BIGEarl
Well-known member
May 23, 2009: Presidential Traverse
Trails: Valley Way, Osgood Trail, Gulfside Trail, Airline, Lowes Path, Jefferson Loop, Mount Clay Loop, Crawford Path, Monroe Loop, Eisenhower Loop, Webster Cliff Trail, Webster-Jackson Trail
Summits: Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, little monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, Pierce, Jackson
Hikers: Sue, Bryan, MadRiver (Rick), and me.
If summer starts on Memorial Day Weekend and ends on Labor Day Weekend, a Presi Traverse was definitely a great way to launch Summer ’09. Sue and I have a number of long hikes on our ’09 To-Do List and at least one Presi Traverse was listed. The only real scheduling concern was related to the State Park buildings on the summit of Mount Washington. We needed a place for water re-supply. We waited to do the hike until the Mount Washington summit buildings were open to the general public. This would provide a great mid-hike water re-supply point. The summit buildings opened on May 16 and we immediately started watching the weather for suitable conditions.
Logistics are a little more complicated on hikes like this. We had a couple vehicles to locate before the hike; one in case a mid-hike bail out was needed, and the other at the end location for use in retrieval of the other vehicles. Consequently, time is lost at the start and end of the day taking care of the vehicles. We met at the Highland Center at 3:45am. Considering Sue had a total drive time of about 3hr 30min from home this required an early wake-up call. The target on-trail time was 4:30am but we actually set off at 5:00am.
The forecast for the day was pretty good during the first half but started to go down a little in the afternoon. Some weather sources (various NWS offices, Weather.com, Accuweather, Wunderground) were showing an increased chance of rain starting around 2:00pm and others predicted a later change. One NWS site predicted the change to happen around midnight (this is the one I was pulling for).
A hike like this has many places where time can be lost. The accumulation of this lost time can be significant in the course of the day. I had prepared a set of detailed notes for the hike that helped manage the day. We were working with a general objective of spending approximately 5 minutes on each summit but 20 – 30 minutes on Mount Washington for a lunch break and water re-supply. In the course of the hike this adds up to 1 hour 30 minutes on top of the target hike time of 16 hours 30 minutes. A 5:00am start means finishing at 11:00pm – a nice day hike for sure.
Valley Way, our first trail segment, is generally in great shape. The trail is fairly dry all of the way to the ridge. There are only a couple blowdowns that are easy to pass. The snow is almost completely gone. Just below the treeline there were two places where we had a minor amount of snow to cross. We generally made a quick hike of Valley Way and arrived at the Madison Springs Hut comfortably ahead of plan. After a very short break at the hut we completed the up and down on Madison via the Osgood Trail. While hiking to the summit of Madison I remembered how tough hiking in the Northern Presidentials is with the endless rock-hopping on rough granite.
Off we went toward our next target – Mount Adams. From the hut we hiked Gulfside south to the Airline junction, made the left and headed for the summit. By now we were set in our hiking order; Sue and Bryan were out front with Rick and me in the back. Along the way we started to see other hikers; we passed one headed north on Gulfside, and noticed a couple more on the summit of Madison. We made it to the summit of Mount Adams, took the usual summit pictures, and promptly set off for Jefferson via Thunderstorm Junction.
The hike to Jefferson has only a small amount of snow and ice in the remaining snowfields on the North Slope (shown in the pictures). The surface was soft but firm and we were able to establish firm foot placements as we made our way across. We reached the Gulfside – Jefferson Loop junction, made the turn and headed for the summit. The Jefferson Loop is completely clear and we made quick work of this climb. Again, a few quick summit pictures and we were off for our next stop – Mount Clay.
After taking the Jefferson Loop back to Gulfside, we continued our trek south to the north junction of the Clay Loop Trail. This trail passes over the summit of Mount Clay and returns to Gulfside south of Clay. The south junction of the Clay Loop Trail with Gulfside is also the mid-point in our hike based on a combination of miles and total elevation gain (book time formula). The sky was getting dark with complete overcast but the clouds were still very high. We could see a great distance in all directions and could see no active storms. In a short period we were on the summit ridge of Mount Clay. There were a couple areas of snow on the northeast side of the ridge that were easy to cross. We reached the high point, Rick announced the new total for the day – Four!, and we were off for Mount Washington.
There are a couple steep sections of ledge that require care on the exit from Mount Clay but we all managed a safe exit. Back on Gulfside we were all back on familiar ground. Earlier this year all four of us (plus Fitz) started a hike of the southern Presidentials. At this location the visibility was a couple hundred feet, high wind, low temperature, and everything was loaded with rime. The hike ended after clearing Washington. Today was different. We made our way to the summit of Washington without any problems. Along the way we encountered a number of “coggers” (you know, people that ride the Cog up, walk back down, and then claim to have hiked Mount Washington). Many were in sneakers and light jackets. One guy was carrying a fishing pole (how are they biting?). One young woman commented “We are not prepared for this.” as they walked past. If something bad happened these folks would probably be identified as “Hikers” (not even close) with fishing equipment there’s probably a more appropriate label. We reached the summit and got the pictures taken care of before heading inside for some lunch and water. The place was busy but not packed. We were able to locate a free table and enjoy a break. Roughly thirty minutes after arriving we were heading south on the Crawford Path for our next target – Monroe.
To be continued.....
Trails: Valley Way, Osgood Trail, Gulfside Trail, Airline, Lowes Path, Jefferson Loop, Mount Clay Loop, Crawford Path, Monroe Loop, Eisenhower Loop, Webster Cliff Trail, Webster-Jackson Trail
Summits: Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, little monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, Pierce, Jackson
Hikers: Sue, Bryan, MadRiver (Rick), and me.
If summer starts on Memorial Day Weekend and ends on Labor Day Weekend, a Presi Traverse was definitely a great way to launch Summer ’09. Sue and I have a number of long hikes on our ’09 To-Do List and at least one Presi Traverse was listed. The only real scheduling concern was related to the State Park buildings on the summit of Mount Washington. We needed a place for water re-supply. We waited to do the hike until the Mount Washington summit buildings were open to the general public. This would provide a great mid-hike water re-supply point. The summit buildings opened on May 16 and we immediately started watching the weather for suitable conditions.
Logistics are a little more complicated on hikes like this. We had a couple vehicles to locate before the hike; one in case a mid-hike bail out was needed, and the other at the end location for use in retrieval of the other vehicles. Consequently, time is lost at the start and end of the day taking care of the vehicles. We met at the Highland Center at 3:45am. Considering Sue had a total drive time of about 3hr 30min from home this required an early wake-up call. The target on-trail time was 4:30am but we actually set off at 5:00am.
The forecast for the day was pretty good during the first half but started to go down a little in the afternoon. Some weather sources (various NWS offices, Weather.com, Accuweather, Wunderground) were showing an increased chance of rain starting around 2:00pm and others predicted a later change. One NWS site predicted the change to happen around midnight (this is the one I was pulling for).
A hike like this has many places where time can be lost. The accumulation of this lost time can be significant in the course of the day. I had prepared a set of detailed notes for the hike that helped manage the day. We were working with a general objective of spending approximately 5 minutes on each summit but 20 – 30 minutes on Mount Washington for a lunch break and water re-supply. In the course of the hike this adds up to 1 hour 30 minutes on top of the target hike time of 16 hours 30 minutes. A 5:00am start means finishing at 11:00pm – a nice day hike for sure.
Valley Way, our first trail segment, is generally in great shape. The trail is fairly dry all of the way to the ridge. There are only a couple blowdowns that are easy to pass. The snow is almost completely gone. Just below the treeline there were two places where we had a minor amount of snow to cross. We generally made a quick hike of Valley Way and arrived at the Madison Springs Hut comfortably ahead of plan. After a very short break at the hut we completed the up and down on Madison via the Osgood Trail. While hiking to the summit of Madison I remembered how tough hiking in the Northern Presidentials is with the endless rock-hopping on rough granite.
Off we went toward our next target – Mount Adams. From the hut we hiked Gulfside south to the Airline junction, made the left and headed for the summit. By now we were set in our hiking order; Sue and Bryan were out front with Rick and me in the back. Along the way we started to see other hikers; we passed one headed north on Gulfside, and noticed a couple more on the summit of Madison. We made it to the summit of Mount Adams, took the usual summit pictures, and promptly set off for Jefferson via Thunderstorm Junction.
The hike to Jefferson has only a small amount of snow and ice in the remaining snowfields on the North Slope (shown in the pictures). The surface was soft but firm and we were able to establish firm foot placements as we made our way across. We reached the Gulfside – Jefferson Loop junction, made the turn and headed for the summit. The Jefferson Loop is completely clear and we made quick work of this climb. Again, a few quick summit pictures and we were off for our next stop – Mount Clay.
After taking the Jefferson Loop back to Gulfside, we continued our trek south to the north junction of the Clay Loop Trail. This trail passes over the summit of Mount Clay and returns to Gulfside south of Clay. The south junction of the Clay Loop Trail with Gulfside is also the mid-point in our hike based on a combination of miles and total elevation gain (book time formula). The sky was getting dark with complete overcast but the clouds were still very high. We could see a great distance in all directions and could see no active storms. In a short period we were on the summit ridge of Mount Clay. There were a couple areas of snow on the northeast side of the ridge that were easy to cross. We reached the high point, Rick announced the new total for the day – Four!, and we were off for Mount Washington.
There are a couple steep sections of ledge that require care on the exit from Mount Clay but we all managed a safe exit. Back on Gulfside we were all back on familiar ground. Earlier this year all four of us (plus Fitz) started a hike of the southern Presidentials. At this location the visibility was a couple hundred feet, high wind, low temperature, and everything was loaded with rime. The hike ended after clearing Washington. Today was different. We made our way to the summit of Washington without any problems. Along the way we encountered a number of “coggers” (you know, people that ride the Cog up, walk back down, and then claim to have hiked Mount Washington). Many were in sneakers and light jackets. One guy was carrying a fishing pole (how are they biting?). One young woman commented “We are not prepared for this.” as they walked past. If something bad happened these folks would probably be identified as “Hikers” (not even close) with fishing equipment there’s probably a more appropriate label. We reached the summit and got the pictures taken care of before heading inside for some lunch and water. The place was busy but not packed. We were able to locate a free table and enjoy a break. Roughly thirty minutes after arriving we were heading south on the Crawford Path for our next target – Monroe.
To be continued.....
Last edited:
