January 17, 2009
The plan today, like most of my hikes this winter, changed. I was going to hike Passaconaway and Whiteface solo but got an email last night from Alex wondering what I was up to. Despite very cold temperatures we decided to go after the southern Presies. It was -10°F when I got up and -18°F when I reached the trailhead. We spotted a car at Clinton Road. It wouldn't really save us any mileage, but we did it anyway. We left the parking lot about 8:40. Up, up, up we went to the top of Jackson.
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This was winter peak #30 for me and #13 for this winter.
On to Pierce
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We had to break trail between Jackson and Pierce.
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The sky got 'kinda' scary as we neared Pierce.
Pierce was winter peak #31 for me and #14 for this winter.
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We pressed on to Eisenhower which was in the clouds but beginning to clear. Here's a look back at Pierce.
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Here's the rime covered cairn on the top of Eisenhower.
This was winter peak #32 for me and #15 for this winter.
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It was fairly windy, but not too, too bad. Here's the view down in the valley.
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The rest of the Presies remained in the clouds.
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It was time to head back to Pierce.
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A look back to Eisenhower.
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It turned out to be a pretty good day.
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We headed all the way down the Crawford Path before turning onto the spur trail that went to the parking lot. This short stretch of trail was new for me. We finished just before 4:00 p.m. Thanks for coming Alex.

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