Northern Presidential's

On August 25, Sean and I set out to hike the last 3 peaks that we missed on our original Presidential Traverse... Jefferson, Adams and Madison. You have to read the Presidential Traverse blog to see why we didn't summit those 3 peaks! Fortunately this time around, we were blessed with beautiful weather (no rain, wind, fog or lightening!)

The plan was to start at one end (Rt. 302) and hike to the other end (Rt. 16), since my mother was willing to drop us off and pick us up (thanks!!) We began our hike at the base of the Cog Railway via the Jewell Trail. We hiked up 3.7 miles until we met up with the Gulfside Trail, so we could continue north towards our destination. We did not hike back up to Mt. Washington since it was over a mile and there was no need to (although I love Mt. Washington). We didn't hike that fast (heavy packs again) and reached the Gulfside trail in really good time. The Jewell Trail is a great moderate trail, and probably the easiest way to hike up Mt. Washington, plus you can hear and watch the Cog which is pretty cool! 

First views from the Jewell Trail! Beautiful day

The Cog!

Looking south at the Southern Presidentials

Following the Gulfside Trail backwards was really cool because we were seeing some of the same landmarks we had seen last time, and others we did not see before. Every time we saw a section of the trail we remembered we would say what was going through our heads during the last hike! That was pretty funny. At one point, we saw a bunch of huge rocks we had said last time would be a good place to take shelter if necessary. The biggest difference this time around was that we were going to be actually seeing the summits and the views, since last time everything was covered in dense fog.

Headed towards Mt. Jefferson

Picture with a cairn, always!

A nice flat section of the trail!

At the summit of Jefferson!

After we summited Mt. Jefferson, we hiked down a little ways and decided it was a good time to eat lunch. After a few minutes, an adorable little girl who was only 5 years old came down the trail with her dad. She decided she wanted to take a break with us, it was really cute! I love seeing kids outdoors and on the trails especially when they are happy about it. We actually ended up hiking with the little girl and her dad for a while, she had fun using one of my hiking poles. Her little legs got tired, so her dad put her in his child carrier backpack and we parted ways. Somewhere between Jefferson and Adams, I got an energy spurt and took off to the summit of Adams so I could take another break (haha). We met some nice people at the summit, but it was really buggy so no one stayed long. Our next destination was the Valley Way tent site, where we would be staying the night. We stopped at the Madison Hut along the way and chatted with a few AT thru hikers. They are always the nicest people you meet on the trail!

Summit of Mt. Adams

Difficult rocks, trying to navigate my way down Mt. Adams

Looking at Mt. Madison. The Gulf in the middle is what we hiked up during our original PT. The ridge at the top of the picture is the Osgood Trail, which is what we hiked down to get to Rt. 16 the next day

Mt. Madison

The auto road

0.3 miles to the Madison Hut

Mt. Madison and Madison hut 

From the Madison hut, it was a half mile walk down the Valley Way trail to the tent site. The trail was wet and pretty steep. We learned at the Lake of the Clouds Hut, that the "croo" who work at the AMC huts have to hike up 80 lb. packs of food to keep the huts stocked. It doesn't matter if they are a 5 foot female or a 6 foot male! We met a girl who was hiking up one of these packs, it was huge! I wish I had a picture. It made me not resent my ~30 lb. pack as much. Finally, after the longest .5 mile downhill hike ever, we made it to the tent site and settled in. It was a perfect night for tenting, comfortable temperature, no rain, and no bugs.

Dinner!! No gross mac and cheese this time haha

Home for the night

Valley Way trail... it was actually pretty steep!

The tent site was recently worked on.

The next morning, we packed up all of our things and headed up to the Madison Hut to refill out bottles and take off for the day. Our final ascent was up Mt. Madison and then continued on down the Osgood Trail (AT). The farther north we got on our hike, the less people we saw. There were only 4 people on the summit of Mt. Madison, whereas the day before on Mt. Jefferson, there were probably 30 or so people. 

White blaze :)

Summit of Mt. Madison! Finally!!!

Proud of our accomplishment

Looking up at the Osgood Trail

Lots of rocks

Me with the Presidentials in the background

The Osgood Trail was all rocks. Halfway through the day, my feet were on fire from all the pressure the trail had put on my feet the day before that that morning. I had gotten new boots that month from REI that were really comfortable but never required break in. Too good to be true... I don't think they will last that long. We kept hiking and eventually were out of the exposed ridge. It was a really hot and muggy day. Towards the end of the trail we saw a couple of cross country ski trails, which made me wish it was winter! Its funny, when it's really hot, I always wish for winter, but in the dead of winter when it's freezing, I wish it were summer! Finally, we reached the end of the hike and couldn't wait to stick out feet in the river. Its the littlest things that make me happy!

Last river crossing, we knew we were close to the end of our hike

Luckily, we didn't see any bears!

Just hanging out on the side of the road waiting for our ride!

We sat on the ride of the road for a while waiting for our ride. Turns out they were at Dolly Copp swimming in the river, so we got to spend the rest of the afternoon in the water. Perfect end to a great hiking trip!