Tomahawk
New member
On Saturday 10/22 myself and two friends attempted a full presidential traverse. We left one car at the AMC Highland Center in Crawford Notch and one car at the Cog Railway parking lot and got dropped off at the Pine Link trail around 12:30am.
With headlamps on we started hiking up this steep trail extremely excited about the day to come. After a lot of huffing and puffing we finally reached Mount Madison around 4:30am and celebrated with a nice relaxing break. We then continued on to Mount Adams and started seeing the sun rising on our left and were anxiously awaiting a spectacular sunrise.
We made it up to Adams just in time to watch one of the most incredible shows I have ever seen. The weather was perfect and the sun highlighted the vast mountains and valleys that make this part of the world beautiful. After many pictures and cliff bars we decided to head out to Jefferson sans headlamps this time.
We did a bit of bushwacking up this steep peak but finally made the summit warmed by the now risen sun. On Jefferson we met our first hiker of the trip who was relaxing on the summit taking in the views. After another brief rest and a few cliff bars we headed off to Mount Clay with Washington in our sights.
We ran into another hiker on the top of Mount Clay who we enjoyed speaking with and got a few pointers for the difficult summit push that we had ahead of us. The hike up Washington was very difficult in our exhausted state but we kept pushing on "auto-pilot" until we finally reached the pinnacle of the Northeast. Saturday was the last day that the Sherman Adams building was open so we enjoyed a few cups of hot chocolate and some hot dogs as a reward for our day's adventure. We also learned that an aggressive storm was on its way that we would probably get caught in if we continued further. After a brief discussion we combined the facts that we were exhausted and the storms arrival to decide that we should abort the plan to climb the Southern Presidentials.
So we got geared up again and hiked down the icy ridge to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut. From there we took the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to the car that we parked for emergencies. This trail is more like a frozen waterfall than a trail. If we had ropes on us we would have probably rappelled down rather than slowly sliding down the never-ending river. Although we were tired and upset about this slow descent, we got to see the most amazing waterfalls and pools that we have ever laid eyes upon. We will surely be back in the summer to swim and cliff dive in "the gorge" which is about half-way down.
After finally getting out alive and safe we picked up the other car and drove to Mr. Pizza in Gorham to relax with calzones and beer! So all-in-all we didn't sleep for 41 hours, hiked about 15 miles with 8000 feet of elevation gain, and had the time of our lives!
Pictures of the entire trip can be seen here: www.shutterbook.com/albums/Tomahawk/29651
With headlamps on we started hiking up this steep trail extremely excited about the day to come. After a lot of huffing and puffing we finally reached Mount Madison around 4:30am and celebrated with a nice relaxing break. We then continued on to Mount Adams and started seeing the sun rising on our left and were anxiously awaiting a spectacular sunrise.
We made it up to Adams just in time to watch one of the most incredible shows I have ever seen. The weather was perfect and the sun highlighted the vast mountains and valleys that make this part of the world beautiful. After many pictures and cliff bars we decided to head out to Jefferson sans headlamps this time.
We did a bit of bushwacking up this steep peak but finally made the summit warmed by the now risen sun. On Jefferson we met our first hiker of the trip who was relaxing on the summit taking in the views. After another brief rest and a few cliff bars we headed off to Mount Clay with Washington in our sights.
We ran into another hiker on the top of Mount Clay who we enjoyed speaking with and got a few pointers for the difficult summit push that we had ahead of us. The hike up Washington was very difficult in our exhausted state but we kept pushing on "auto-pilot" until we finally reached the pinnacle of the Northeast. Saturday was the last day that the Sherman Adams building was open so we enjoyed a few cups of hot chocolate and some hot dogs as a reward for our day's adventure. We also learned that an aggressive storm was on its way that we would probably get caught in if we continued further. After a brief discussion we combined the facts that we were exhausted and the storms arrival to decide that we should abort the plan to climb the Southern Presidentials.
So we got geared up again and hiked down the icy ridge to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut. From there we took the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to the car that we parked for emergencies. This trail is more like a frozen waterfall than a trail. If we had ropes on us we would have probably rappelled down rather than slowly sliding down the never-ending river. Although we were tired and upset about this slow descent, we got to see the most amazing waterfalls and pools that we have ever laid eyes upon. We will surely be back in the summer to swim and cliff dive in "the gorge" which is about half-way down.
After finally getting out alive and safe we picked up the other car and drove to Mr. Pizza in Gorham to relax with calzones and beer! So all-in-all we didn't sleep for 41 hours, hiked about 15 miles with 8000 feet of elevation gain, and had the time of our lives!
Pictures of the entire trip can be seen here: www.shutterbook.com/albums/Tomahawk/29651
