| Presidential Traverse in perfect weather Trip Report |
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| Presidential Traverse in perfect weather   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: New Hampshire, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 32.84000°N / 113.91°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Nov 30, 1999 Activities: Hiking Season: Summer | Page By: GEM Trail Created/Edited: Sep 23, 2006 / Jul 15, 2007 Object ID: 228371 Hits: 739 Loading... Page Score: 87.09% - 3 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
How my kid kicked my butt, or Slow Down, Junior!My daughter Cypress and I have a campaign to climb the state highpoints. We had seven done when we talked about going to New England to knock off Washington and Katahdin, two mountains that were a step above anything she had attempted before. Somewhere in the months before we left I told her about the Presidential Traverse, how it had been rated as one of the hardest dayhikes in the US by some magazine. Cypress is quiet and very modest but deep down she is really ambitious, and she sort of set her sights on us not only hiking Washington but doing a one-day presidential traverse in the process.
For those who don't know, the Presidential Mountains are a range in New Hampshire about twenty miles long, with eight summits named after presidents and several named after non-presidents. To claim a presidential traverse you must climb all the presidents, which include the 5 highest mountains in New England; some people also climb some non presidents for a more complete and taxing experience. There are also several ways to get onto and off the range. However even a minimal ascent like the one we did involves something like 23 miles of hiking and 9,000 feet of vertical gain on some really steep and rocky terrain. So even doing this hike in the wimpiest way possible is a real challenge, as I was soon to find out.
The entire trip had been planned around good weather, and we were on our way to my sister's place in Maine when we got a perfect Presidential forecast for the next day. Well, I've read enough Summitpost reports to know that a perfect day of weather on Washington is a rare and precious commodity. So sis agreed to wait and we decided to go for it! To anyone looking for advice on a Presi traverse or Washington hike I would say to do whatever you can to climb in fair weather.
We woke in our campsite at 3:30 and jumped right into the car to drive to Appalachia on the north end of the hills. Hitting the trail around 4:20, we soon began a steep climb in the woodsy darkness. I had been sick for the last six weeks and my usual fitness regime (mostly training for adventure races) had been suspended completely that whole time. Still, I have been an endurance athlete for 15 years, my teenage daughter had only recently gotten into any kind of sports. So it should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong!
Having taken all of the extra clothing, flashlights, emergency rations, etc, I made sure Cypress only had water and a little bit of food on her as we ascended about 3,500' in about 3 miles. My illness caught up to me before we hit treeline, as 7 am found me lagging behind my daughter to puke my guts out a few times,ensuring I would be low on energy the rest of the day. After stopping again to eject whatever food remained in my body, we hit treeline and the Madison Hut. I didn't say anything to Cypress, but I privately wondered if I could complete the hike.
At treeline the terrain changed and became much rockier. Cypress had no experience for the steepness and especially the rockiness, and suddenly I was moving faster than she was. We tagged the summit of Madison and doubled back, and I had renewed hope that I would be able to keep up, only because I had the "technical" experience where she didn't.
We stopped in Madison Hut and we very impressed. The White Mountain Hut System is really, really nice! They gave us water and had good food to sell at reasonable prices. And here we were on the largest area above treeline east of Colorado.
Next we trekked up Adams, where Cypress got really discouraged. She found the climbing too steep and rocky for her comfort. Between Adams and Jefferson the trail was mostly flat, so we expected to make good time. But the rocks made for SLOW going, and the lack of food in my system started to catch up with me. We had originally planned on doing Clay but after Jefferson Cypress and I agreed: if it wasn't a president, we weren't going to climb it! Even going around Clay was starting to feel exhausting at this point.
Then we had about 1,200' to get up Washington. The terrain is not as steep or rocky on Washington, but we found a way to make it a challenge. As the trail approached the tracks of the cog railway, we thought the main trail went under the tracks and followed it this way for 20 minutes until we realized that instead of ascending we were skirting the side of the mountain! Okay kid, time to bushwhack. I don't know if it was getting off route or not knowing where we were or doubting her Dad or just bonking- but Cypress really got down at this point. She seemed on the verge of tears. I realized I had not been making her eat enough, so I tried to get her to fuel up, but for that last l/2 hour climbing Washington she was really upset. I tried to keep her spirits up, but at that point if anyone had offered us a ride down the mountain I'd have gladly paid them fifty bucks to get us out of there.
Fortunately we emerged on the mountaintop just in time, at about 1:15.What should have been a triumph felt like imminent defeat. I was appalled that we had been going for almost 9 hours and had only done four presidents. Beyond that I felt completely exhausted. The only thing that had kept me going since vomiting at 7 was the idea that I might feel better, my daughter was counting on me, and slow and steady still might win the day.
Thank God for all the tourist crap on the top of this mountain! If I had my way none of the road, railroad, or visitors center would be up there at all, but since it was we went into the cafeteria where I was finally able to eat. I had root beer, trail mix, more root beer, and two bowls of chili. After an hour inside I felt much better, and the rest was mostly downhill, right? Besides, the weather was perfect, with full sun and summit temps around 70 degrees.
The hike down to lake of the clouds hut was gentle and gorgeous. Lake of the Clouds and its hut is one of the most magic spots I have ever seen in the East. If you have the $$$ and are so inclined this is a spectacular place to stay! We just stopped in for a minute, then climbed the mountain right behind it (Monroe I think), and the hike became tiring again. Up and over a series of tiny rises in the ridge, each time thinking this must be the next president. I thought we had already done Eisenhower when we came upon it, and climbing that one was really demoralizing. The descent from this was actually kind of tricky (for hiking that is) and the slog toward Pierce seemed interminable. On the plus side, Cypress had gotten used to rockhopping and no longer seemed bothered by the climbs or descents.
I should mention here that the northern Presidentials (Mount Washington and above) are steeper and rockier than the hills south of Washington. This is why most people start on the north end, to get the tough stuff out of the way first. It would have been a lot harder to start in the south and hit all the roughest terrain when we were at our tiredest.
We had caught up to a group of young guys who were quite impressed with Cypress' hiking speed, and found out they were going to cut down to Crawford Notch right after Pierce. Our original plan was to keep going after Pierce, over non-presidents Jackson and Webster and then down to our National Forest campsite, but on Pierce we checked the map and realized that after 14 hours of hiking the campsite was still 9 miles away! Our dayhike was looking to be 30 miles long. This bummed us out like you wouldn't believe, until we remember the guys behind us, waited for them, and asked them for a ride. They generously agreed and we ditched down to Crawford Notch with them, where they had a cooler filled with ice cold water, soda, and beer! That's one of the best cans of soda I ever drank in my life.
So, the total tally was: 9,000 feet of climbing, 23 miles, 15 1/2 hours, eight presidents, way too much money spent at the summit, and one proud daughter!
To anyone planning a Presidential Traverse, the biggest piece of advice I could give would be use whatever flexibility you have to plan the hike on the day with the best weather forecast. Be prepared for the rockhopping to be harder and more extensive than you expect. And psych yourself up for a loooooong hike with a looooooooot of climbing. Good luck!
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Presidential Range > Presidential Traverse in perfect weather
