Hike #8: Presidential Traverse
Elevation: 5,367 (Mount Madison), 5,774 (Mount Adams), 5,712 (Mount Jefferson), 6,288 (Mount Washington), 5,384 (Mount Monroe), 4,780 (Mount Eisenhower), 4,310 (Mount Pierce)
Date: June 15, 2013
Location: a big swath of the White Mountain National Forest, NH
Distance: 20.1 miles
Time: 16:53 (50:24/mile)
This hike will go down as one of the most epic hikes I ever do. Since Sara’s such a big part of hiking for me, and since this was her idea, it seemed fitting to compare our versions of how this went down.
Prelude: Preparations, pre-start activities and thoughts
Jay:
Sara and I drove up separately to northern New Hampshire the night before the hike, with me arriving at the hotel a couple hours before her. In the lead-up to this hike, I was nervous about re-aggravating my foot injury, or my bad knee forcing me to quit, and not knowing what kind of a predicament that might put us in – not life or death, but it could still really suck. But at some point, you have to commit or quit, and I’d committed. Then it’s a choice about what attitude you choose to have, so we’d talked through identifying bail-out points if needed, and I then focused on the thrill of accomplishing a bucket-list hike.
During the drive up, I got more excited to tackle an epic challenge: 7 peaks, 20 miles, 17,000 feet of elevation change. Big stuff. And as I snagged a cheesesteak sub at a convenience store on the northern fringes of the White Mountains, with its every spare inch of wall and counter filled with vehemently anti-government propaganda, I felt as if I were on the edge of civilization. Sitting alone in my room in a small hotel, chowing my wonderfully cheesy cheesesteak and having a single beer as a Friday refreshment, I wished Sara were already with me to share my energy.
Sara arrived after sunset at the AMC Highland Center in Crawford Notch. She’d leave her car there, where we’d exit the trails, and we’d use my truck to shuttle us to the start. We spent the remainder of the night prepping our gear, food, and clothes for a quick morning departure. I never sleep well when I get up much earlier than usual, and I knew that tackling a huge hike after getting up at 4:00 a.m. would exact some sort of toll. So it was compounded by sleeping lightly.
The alarm seemed to go off a moment later. We bounced out of bed, dressed, and were off in no time. We were on track for our 5:00 a.m. start… when Sara realized she’d forgotten her car keys. OK, bad start. We had no choice but to turn back, which led to some no-talking time and a 5:30 a.m. start to the hike. I’d known we’d have some setbacks and challenges, but hoped this was one of the few obstacles, not foreshadowing a slew of problems from the get-go.
Sara:
I’ve always had a “thing” for the summer solstice. For several years in a row, a group of friends and I would take some sort of hike on the summer solstice to celebrate the longest day of the year. Hearing this, my mom pointed out that it’s a big Swedish tradition to celebrate “midsommar” and that my great-grandmother was a big fan. So for me, nothing could be better than a one-day Presidential traverse to celebrate the longest day of the year!
You know it’s a bad sign when your boss declares, “this hike is really messing with you.” Great, the activity that is supposed to be an outlet for what is frequently a stressful job has now turned my life upside down on me: work is now my outlet.
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| The hike will allegedly go really well! |
Indeed, this was one of the most stressful hikes I have ever planned. Some of the stress involved knowing the sheer physical demands of the terrain. Some of the stress came from knowing that the hike is completely weather-dependent, and that the weather on the range can change rather quickly and dramatically, necessitating having a plan B. Some of the stress came from knowing that we’d be physically drained and had to high-tail it back to MA on Sunday for Father’s day. Some of the stress came from the concern about planning the hike for two; Jay’s an admitted “newbie” to hiking and so I couldn’t help but assume a lot of responsibility on my part for making sure we’d be safe and have fun. And some of the stress came from me being completely honest with myself that I have a tradition of completely over-estimating what I can hike in a given trip.
For several months ahead of time, I scoured every article I could find to anticipate what the 20+ mile journey would be like. There are some great resources out there and here are two of the best:
I also tapped into my trusty friend, Goatman (1995 AT Thruhiker), for advice. After all, I got this crazy idea to hike the entire ridge in one day from him last September when I related the story of my friend Melissa and me hiking Mount Madison and Mount Pierce, unable due to weather to cross the Presidentials during a two-night overnight trip.
According to Goatman, “I say you are not crazy for thinking/wanting to do the traverse. Not crazy at all if you are able to assess your condition, progress, and weather while up there and make good (safe) decisions regarding the use of your escape routes.”
Additionally, “If you are doing it in a day, I’d recommend going southbound as there are more/easy escape routes off the ridge in the southern half… not much in the northern half. The quintessential date for a Prez-Traverse is June 21… the longest daylight day of the year. There will be a lot of crazies up there doing the same thing. Plan on starting at first light and finishing via head-lamp. The crux would be Edmunds Col (the most dangerous spot on the ridge)… find a place to hide from the tourists on Washington, take a nap, slow your pace for the Southern Prez… they are easier, you can relax and enjoy. Catch the sunset on Pierce.”
But the fact remained, I wasn’t 100% sure of my ability to do this hike much less Jay’s ability – gimpy knee and weird heel tendonitis thing he has been battling. I could only hope that the progressively challenging hikes and obsessive reading of all things Presi yielded enough conditioning (both physical and mental) in order to tackle the traverse.
And so, on a beautiful, warm Friday in June, I departed work, dropped off the dog and began my drive up north to rendezvous with Jay.
Leg 1: Trailhead to Madison summit to Madison hut; 4.8 miles, 4,135 feet of elevation gain
Jay:
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| I should still be asleep! |
This leg had almost half of the total gain in elevation, so I knew it would be intense. The parking lot revealed that we were one of the last to depart, and we were somewhat quiet and focused as we initiated our ascent. We originally intended to climb via the shorter but steeper Watson Path, but opted to stay on the Valley Way Trail, thinking the lesser intensity might help avoid burning out our legs getting to the first peak.
My foot hurt since the very beginning of the hike, which wasn’t a good sign, but probably was a good sign of over-training. I’d been largely sedentary for months because of the injuries, and then averaged six workouts a week for two months, and pain might be the payback for my refusal to moderate my training. About halfway up, I also started bonking. We’d stopped a couple of times and I was trying to hydrate and chew some shot blocks for electrolytes, and had already eaten breakfast before we left. This wasn’t a good sign and I was wearing out fast.
Sara started driving me nuts with her refusal to ease her pace to give me a chance to recover. It’s an hours-long ordeal, this is the hardest leg, and she’s running me into the ground. This isn’t right! Anger fueled me briefly, before despair took charge again. I couldn’t understand why she was doing this to me. Glimpsing the peak of Madison through the trees, I lamented the climbing that remained and her desire to kill me by the first summit.
And then I had my epiphany of my Man’s Dilemma: if I don’t use my words, how’s she supposed to know I’m hurting? Alas, her ESP powers aren’t perfect and I haven’t said anything, and am not giving her any indication I’m having a problem. Aah, but if I say anything then it requires emoting and asking for help and being vulnerable. But I’m a man and therefore genetically programmed to be abysmal at that sort of thing! But if I don’t, I’ll wind up like the unlucky members of the Donner Party, left to die in the woods. Oh, what to do!
Mustering my spare breath and all my courage, I reluctantly uttered, “Sara, can we take a break for a minute? I’m hurting.” Sara stopped, wheeled around to face me, and miraculously responded, “sure”. It was as if she had backlighting and doves flying forth from behind her, accompanied by an invisible choir. I rested my legs for a moment, took some hits of water, and realized that if I tell her what I need, she’ll then know what I need. Amazing! With newfound love, emotional maturity, and energy, I continued on.
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| One peak down, six to go! |
The Madison Hut emerged shortly after, and we passed it, moving above the tree line to the rock scramble that left us atop Mount Madison. We encountered a number of hikers, unclear which were tackling the traverse and which were doing their respective routes. But we felt as if we and the others who shared our goal were part of the March of the Crazies. One summit down, six to go! We allowed ourselves a breather back at the Madison Hut, having been hiking for just over three hours now, much faster than the pace in the guidebook. Next stop: Mount Adams!
Sara:
#@%^&!
I canNOT believe that I left my car keys in the hotel room. Are you kidding me? There was nothing that I could do other than to let go of my frustration, but I was really annoyed that we were departing about 25 minutes after I wanted to. Naturally, I’d seek to make up some time on the trail.
The Valley Way is a beautiful trail and I had hiked it once before with Melissa, with overnight gear to stay up on the ridge. I appreciated starting on a trail with which I was familiar. It was amazing to me how quickly I could fly up the trail now that I was carrying 15 pounds less on my back and being juiced by the excitement of the traverse that lay ahead. Also knowing that Jay has a naturally faster hiking pace than I do sometimes pushes me to climb faster.
“Um...Sara, can we stop for a second?” Whew...I can slow down.
We skipped the turn for the Watson Path and continued up the Valley Way. I was eager to get all of this elevation out of the way as quickly as possible, and the Valley Way is the easiest trail up to Madison. The hut appeared ahead of schedule and, as much as we wanted a break, we scampered up the Osgood Trail to the Mount Madison peak.
On the way up, some of the hikers we saw in the parking lot were coming down, giving us cheers and encouragement. It made me smile because, indeed, we were doing well. We were about an hour ahead of book time and I was elated!
Naturally it was windy up there, but we paused long enough to take a few selfies and shots of the ridge that we were about to cross. We hiked off of Madison down to the hut for a welcome mid-morning break and took a chance to refill the water bottles. While breaking, we chatted with a pair of girls who had hiked down from Madison just behind us. They had hiked up the other side of Madison and they, too, were attempting the complete traverse.
Leg 2: Madison hut to Adams summit; 1.0 miles, 950 feet of elevation gain (5.8 miles and 5,085 total)
Jay:
We set forth from the Madison Hut, heading from Mount Madison to Mount Adams via the Airline Trail. Then we got confused and promptly took the wrong trail. However, the Star Lake Trail worked fine. The route was initially flat, followed by a rock scramble before mellowing out briefly. But the final section was much more rock climbing than hiking.
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| View of Mount Madison from part-way up Mount Adams |
I knew enough by now to be quiet, and gave Sara the lead, me behind her for support as needed. At one point, there was a largely vertical wall with a small outcropping about three feet high, with more wall above it. Sara tried to climb on top of it by facing front, pulling herself up, putting a knee on it, and straightening up, as if she were a kid pulling herself up on top of a pommel horse. The problem was that the wall above the outcropping was too close to give her room to lean forward and finish getting her knee onto the ledge. So she became stuck, unable to finish it and afraid to jump down to start over. She hung there, like a frog whose stomach was superglued to a wall, with its legs helplessly flailing. We were both laughing as she struggled, stuck yet not in danger. After a couple of minutes she finally finished it off and moved on. I then took a different route, stepping onto a rock a couple feet high to the left of where she’d been. I then stepped onto her outcropping, before continuing on, total time: about fifteen seconds. Total chuckles: too many to count. Total fingers shown to me by her: maybe one.
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| Two peaks down, and now at ten peaks in my 67 New England 4,000-footers! |
Sitting on the summit of Adams, I felt very plugged into the hike. It was now just after ten o’clock. We were a couple of summits in, both doing well, hydrating and eating, and were now within sight of Mount Jefferson, the next target.
Sara:
We departed confidently from the Madison Hut with Mount Adams in our sights. We passed by Star Lake, a beautiful alpine lake laying at the col between Madison and Adams. It turns out we took an unintended trail up Adams, but it really didn’t matter. We could see the peak ahead and there was plenty of company along the way.
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| Two down, five to go. Lovin' life on Mount Adams! |
The climb up was a lot of rock scrambling and Jay had a great time. I fared pretty well, even though I often get nervous on such exposed rock. I was thankful that we had tackled the long scars of the Tripyramids in our preparation hikes a few weeks before. At one really tricky section, I gave myself a big mental high-five for not pausing in fear, but for using arms, legs and stomach to balance and slide up past a huge rock that poked out from the trail. Unfortunately, my kudos were replaced with a touch of embarrassment when I learned that, had I paused to really take a look at the trail, I would have seen a much easier route that required only your feet. All I could do was laugh.
It was about a mile up Adams from the hut and it took about an hour -- we were on book time, but still ahead over all.
This was my favorite stretch of the journey. Although many of the bailout points lay on the opposite side of Adams, I felt something of a commitment being made to completing the traverse by summiting the second peak. I also felt really connected to Jay once we reached the top...it was clear we were tackling this together as a team and were having fun along the way.
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| Looking from Mount Adams to Mount Jefferson (right) and Mount Washington (left) - gonna take a while! |
OK, we’re now fully immersed in the hike. In order to try to make this not take as long to read as it did to hike, we’ll break it up into sections. Stay tuned for Part 2!
See you on the trail,
Jay Bell, AKA Rock Hopper
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