Northern Presidential Traverse

It's been well over two months since this July 12th traverse across the Northern Presidentials so the details might be a bit sketchy.  But I did want to add all my favorite hikes to this blog (perhaps all of them eventually).  This was one of the few hikes this summer where I had my husband's company, so that alone makes it special!  It was also the day I met a group of hikers on the trail who quickly became friends and hiking buddies.  More on that later.

 

The Northern Presidentials consist of Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison - all three are over 5,000 feet high, putting them in the top 5 highest mountains in NH along with Mt. Washington (of course) and Mt. Monroe.  Our planned route was an out-and-back hike (12 miles total) starting at Caps Ridge. 

 

The Caps Ridge trailhead begins at a lofty 3,000 feet, so I was anticipating an easy and short trek to the summit of Mt. Jefferson.  So far so good...

 

 

It wasn't long before we approached our first overlook. 

 

There was a small group of hikers already at the overlook when we arrived.  I noticed a familiar face among them - it was Dusty, an amazing little mountain dog I had seen numerous times on the Facebook 4,000 Footer page.  We introduced ourselves to his parents, Bob and Geri, and I got my picture taken with the famous Dusty before we moved on.

Most of the trail after the overlook was above treeline and the real fun climbing started.

Lots of boulders to scramble over...

And then there were boulders that just begged to be climbed for a fun photo op...

From my perch, I could see a rock wall off in the distance.  I thought for sure the trail must go around it somehow, but that happy thought was dashed to pieces when I saw another climber start to make his way up the rock face!!  For a few brief moments, I felt something akin to sheer panic.  Who's crazy idea was it to hike all of these mountains anyway?!  But then I reasoned with myself that it was probably not as bad as it looked from a distance so we continued on. 

We were too busy navigating the wall to take close up pictures, but it was indeed a little less scary than I had feared. Even still, I felt quite proud of myself for making it up. 

After "the wall," we made our final ascent up the summit cone of Mt. Jefferson.  The terrain was very rough and rocky but the views were incredible. 

 

Here we are at the summit of Mt. Jefferson.

We had great views of the surrounding mountains, especially Mt. Washington...

 

You can see the auto road winding up the left side...

 

 



Behind us is our next target - Starr Lake and then the summit of Mt. Adams.   

 

 

Here Todd is contemplating the trail ahead.  I think he was beginning to question the wisdom of his decision to join me ;)

 

After the initial steep descent, the trail between Jefferson and Adams leveled out a bit.  We did not encounter many other hikers in this entire section.   It was a bit surreal to be up there with such grand views all to ourselves.

I couldn't resist climbing this giant boulder...

Here we are finally approaching Mt. Adams.

 

Many of these rocks were sharp and loose so it was slow going as we carefully made our way up the summit cone.  I had seen a post on the Facebook group where another hiker described Mt. Adams as "a miserable pile of rocks."   I was starting to understand the sentiment!  We were starting to worry that we would not have enough time to complete the out-and-back route before dark because the terrain was too rough to hike at a decent pace.

 

 



We finally got to the top, where there were more great views, but Todd only had eyes for me ;)  (note the reflection in his glasses).

 

There were a TON of flying insects on the summit - varieties I had never seen before. They were not biting so they were more fascinating than annoying.  Just as we were getting ready to move on, we  saw Dusty and his hiking party crest the summit.  It was immediately clear that Dusty and I were going to be fast friends - as soon as he saw me, he ran over to me (it had nothing to do with the food in my hands ;).

 

After chatting with them for a while, we learned that Geri had turned back after Jefferson and would be picking the rest of the group up at the base of Mt. Madison.  Bob kindly offered to give us a ride back to our car at Caps Ridge if we wanted to do the one-way traverse with them instead of the out-and-back route we had originally planned.  Given the time and the crazy terrain, we gladly accepted the offer!   The one way traverse wasn't a whole lot shorter, but at least it wouldn't require re-ascending Adams and Jefferson for a second time.

 

So we begin our descent of Mt. Adams to our final peak, Mt. Madison!

 

 

At first Todd and I lagged way behind the others.  Coming down the "miserable pile of rocks" was extremely tough on the knees.  We took our time and hoped our new friends would wait for us!

 

Once we got past the worst of it, we caught up.  Dusty kept us all in line.

We made a quick stop at the Madison Hut before tackling the final trek to the summit.

 

We made it!



 

 

It was such a beautiful day!  We enjoyed some snacks...

 

And a nap...

And took lots of pictures at the summit...

Left to right:  yours truly, Todd, Steve, Bob and Nancy

What a fun group!  It felt like we had known one another for months rather than mere hours.

From here, it was a long, but entertaining, hike back to the trailhead where Geri was waiting.  Three more summits conquered and new friendships formed - all in all - a fabulous day!