July 5: Presi Traverse (peaks 14-21)

Report in progress - check back later.

Day 7: Madison, Adams, Jefferson, (Clay), Washington, Monroe, (Franklin), Eisenhower, Pierce, Jackson, (Webster)

Summary

Saturday started with me riding my bike to Apalachia in the dark, and ended with us hiking down to Highland Center in the dark, but the overwhelming story of the day was the wind. It was howling! It knocked us off our feet and staggering up and down the peaks slowed us considerably. Read more about the wind below the Mandatory Photos of Me on Peaks.

Details

N-to-S Presi Traverse from Apalachia Parking Lot to AMC Highland Center

Trails: Fallsway Tr; Brookside Tr; Valley Way Tr; Osgood Tr up to Madison and back; Gulfside Tr (with loops for Adams, Jefferson, and Clay) to Washington; Crawford Path (with loops for Monroe, Franklin, and Eisenhower); Webster Cliff Tr to Pierce, Jackson and Webster; Webster Jackson Tr to Highland Ctr.

Start: 5 AM; Finish 11 PM.

Distance: 23.57 mi, Elev Gain: 10069 ft, Book Time: 16:54, Actual Time: 18:00

Mandatory Photos of Me on Peaks :)

#14 - Mt Madison

#15 - Mt Adams

#16 - Mt Jefferson

Mt Clay, at 5533 ft, isn't on the 4000 footer list because it doesn't rise 200 feet above the ridge. (I'm signing CL for Clay.)

#17 - Mt Washington

#18 - Mt Monroe

Mt Franklin, at 5,004 ft, isn't on the 4000 footer list because it doesn't rise 200 feet above the ridge. (That's an F for Franklin.)

#19 - Mt Eisenhower

#20 - Mt Pierce

#21 - Mt Jackson

Mt Webster, is only 3910 ft, but it is part of the Presidential Range so we hiked it too. (Obviously, a W for Webster.)

Wind

How strong was the wind? So strong it knocked us on our a$$es while climbing Madison and Adams. So strong it blew my Prana skull cap off my head. So strong it kept tearing my pack's velcro closures open. So strong I watched a tree uprooted, but not quite toppled. So strong we couldn't hear each other unless we stood close and yelled. So strong we risked frostbitten fingers when we took our gloves off to take photos.

After fighting our way up and back down Mt Madison, I seriously considered calling it a day--I didn't want to become a Mt Washington statistic. At Madison Spring Hut, most of the guests were bailing on their plans for the day and discussing the safest way off the mountain. We were prepared for cold weather and for hiking in the dark, so we decided to continue. John bought a better hat and I bought warmer gloves and we pushed our way towards Mt Adams.

I hoped the wind would abate when we got past the ravine, but Mt Adams was an hour of hiking in non-stop wind. It was physically and mentally exhausting. We guessed the wind-speed was 50+ mph but we had no real way to know. After a few hours hiking in the wind, we adjusted and my concerns lessened. We weren't going to be blown off a cliff or freeze to death, but we were going to be slower than book time and finish long after dark. Seeing that dozens of others also decided to hike in the wind was a comfort, even if a false one.

When we got to Mt Washington, the anemometer read 68 MPH with a 15-minute peak of 84 MPH. I think that peak was while we were trying to take photos in front of the summit sign; I had to hold the camera in both hands and the wind still blew it around so it was hard to focus.

"The area ahead has the worst weather in America. Many have died there from exposure even in the summer. Turn back NOW if the weather is bad."

When I took this photo at Mt Washington, the wind speed was 61 mph with a 15 minute peak of 96 mph. Even though it was a bit more windy on top of Washington than on Madison, Adams, and Jefferson, I think my guess of 50+ mph on those earlier peaks was on the low side.

I had to keep my hood up to prevent the wind from blowing this hat off my head.

Wind on Mt Jefferson.

Wind on Mt Jackson.

Bike Shuttle

I parked my car at Highland Center the night before and rode over Old Strawberry Mtn Rd to my tent at Fort Jefferson Campground. Saturday morning, I ate my breakfast of hard boiled eggs at 3:15 AM and then rode my single-speed MTB to Apalachia Parking Lot to meet John for our 5 AM start. You can read more about the bike shuttle in the "Pre Hike" section at the end of my previous day's hike up Mt Hale.

4:59 AM - Ready to hike!

High Water

It poured rain all night before our hike. My tent leaked but I stayed dry. My luck held and there was no rain or thunder or lightning during our hike--just the unrelenting wind--but all the rain meant the rivers were running high. We didn't have trouble rock-hopping the many stream crossings and the waterfalls were pretty so the night's rain was no problem until Duck Fall.

We putzed around for 20 minutes at the start, walking along the Presidential Rail Trail trying to find Brookbank Trail. We found an unsigned path--actually there was a small sign that said just "Path"--that was probably Brookbank Tr but walking through the waist-high, wet grass wasn't appealing. So we went up Brookbank Tr instead.

Brookbank was scenic and fun, but tiring with all the ups and downs and rough footing alongside stream; I understand why most people take Valley Way instead. Our plan was to take Watson Path so we could traverse Mt Madison, but we couldn't find a reasonable way across Snyder Brook just below Duck Fall. Instead we got on Valley Way and then took Osgood Tr up and back down Mt Madison. The high water forced us to take the more sensible route, but it added six-tenths of a mile and nearly 30 minutes to the book time.

People on the Trail

If you know me, you know I'm not a competitive person :) and hiking is not at all about being faster than the other people on the trail.

...all the same, even with our frequent "granny breaks", we passed dozens of people while only the 5 people described below passed us.

• Two young men (20-somethings) in shorts passed us but were walking about my pace, so I chatted with them for awhile. The were doing a 3-day Presi Traverse and, like me, they slept in hammocks when backpacking. But they were skipping the summit loops, so they continued straight when we headed up Mt Eisenhower and we didn't see them again.
• A thru-hiker caught us when we stoppped to consult the map coming off Mt Pierce. We were confused because I mistakenly thought we were on the (non-existent) Mt Pierce Loop Tr and expected to rejoin Crawford Path. In reality, Webster Cliff Tr goes over Pierce and then to the Mizpah Spring Hut so we were doing fine, but the sign was blown over at the Crawford Path / Webster Cliff Tr junction and so I was confused. The thru-hiker started at Mt Katahdin mid-June and had 4 more months of hiking before reaching the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. He chatted with us for a bit, but quickly outdistanced us. We said hello when we saw him a few minutes later at the hut.
• Also outside Mizpah Spring Hut were 2 runners--a man and a woman--who started at Apalachia 5 hours after us and passed us just before the hut. The man's friend had died recently and they were pausing to read a journal entry the deceased friend wrote when he worked croo at Mizpah Spring Hut something like 30 years ago. We all debated whether to just summit Jackson and then head down, or if we should continue to Mt Webster (not a four thousand footer, but still a part of the Presidential Range). We all decided to wait until we were on Jackson and see how we felt. So we started out from the hut together and found the trail together, but the last we saw of them was the bottoms of their running shoes as they flew over the bog bridges.

We encountered a few other interesting groups on the trails.

• As we were descending Mt Madison (the first peak) and sort of freaking out about the high winds, we met a family with 2 pre-schoolers clambering over the boulders that make up the trail. I almost warned them that these were not good conditions to take little ones hiking, but then I remembered that Julie and I took our tiny kids up Mt Lafayette in similar conditions. I observed that the boy and girl were climbing avidly, each with a parent hovering behind to provide a steadying hand if necessary. I hope they had a wonderful hike.
• On Mt Clay the wind was howling (of course) but there was a bit of shelter behind the cairn. A man about our age and a young man (perhaps his adult son?) were already there, but any port in a storm. So we crowded in next to them and chatted for a bit while we took a break and our obligatory peak photos. We met them again at the Mt Washington cafeteria, but almost didn't recognize them unbundled from their coats and hats.

Adventure

John believes that for an activity to qualify as an adventure it must meet three criteria:

1) it must be arduous

2) at some point, the outcome must be unknown

3) blood must be drawn

Blood was drawn - When I pulled off my gloves at Madison Spring Hut, I realized I cut my finger, probably while catching myself on the rocks after the wind blew me off course.

Thus was the final criterion met, and our Presi Traverse elevated to the stature of ADVENTURE!

1. Arduous - No doubt; we sweated buckets climbing Brookbank and had another 14 hours of hiking ahead of us.
2. Outcome Unkown - From Madison to Washington, we worried about being blown off the mountain. From Washington to Mizpah, we worried that John's legs would seize up. From Jackson to Webster to Highland Center, we worried about turning an ankle in the dark.
3. Blood - See photographic evidence above.

I did a lot of planning and preparation for the hike. John was content to trust my Outdoor Leadership to get us back to the car safely.

Gear Talk

I was oddly happy that I had to use so much of the gear I carry "just in case."

I usually carry hat, gloves, long sleeve thermal shirt, and a raincoat even though they are seldom needed. We hiked in short sleeves until we got above treeline and then I put on everything except for the long johns and Nano Puff, held in reserve for an emergency.

Our feet got soaked hiking along the brook, but I waited until lunch at Mt Washington to put on my spare socks. It made my feet feel wonderful; why didn't I change socks at Madison Spring Hut? I hike (ultra) light. My bag has unpadded straps with slots so you can carry a spare set of socks in the straps and they act as padding. This is the first time I've actually used those socks.

I carry first aid materials in a plastic bag. The only other time I opened my kit was when my nephew skinned up his knee pretty bad climbing Tuckerman Ravine. All these years later, I pulled a small bandage out of the first aid kit for my bloody finger.

I always carry a Leatherman and have used the knife to slice sausage and cheese, but never needed the other tools. Finally, I got to use the screwdriver to tighten the clamps on John's poles.

I always carry a headlight and spare batteries. For this hike I carried 2 headlights, but only needed one. After the sun fully set, I could see well enough to hike without the light for a long time, but eventually we depended on our lights to lead us back to civilization.

A few years ago, I stopped hiking in contact lenses because I couldn't read the map without reading glasses. But trying to keep my glasses free of sweat and dirt requires wearing a hat or bandanna and even that doesn't work much of the time. This weekend I went back to wearing contact lenses (test run on Mt Hale, the day before the Presi) and it was so much better than wearing glasses. Even though, I have to pull my goofy reading glasses out to see the map and directions. Also, I can't tell if photos are in focus, so some of the peak photos taken by friendly strangers are all fuzzy.

I started wearing compression sleeves on my legs this summer. Don't know if it helps, but they are sure hard to take off when I get back to the car.

I've been wearing half gaiters to keep pebbles and twigs out of my shoes--Actually they are kids gaiters from when my three were little--but I keep wearing through the laces that run under my foot and the tops are stretched out so my pant legs work free. I tried hiking without gaiters, but had to keep emptying trail debris from my shoes. Next hike, I am going to wear my full-on adult winter gaiters. They weight 8 ounces (twice what the kids gaiters weigh) but they will have to do until I find affordable, lightweight summer gaiters.

MFG - My F&%#ing Garmin. I've been tracking my hikes with my Garmin Edge 810. I bought it for the turn-by-turn directions on my bike rides. The wmgonline.org application exports a .gpx file that only includes major milestones of the hike with straight lines connecting them, so it can't be used to for navigation while hiking, or even to see if you are on track, but usually it does a fine job of recording where I've been so I can upload it to Strava.com and look at my hike.  This time it must have been jostled in my pocket and stopped recording at Mt Jefferson. I noticed on Mt Jackson and started it again, just in time for the battery to die before we reached Mt Webster. MFG!

More Photos!

I wrote more than I usually do for these hike reports, but it was a much longer hike than usual.

I'm almost as tired from writing about our Presi Traverse as I was from hiking it, so here are a bunch of photos without many words...

John on Peaks

Mt Madison

Mt Adams

Mt Jefferson

Mt Clay

Mt Washington

Mt Monroe

Mt Franklin

Mt Eisenhower

Mt Pierce

Mt Jackson

Mt Webster

Hiking in the Dark

Food and Restaurant Hours

Hunger is the best sauce in the world -- Miguel De Cervantes
But hiking for 9 hours also provides adequate seasoning. The hot dogs and chili at the Mt Washington cafeteria were delicious.

We planned to hoist a celebratory beer over a relaxing dinner at a restaurant after our adventure. But we didn't finish until 11pm so all the restaurants were closed. We found a Burger King in Gorham with a drive-through that was open for another 13 minutes. We were 15 minutes away, but managed to get there in time to order burgers and smoothies. John decided to forgo my company and eat his food while driving back home. I finished my late dinner at a picnic table outside BK before heading back to my campground. In a few blocks, I passed John's car pulled over by a cruiser with the lights flashing. I figured the officer was teaching John the meaning of post-hike dinners and karma, but later learned he was just warning John to use his headlights after dark.

Another perspective

Hua Chen did a Presi Traverse the same day. Here is his report.

https://www.facebook.com/hua.chen.7543/media_set?set=a.10152548562464138.1073741845.572054137&type=3

Summer Single Season 48

The Plan - http://loagom.blogspot.com/2014/06/sss-48-plan.html

The Results - http://loagom.blogspot.com/2014/07/sss48-results.html