With only a few weeks remaining in the summer, the number of good weekends for attempting a long-distance hiking traverse in New Hampshire was dwindling. Sure, I still enjoy going out and hiking a single mountain, but there's something fun about the sport of stringing together a bunch of peaks and making a challenge of tackling a route between the points in a long-distance trek. The opportunities for such a trip seem almost endless when you lay out a map and imagine the possibilities, but there are a few well-known 'favorites' that garner most of the attention among hikers.
One of these is the Presidential Traverse which cuts right over the top of Mt. Washington, and stitches together the best-known range in New Hampshire. I've attempted this only twice before as it usually requires car-spotting, except for those rare few who run it end-to-end-to-end.
Meeting up with my friend Sara we set off from Appalachia towards Mt. Madison under clear skies, hoping to complete the traverse before the onset of afternoon thunderstorms. We made good time up to treeline, although we quickly found that the prior day's rain and the higher humidity left much of the rock wet and slippery, and even with grippy shoe soles, I felt like I was sliding all over the place. The conditions basically ruled out running the traverse, but that was alright with me. Madison, Adams, Jefferson - one by one we ticked them off, reaching the summit of Mt. Washington amid a sea of tourists who drove, vanned, cogged, or hiked their way up to this super-popular spot.
The skies had since become mostly cloudy, with mountains peeking in and out of the clouds and I momentarily caught a view of a tall cumulonimbus cloud which seemed to warn that we didn't have too many more hours before the weather would deteriorate. It was a steady stream of hikers ascending the Crawford Path as we began to descend toward Lakes of the Clouds hut and Mt. Monroe, picking up some speed as we went.
We were starting to descend Mt. Eisenhower when the thunder began. I've always felt that I have an irrational fear of lightning, but people like to tell me that it's actually quite rational to be afraid of it. Regardless, when I find myself close to a lightning storm, I instinctively begin running for the exits!
We scrapped the last summits on the route, heading down the Crawford Path and outpacing any rain. Behind us Mt. Washington and the ridge that we had just traversed, including all of the hundreds of people crowding about the Rock Pile, were treated to a mid-afternoon thunderstorm.
We returned to the Highland Center after a fun and enjoyable traverse and even though we didn't get the last couple of summits it was still about 20 miles. What is probably most remarkable is that we really weren't feeling too taxed or tired after the endeavor - it's nice to feel well enough conditioned that a jaunt like this in the mountains is no big deal.
Seeing a favorable forecast for the following weekend, I headed back to New Hampshire to hike the Pemi Loop, a fun traverse that makes it way over the Franconia Ridge and the Bonds, in a great 31.5 mile lollipop loop.
The Pemi Loop has become one of my favorite traverses, with a single re-supply at the Galehead Hut at mile 17. Starting in the early light I headed up the Wilderness Trail from Lincoln Woods, ascending Mt. Flume via the Osseo Trail. Above treeline along the Franconia Ridge it became quite windy, so I didn't spend too much time up there, pushing on to the roughest portion of route, the Garfield Ridge Trail. After a stiff 1000-foot climb up to South Twin, the going is smooth over the Bonds, where from Bondcliff, you can look out over the expanse of the wilderness area and review the peaks you've just traversed. From here it's about 9 miles downhill.
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| Approaching Bondcliff on the Pemi Loop |
Just like the previous weekend, the hike was a lot of fun, but it left me wishing there were more miles to cover and more elevation to scale.
For a couple of years I've been intrigued by the challenge of a 24-hour hut traverse which covers more than 50 miles and follows a route between each of the eight AMC huts. There isn't too much information out there on the traverse and by all accounts there aren't many who attempt it, aside from a handful of fit AMC croo members, and a few crazy long-distance trekkers or trail runners. But after these last two traverses this year, I can say that I definitely want to work this goal into my schedule for next year.
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