Date: Aug 21st, 2013 into Aug 22nd, 2013
Mountain Height: Madison- 5367ft, Adams- 5774ft, Jefferson- 5712ft,
Washington- 6288ft, Monroe- 5384ft, Eisenhower- 4780ft, Pierce- 4310ft
Elevation Gain: 8,500ft
Trail: Valley Way Trail, Watson Path, Star Lake Trail, Gulfside Trail,
Clay Loop, Great Gulf Trail, Crawford Path, Mt. Monroe Loop, Crawford Path,
Webster Cliff, Crawford Path
Total Distance: 19.8miles
Total Time: 11 hiking hours
There is nothing like hiking through the Presidential Range with its exceptional
views and daring ledges. Even better is
hiking the traverse under an August blue moon that is so bright you don’t need
headlamps and never seeing a soul except for your two hiking partners. Earlier in the summer, my dad placed a bug in
my ear, to begin planning one of my crazier hiking ideas: through hike the
Presidential Traverse under a full moon. The hike begins at the Appalachia
Trailhead and heads Southwest through the peaks to Crawford Notch. Perry, a good Coast Guard friend of his and I
began the day at 3pm, trekking up Valley Way Trail to the Watson Path. About 2miles in, my legs were aching and the rock
stairs grew further apart. We began
playing classic trail games, such as “The Celebrity Name Game” where someone
starts by listing a well-known celebrity by first and last name and the next
person has to name another celebrity whose first name begins with the same
letter of the previous celebrity’s last name.
As a new rule to the game, whoever had to wimp out and be skipped due to
the lack of a name had to do 10 pushups for each name missed. Of course we decided it would be more fun to
do the pushups post marathon hike. Least
to say, I did everything in my power to not miss a name.
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| 48 for the the Fallen on top of Mt. Madison |
Our first peak was Mt. Madison. The beauty of hiking Mt. Madison is the
last 0.5 miles or so is above tree line.
After a grueling uphill battle, you are welcomed to 360 degree views of
the beautiful wilderness. We made it to
the top in just shy of 3 hours, with plenty of time to refuel with some trail
dinner and wait for sunset. Hiking with
two military men, it was fitting to come to an American Flag on the sign post
at the top of Mt. Madison. Attached to
the flag was a description of New Hampshire soldier Marine Cpl. Michael
Ouellette that had fallen in battle on March 22, 2009. On the backside of Cpl.
Ouellette’s memorial was information about “48 for the Fallen,” a personal
mission of a disable veteran to honor the 42 fallen NH service members and
raise money for the Wounded Warriors Project.
His task is truly inspirational and more information can be found at his
facebook page: www.facebook.com/48ForTheFallen. Throughout the rest of our hike, we were
touched and motivated by each memorial.
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| Moonlight from the peak of Mt. Adams |
At 7:46pm, we watched the sun disappear over the neighboring Mt. Adams
and began our descent to Madison Spring Hut for a water fill up. We left the hut and the last people we’d see
until sunrise just as the moon was rising over Star Lake and snapped a couple
pictures before night fully ascended. The trek up Star Lake Trail to Mt. Adams
was a lovely rock hop, again testing the strength of my quads and calves. However, the whole way up, we had a wonderful
view of Jefferson Ravine that was highlighted by the light of the moon. We stopped for a brief reprieve on the top of
Mt. Adams before heading down Gulfside Tail toward Mt. Jefferson. For those of you who are planning a midnight
trek, MAKE SURE YOU KNOW YOUR ROUTE AND TAKE AN EXTRA MINUTE TO KNOW WHICH PATH
YOU ARE ON. It is insanely easy to step
off trail in the Presidentials when most of the trail is boulders. We did have to backtrack about a half a mile
while hiking between Mt. Adams and Mt. Jefferson. On our way up the boulder path to Mt.
Jefferson, we took extra care to spot the cairns to avoid hiking more miles
than already planned. The crux of hiking
Madison, Adams and Jefferson is that you lose and gain so much elevation
between each of them. It really feels
like you are hiking, not just tip-toeing a ridge. Somewhere close to the connection to Edmands
Col Cutoff trail, we hit midnight and hollered our battle cries into the
Ravine. There is a giant cairn near the top of Mt. Jefferson that marked our
path and motivated us to trek up the tiny spur to the top. This was the last time we’d see the glorious
blue moon as we descended into a thick fog surround Mt. Clay and
Washington.
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| Peak of Mt. Adams |
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| Pre- fog on Mt. Jefferson |
We continued on Gulfside Trail to the Clay Loop. About a mile from Jefferson, our energy
dwindled and our spirits sank. Perry
took the lead, using his high powered, 200 lumen flashlight to spot the nearest
cairn. Visibility was just about 15 feet
with his flashlight and even less with my 90 lumen headlamp. I brought up the rear, zipping up my raincoat
against the wet fog and keeping my head down in constant search of the
trail. At more than one point, I blindly
followed the men by the occasional beam of Perry’s flashlight. Least to stay, we didn’t stop for a rest on
Mt. Clay. In fact, I barely looked up
when we got there and couldn’t tell you at what exact point we were on the top
of the mountain. But, judging from the
map and our route, we definitely, at one point, crossed the peak. This was also the point in the trek when we
all realized the faint amount of calories we had consumed and that we were,
literally, running on fumes. Sometime
around 3:30am, we connected the Clay Loop back to the Great Gulf Trail in our
last 0.3miles to the peak of Mt. Washington.
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| Washington in the fog |
As you can see in our summit picture of Mt. Washington, we were
relieved to be there, but sufficiently exhausted. The fog was still brutally thick and the wind
had picked up significantly, drenching and chilling us through many
layers. We sought refuge in a
less-than-glamorous shelter by the vending machines. Somehow I was able to fit in a change of
clothes, warm breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and 10minute nap curled up on my
backpack to keep my body heat from seeping into the concrete in our half an
hour break. I summoned the boys from their light naps and we prepared our
descent to Lake of the Clouds, praying the fog would lift.
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| 1st footprints of the day! |
From the top of Mt. Washington, there are four ways down: the train,
the car road, Great Gulf Trail and Crawford Path. We aimed to jump on Crawford Path, but after
somehow not finding the trailhead, we jumped on Great Gulf Trail to find the
connector onto Crawford Path that my map detailed. I guess when you’re running on fumes, freezing
cold and tired, you may not be thinking the clearest. What I should be reporting is that we spent
the extra 5 minutes on the summit looking for the Crawford trailhead, but instead,
I get to report that we missed the cutoff in the thick fog and ended up
backtracking 30mins to find the right trail. All the while, digging our spirits
a nice hole to sink into. Once we jumped onto the Crawford Path, we made our
way down the peak, carefully stepping on very wet boulders, out of the heavy
fog and into the mute light of dawn.
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| Mt. Monroe |
Lakes of the Clouds Hut was a welcome water fill up. We made it to hut around 5am. We slipped quietly inside, attempting not to
wake up the AT hikers sprawled out in the dining room, had a brief chat with
the crew member on breakfast duty, and reorganized our clothing for the rest of
the hike in the early morning. Spirits rising with the sun, we set off Crawford
Path to the Mt. Monroe Loop. After a
quick hike to the top of Mt. Monroe, we stopped for a few brief pictures of the
tendrils of fog surrounding the peak.
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| First sunlight |
Now I’ve hiked the ridge from Mizpah hut to Lakes hut several times
before and always remember the awe-inspiring views and how easy the hike was
once you were on the ridge. That being said, I was usually coming from a hut
well rested and full to the brim with a protein packed breakfast. Hiking from Mt. Washington seemed anticlimactic
this trip and it seemed to take forever to trek from on mountain top to the
next. We were tired and groggy by the
time we made it to Mt. Eisenhower.
Taking Crawford Path to the Mt. Eisenhower loop, we were able to catch
the sun beginning to rise above the fog. The path just below the summit of
Eisenhower seemed incredibly daunting, as the vertical climb reached far above
our heads. Surprisingly, we tackled it easily
and were welcomed by the site of an impressive cairn on the top of Mt.
Eisenhower. We took a short break to
take goofy pictures and rest our super sore feet. Heading down the gently slope from Mt.
Eisenhower, we encountered our first set of morning hikers and our first sign
on life on the actual trail. We took another short break to rest our feet and
jumped on the Webster-Cliff Trail for a 0.1mile spur to our smallest, easiest
and very last peak, Mt. Pierce. That’s it. That’s all. Our last peak and we’re
home free, hoping to catch the shuttle back to our car.
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| Mt. Eisenhower - past exhausted |
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| Final peak of Mt. Pierce |
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| Still loving each other - we think |
I think the absolute hardest part of the trek was jumping back onto
Crawford and hiking down the 3miles of trail. My knees shook and screamed with
pain every step down. My feet were so swollen and achy, I was doing this sort
of hop jump thing down each step. My mantra became, “I don’t hurt” to take my
mind off the actual hurt. I really never thought I’d be such a wuss about a
hike like this. About a mile in, my boyfriend and I began to run down, which,
interestingly, seemed to ease the pain. We
made it to the Highland Center at the base by 8am. I tore off my boots and
began pouring cold water on my feet to dull the pain. While I was wallowing in
my own misery, my mountain man of a boyfriend dropped his pack and began hiking
back up the trail to meet up with his buddy and help him finish the hike. No
big deal.
With an hour to spare before the shuttle, we ate some breakfast from
the Highland Center and took a brief nap on their comfy chairs. Looking back on
the trip, the only two things I would change are to hike with trekking poles.
YES PLEASE! My knees were so tired and swollen from the constant pounding that
I think trekking poles would have made a world of difference. Secondly, I would
have planned better meals with longer stopping points. After doing the math, I
figured that I consumed just shy of 1000 calories from the start of the hike and
that actually burned over 5000 calories. At that rate, I should have consumed a
peanut butter sandwich every hour. Also, in the excitement to start the hike, I
skipped out on a pre-hike meal, which was incredibly important. When hiking a
trip that you are packing the miles in a short amount of time, bringing foods
that don’t need to be cooked in your stove is pertinent. For me, I also need
quick snack foods and a variety, so I don’t get bored with a flavor. Hiking that
much already kills my mid-trail appetite, so I need to make snacks appetizing
and excited (M&Ms- yes please!). In a later hike, I found that cheese
(wrapped in wax keeps good the longest) is a power packed snack if you take the
time to sit and eat it. Nuts, likes cashews and almonds, mixed with chocolate
are an incredible snack for me. My boyfriend makes and out-of-this world fruit
roll up and beef/chicken jerky too. I personally find that many granola or trails
bars are too sickly sweet, and I have a wicked sweet tooth so that’s saying
something! I just stick to granola or crunchy bars that have less syrup in
them. On a later hike, I also tried making my own power bars with honey, which
isn’t as sweet as the store bought ones. Next time, I might try a little baggy
of protein powder for a mid-hike boost.
When I phoned my parents after being awake for 30hours and hiking just
shy of a marathon, my first words were “I’m never doing that again.” Ya right. Only a couple months later and I’m
already thinking about how to make this trip even better.
