Sadie
New member
Eli and I got married this Sunday and left Tues. 8/16 for a hiking honeymoon. Kind of unusual-not very romantic--but it was something we both wanted to do!! This is my first VFTT trip report, but this isn't a typical trip for us, not exactly roughing it, but this is all we have had a chance to do this year with all the wedding planning distractions.
Day 1 (8/16):
After a chaotic week of wedding festivities, both of us feeling sleep deprived left Waltham at 6AM Tues 8/16 to catch the 9:40 AMC shuttle to Appalachia at the Crawford Highland Center. We made great time and were goofing around for nearly an hour before the shuttle picked us up–gave us a good opportunity to purchase the newly updated RMC guide and map. The trip on the shuttle brought us to the trailhead at about 10:50 AM. The trip up Valley way was good, weather was perfect, we made it to the hut in about book time (at hut ~2:30PM), giving us time to explore and relax. What a dramatic location, the Adam’s peaks looked particularly daunting and rugged from that view. The hut is nice, but the bunk rooms stacked us in like sardines -4 high and so tightly packed it was extremely difficult to do anything in the bunkroom, but the common area was nice and the croo was great. That afternoon we went up to the top of Madison, perfect day, wonderful view!! We enjoyed a snack at the peak which we had to ourselves. From the peak, we saw an odd white area near Star Lake, we decided to check that out. It was just a quick and easy 5 m walk from the Hut, via Star Lake trail and a immediately off the Parapet trail. The large white object turned out to be a very impressive Huge outcropping of quartz just off the trail, very cool– worth the small trip. We headed back to the hut where we got a delicious dinner! We had a full house at the hut, a lot of nice people– many doing the same route we were doing or in reverse direction. Eli stayed up to check out an environmental talk on Lichen, I promptly went to my bunk and was sound asleep before lights out (9:30).
Day 2 (8/17)
Breakfast was good--weather looked sketchy. Weather report was announced– In the peaks: 1/16th of a mile visibility, high winds, 50's clearing to partly sunny by afternoon. Laughter broke out among the crowd when the valley forecast was also read: sunny, 80 degrees– what a contrast! It looked gloomy outside, but we trekked up to Adams (#46 for me). It was a bit windy and visibility was low so we were following the trail cairn to cairn. We stayed at the top just for a moment and pressed on. It got a bit confusing with the labrynth of trails up there, but we came to Thunderstorm Junction and knew we were on the right track. We skipped the Jefferson loop because the visibility was still poor (Must come back for it some time since the last time I did Jefferson, it was also in the clouds!). Gulfside trail was really beautiful and we saw it starting to clear up as we moved on. We almost went the wrong direction at Edmand’s Col, but quickly corrected ourselves. There is a large impressive plaque for Edmand at the col– I can’t imagine what dedicated soul lugged that large chunk of metal in so far! Views continued to get better and better as the day went on. We could see Washington off in the distance and kept plugging along. We headed up Washington and it was a lot colder and VERY windy. We got to the top, headed into the snack bar for a bowl of chili for lunch--definitely not a roughing it sort of trip!! It was 41 F at the top, lots of tourists around wearing tank tops and shorts and no jackets to be seen!! It was so windy on the observation deck, I almost got knocked over! After a nice break and perusal of the gift shop, we moved onto head to Lakes in the Clouds hut. We got there about 4 PM after what felt like a really rough day of hiking!! Bunk set up is a little better here, only 15 people in each room, and a little bit more open floor space in the bunkrooms. We laid down for a brief nap before dinner and then got another top notch dinner from the AMC hut croo! After dinner, we wandered outside a little bit to see the rising moon– nearly full-- over the lakes. We caught the dead end of the environmental talk for the evening– on the environmental measuring equipment just outside the hut–wish we hadn’t missed the beginning. Another early night to bed!!!
Day 3 (8/18)
We were woken by the sound of a guitar through the halls– pleasant wake up call!! It looked gorgeous outside, still a little windy and cold (39F). We ate a good breakfast and headed out. Great views all the way--could not have asked for better weather--visibility of 110 miles reported!! We went over Monroe and over all the peaks along the way, including a loop over Eisenhowser. Looking at this trail, we agreed that north to south is probably the best way to do the Presidential traverse as is often the suggested route. Anxious to get to our next destination, we skipped the original plan of dropping in on Mizpah hut and just went straight down the Crawford path. It was a nice walk down, we were beat from being out for 3 days (even if we weren’t exactly roughing it!). Now for the part of the trip that sounds like a honeymoon, we headed to Mt. Washington Hotel after reaching our car on Mt. Clinton road. We cleaned up and went to eat in the main dining room where we got a great view of Mt. Washington, we could see the glimmer of light coming from Lakes in the Clouds hut where we were the night before. A wonderful trip.
Day 1 (8/16):
After a chaotic week of wedding festivities, both of us feeling sleep deprived left Waltham at 6AM Tues 8/16 to catch the 9:40 AMC shuttle to Appalachia at the Crawford Highland Center. We made great time and were goofing around for nearly an hour before the shuttle picked us up–gave us a good opportunity to purchase the newly updated RMC guide and map. The trip on the shuttle brought us to the trailhead at about 10:50 AM. The trip up Valley way was good, weather was perfect, we made it to the hut in about book time (at hut ~2:30PM), giving us time to explore and relax. What a dramatic location, the Adam’s peaks looked particularly daunting and rugged from that view. The hut is nice, but the bunk rooms stacked us in like sardines -4 high and so tightly packed it was extremely difficult to do anything in the bunkroom, but the common area was nice and the croo was great. That afternoon we went up to the top of Madison, perfect day, wonderful view!! We enjoyed a snack at the peak which we had to ourselves. From the peak, we saw an odd white area near Star Lake, we decided to check that out. It was just a quick and easy 5 m walk from the Hut, via Star Lake trail and a immediately off the Parapet trail. The large white object turned out to be a very impressive Huge outcropping of quartz just off the trail, very cool– worth the small trip. We headed back to the hut where we got a delicious dinner! We had a full house at the hut, a lot of nice people– many doing the same route we were doing or in reverse direction. Eli stayed up to check out an environmental talk on Lichen, I promptly went to my bunk and was sound asleep before lights out (9:30).
Day 2 (8/17)
Breakfast was good--weather looked sketchy. Weather report was announced– In the peaks: 1/16th of a mile visibility, high winds, 50's clearing to partly sunny by afternoon. Laughter broke out among the crowd when the valley forecast was also read: sunny, 80 degrees– what a contrast! It looked gloomy outside, but we trekked up to Adams (#46 for me). It was a bit windy and visibility was low so we were following the trail cairn to cairn. We stayed at the top just for a moment and pressed on. It got a bit confusing with the labrynth of trails up there, but we came to Thunderstorm Junction and knew we were on the right track. We skipped the Jefferson loop because the visibility was still poor (Must come back for it some time since the last time I did Jefferson, it was also in the clouds!). Gulfside trail was really beautiful and we saw it starting to clear up as we moved on. We almost went the wrong direction at Edmand’s Col, but quickly corrected ourselves. There is a large impressive plaque for Edmand at the col– I can’t imagine what dedicated soul lugged that large chunk of metal in so far! Views continued to get better and better as the day went on. We could see Washington off in the distance and kept plugging along. We headed up Washington and it was a lot colder and VERY windy. We got to the top, headed into the snack bar for a bowl of chili for lunch--definitely not a roughing it sort of trip!! It was 41 F at the top, lots of tourists around wearing tank tops and shorts and no jackets to be seen!! It was so windy on the observation deck, I almost got knocked over! After a nice break and perusal of the gift shop, we moved onto head to Lakes in the Clouds hut. We got there about 4 PM after what felt like a really rough day of hiking!! Bunk set up is a little better here, only 15 people in each room, and a little bit more open floor space in the bunkrooms. We laid down for a brief nap before dinner and then got another top notch dinner from the AMC hut croo! After dinner, we wandered outside a little bit to see the rising moon– nearly full-- over the lakes. We caught the dead end of the environmental talk for the evening– on the environmental measuring equipment just outside the hut–wish we hadn’t missed the beginning. Another early night to bed!!!
Day 3 (8/18)
We were woken by the sound of a guitar through the halls– pleasant wake up call!! It looked gorgeous outside, still a little windy and cold (39F). We ate a good breakfast and headed out. Great views all the way--could not have asked for better weather--visibility of 110 miles reported!! We went over Monroe and over all the peaks along the way, including a loop over Eisenhowser. Looking at this trail, we agreed that north to south is probably the best way to do the Presidential traverse as is often the suggested route. Anxious to get to our next destination, we skipped the original plan of dropping in on Mizpah hut and just went straight down the Crawford path. It was a nice walk down, we were beat from being out for 3 days (even if we weren’t exactly roughing it!). Now for the part of the trip that sounds like a honeymoon, we headed to Mt. Washington Hotel after reaching our car on Mt. Clinton road. We cleaned up and went to eat in the main dining room where we got a great view of Mt. Washington, we could see the glimmer of light coming from Lakes in the Clouds hut where we were the night before. A wonderful trip.
