Mt Washington summit.) The maintainers of the Gulfside Trail over the past decades have taken portions of the felsenmeer and moved the rocks around so that it is almost a cobblestone path in the flatter sections and stairsteps on the inclines. I can't imagine the sheer number of man-hours needed to do this.
As for the botany: while it was not quite as interesting as I'd hoped, I did run across a few species on my "list" serendipitously... I will have to be vague about specifics though, other than to note that Rule #1 for biodiversity in the alpine zone (as in road-building ) is drainage, drainage, drainage. Or lack thereof -- the way water flows, where it comes from, and how much of it collects (in liquid form or in snow/ice), dictates a lot about the types of plants that win out in competition over space. The area around Madison Hut and Star Lake is kind of interesting (not as much as around Lakes of the Clouds, IMHO) and there are some later-blooming species in the wetter areas. Mountain avens (Geum peckii) is around here & was almost in bloom (should be by the time I post this) -- I saw hundreds of plants in total but only 4 (four) flowers in bloom. Bearberry willow (Salix uva-ursi) can be found in many areas along the Gulfside trail, a mat of bright green, pointed oval leaves that look a lot like those of blueberry plants. Lots of diapensia, of course; alpine azalea and Lapland rosebay seem to be far less common than in the southern Presi's.
The area between Storm Lake and Edmands Col had some neat variety both in terrain and botany; the felsenmeer gives way to ledge in many places (woohoo!!!) with large bouldery things reminiscent of Franconia Ridge. I find the "low points" above treeline to be some of the most enjoyable, paradoxically.
I'd also give thumbs up to the Gray Knob trail (despite lots of felsenmeer) -- this winds along the shoulder of Mt. Sam Adams just around the treeline boundary. It reminded me of the top portion of the Edmands Path heading to Mt Eisenhower, only it was about ten times longer. It gets a little monotonous but the views across Castle Ravine (and of The Castles themselves) are great, and the habitat is primarily krummholz and scrub heath growing on top of sphagnum alongside the trail, which is among my favorite types of plant community. (good blueberry browse in August!)
I may end up coming back someday for a somewhat shorter hike via Gray Knob cabin to putter around Sam Adams and the lower slopes of Jefferson.
I'll be posting some pictures shortly -- wish I had taken more to record the large-scale scenery, but it was a long hike and I spent most of my dawdling time on botanical subjects. (still have to fill out some rare plant reports to submit to NH NHI)
The post-perambulatory blues have begun, here I am sitting in front of a computer screen when it's nice and sunny out....
First let me say that I hate felsenmeer. (Those of you who have hiked this area before are now grinning.) The word means "sea of rock" in German and refers to the large piles of rubble that have formed above treeline from freeze/thaw cycles. It takes a lot more effort to traverse this stuff than your standard trail, plus there are bonus opportunities for musculoskeletal damage and lost objects. And of course there are hardly any plants, just lichens, which are somewhat interesting but don't have much variety.
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but the southern Presidentials (south of Mt Washington) seem to have less of it; felsenmeer is on the higher summits but otherwise is the exception rather than the rule, and there is lots of exposed ledge or gravel which is fairly easy to walk on. North of Mt Washington it seems to be the other way round, that whenever you're above tree line you can expect felsenmeer; perhaps the bedrock is slightly different and lends itself more easily to fracture. Whatever.
So here was my route plan back from March:
That was basically the route I followed, with a few exceptions -- I started at Appalachia, took Sylvan Way to Howker Ridge Tr, went from Madison Hut to Mt Madison down to Osgood Junction and then back to the hut via the Parapet Trail, peakbagged John Quincy Adams after dinner, skipped Crag Camp & took Hincks Trail to Spur Trail to Randolph Path to Short Line trail to Air Line Trail, and took some brief off-trail excursions not mentioned in this report. Total mileage probably more like 20-21 miles; I went a bit overboard.arghman said:
Comment #1 -- remember weather prior to hike when stream crossings are involved. It had rained a lot, and Gordon Falls looked a bit nasty to cross, so I detoured further north near the power lines. The Howker Ridge Trail crosses Bumpus Brook at Hitchcock Falls; the brook was fairly deep. I crossed barefoot after seeing a couple of hikers on the other side who shrugged their shoulders and pointed to the socks and boots they were putting back on.
The Howker Ridge Trail immediately changes character at Hitchcock Falls; below the falls, it is a fairly dark, damp lowland woods. Above the falls, it is an open, subalpine forest with thin soil, tall spruce trees, and lots of blueberry. After a while there starts to be some views through trees, a few open ledgy areas, and then there are some ledgy knobs known as the "Howks". The vegetation here is the start of the alpine zone; it gets into scrub heath with mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), Labrador tea (Ledum groenlandicum), one of the blueberries (Vaccinium sp.), and black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum). The Labrador tea was in bloom, the mountain cranberry was nearly in bloom.
Comment #2 -- skip Pine Link (thumbs down) and Parapet Trail (double thumbs down). Did I mention I dislike felsenmeer? In retrospect, I should have just taken the Howker Ridge Trail to Mt Madison, then down to Madison Hut, and puttered around Star Lake for a while. Pine Link is somewhat interesting, but involves too much rock-hopping, and goes on for too long. I would nominate the Parapet Trail as Least Favorite Above-Treeline Trail. Not sure why I hated it so much more than the Pine Link; there are good views across the Great Gulf of Mt Washington, but it's extremely monotonous, has very little in the way of plant life except some spruce & fir & Labrador tea now and then when the trail dips below treeline, and when it heads across a sea of rock, the cairns are kind of obscure and hard to see. This is a little-used trail and I was rather nervous about hiking it alone.
The other trails above treeline (except for the Air Line Trail between the Gulfside Trail and Mt Adams, which has too much felsenmeer
) were well worth it. (Mt Adams has great views but there were lots of bugs including some menacing-looking bees/hornets. Still, I'll take that over all the crud at the Mt Washington summit.) The maintainers of the Gulfside Trail over the past decades have taken portions of the felsenmeer and moved the rocks around so that it is almost a cobblestone path in the flatter sections and stairsteps on the inclines. I can't imagine the sheer number of man-hours needed to do this.As for the botany: while it was not quite as interesting as I'd hoped, I did run across a few species on my "list" serendipitously... I will have to be vague about specifics though, other than to note that Rule #1 for biodiversity in the alpine zone (as in road-building
) is drainage, drainage, drainage. Or lack thereof -- the way water flows, where it comes from, and how much of it collects (in liquid form or in snow/ice), dictates a lot about the types of plants that win out in competition over space. The area around Madison Hut and Star Lake is kind of interesting (not as much as around Lakes of the Clouds, IMHO) and there are some later-blooming species in the wetter areas. Mountain avens (Geum peckii) is around here & was almost in bloom (should be by the time I post this) -- I saw hundreds of plants in total but only 4 (four) flowers in bloom. Bearberry willow (Salix uva-ursi) can be found in many areas along the Gulfside trail, a mat of bright green, pointed oval leaves that look a lot like those of blueberry plants. Lots of diapensia, of course; alpine azalea and Lapland rosebay seem to be far less common than in the southern Presi's.The area between Storm Lake and Edmands Col had some neat variety both in terrain and botany; the felsenmeer gives way to ledge in many places (woohoo!!!) with large bouldery things reminiscent of Franconia Ridge. I find the "low points" above treeline to be some of the most enjoyable, paradoxically.
I'd also give thumbs up to the Gray Knob trail (despite lots of felsenmeer) -- this winds along the shoulder of Mt. Sam Adams just around the treeline boundary. It reminded me of the top portion of the Edmands Path heading to Mt Eisenhower, only it was about ten times longer. It gets a little monotonous but the views across Castle Ravine (and of The Castles themselves) are great, and the habitat is primarily krummholz and scrub heath growing on top of sphagnum alongside the trail, which is among my favorite types of plant community. (good blueberry browse in August!)
I may end up coming back someday for a somewhat shorter hike via Gray Knob cabin to putter around Sam Adams and the lower slopes of Jefferson.
I'll be posting some pictures shortly -- wish I had taken more to record the large-scale scenery, but it was a long hike and I spent most of my dawdling time on botanical subjects. (still have to fill out some rare plant reports to submit to NH NHI)
The post-perambulatory blues have begun, here I am sitting in front of a computer screen when it's nice and sunny out....
