.June 17, 2006
I was warm under my 3 wool blankets this morning and did not want to get up. At 6:25 I got brave and ripped the blankets off. I went to use the restroom when the 'croo' went up the hallway to the bunkrooms making rooster calls to get everyone up. Breakfast was at 7:00. Here is our group. We have Larry on the far left, followed by Nancy, and then Trish. On the right we have Nick in the front with Bill behind him.
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First we had some type of Cream of Wheat or Grits or something. Not quite sure but I am no expert on warm breakfast cereals. Some dried fruit and brown sugar were available to sweeten it up a bit. We had some delicious pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. I passed on the bacon but heard Nick say it was very good, although he was probably still thinking about the cheeseburger he wasn't able to have the day before.
With the trouble Trish was having with blisters, I recommended that she take the AT around Monroe rather than go over it. She thought it was a good idea. Since I had gone up to Monroe the night before, I went with her. The AT is called the Crawford Path here. It was an easy 1 mile and I passed the alpine flowers that I had passed the night before.
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The trail around Monroe was a little longer than going over it, but because it was so much easier we got to the trail junction ahead of the group. I tried to get pictures of everyone coming down Monroe. Here's Bill.
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Here's Nick - "The Terminator"
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Followed by Nancy and Larry
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Here's looking back to Monroe
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We headed off toward Mount Franklin.
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Mount Franklin is just over 5,000 feet. It is just a small hump in the ridge and is not an official 4,000 footer. I had to get briefly off the AT to the summit. Here's Trish on the top.
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Time to head off toward Mount Eisenhower. I headed back the way we came to get back on the AT where I left off. This only took a minute or two and I quickly caught up with the group. Larry took my picture here with Mount Eisenhowever in the background. Note the white blaze and AT symbol on the rock to the left of me.
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At the base of Eisenhowever, I had to leave the group since the AT goes around the summit. I put it into extra high gear, followed the AT around the summit, and then headed up the other side to meet the group. Here's a picture of Mount Washington from the summit with Bill in the foreground. There was some type of wasp nest or something in the rock cairn on the top. In the photo you can see the large insects flying about.
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At 4,760 feet, Mount Eisenhowever is my 24th New Hampshire 4,000 footer. I am halfway!!! With all the bugs flying around, we didn't stay long at the summit. We were supposed to meet another hiker here named Art but we didn't see him. We headed down Eisenhowever when we heard someone far behind. We looked back up to see Art waving his arms. We waited for him to catch up and then headed toward Mount Pierce.
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We headed below treeline for the first time since we started our hike yesterday morning. Here's Nancy and Nick descending into the trees.
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Next we reached the Webster Cliff Trail. The Crawford Path continues on, but we would be taking the Webster Cliff Trail which is also the AT. It is only another 100 yards to the top of Mount Pierce.
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At 4,312 feet, I can cross off my 25th NH 4,000 footer.
Here's a look back with Eisenhowever in the foreground and Washington in the background
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There is quite a bit of bog bridging in this area and it was very rotted. Nancy made a comment that it should be replaced. Just after that we went over more bog bridging. Based on the color of the wood it looked like it was just replaced. From this point on, the bog bridging was in excellent condition. I think Nancy has special powers. Once she spoke, the rotten bridging was replaced. After this, it was mostly downhill until we reached the Mizpah Hut.
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Once inside the hut, I enjoyed a hot bowl of soup, homemade bread, and a peanut butter square.
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Here's a little humor with this pointless sign below. It is pointless because there is no way a vehicle can get within miles of this hut.
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It was time to continue and our group would be splitting up. Nancy and Trish decided to take the Mizpah Cutoff Trail back to the Crawford Path and then out to Route 302. Larry, Nick, Bill, Art, and I continued on to Mount Jackson. We passed a lot more bog bridging on the way.
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We made it up to Mount Jackson and at 4,052 feet it is my 26th New Hampshire 4,000 footer. After a break, we continued on until we got to the top of Mount Webster. From here we got a great look back at most of the peaks we had climbed. Mt Adams, Mt Madison, and Mt Clay couldn't be seen, but the rest we could see.
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Here I am on Webster with Mount Willey and Mount Field in the background. They are two more 4,000 footers that I haven't hiked yet.
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Here's a look down to Route 302
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We began to follow the trail down. There were a lot more lookouts along the way. Here's a picture of Art taking it easy on our last lookout.
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With less than 3 miles to go and no views left, I put it into high gear again. I couldn't shake Nick however. He was right on my heals the whole way. Just before Route 302 we reached a bridge. Here's Nick on the bridge.
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It was very hot now that we were off the mountain tops so we took a dip in the cold water to cool off. Larry and Bill showed up and I headed off. I had just a little more hiking to do. At Route 302 I passed the sign below which showed the distances to the peaks.
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I crossed Route 302 and headed .3 miles up the hill to the other parking lot. This is where I had parked when I did the AT south of here so I had to complete this small section. I walked back down the hill to the car. Larry waited for Art while Nick drove Bill and me back to our vehicles. What a wonderful hike this was. I want to say thank you to Larry, Nancy, Trish, Nick, Bill, and Art for allowing me to be part of your Presidential Traverse. I hope to hike with all of you again.
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