Mt Adams

Peak fever and Pole adoption continue apace. Today the peak was Mt. Adams (at 5,774 feet the second highest peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the one with the greatest elevation gain by any of the standard routes.) During the whole hike we only saw one other person. A few off in the distance of what are often the most overcrowded peaks in the world, but we met up with only one hiking the same trail we were on. Seemed kinda strange.

Ascending on the Airline Trail, an impressive 4.3 mile, 1000 to 5600 ft trial leading in a straight line from the Appalachia parking lot to the summit via a stairway cut from stone, a mile-long knife edge ‘walk’, and a .9 mile scramble up a rock pile we arrived at the summit just as the clouds lifted off the peak. As we enjoyed the traditional applebutter and peanut butter sandwich the clouds also lifted, east to west off Mt. Madison, Jefferson and Washington. The sun really didn’t shine but it was nice this time to see the view. Reading over other posts of Mt. Adams ascents it appears we were lucky. This peak is often in the clouds for days.

Leaving Adams to the east via the Lowe Trail with a much shorter .3 mile rock scramble we arrived at the AT, aka the Gulfside Trail. Here as with all the other trails on this hike it was maintained by the Randolph Mountain Club. Someone has arranged massive granite boulders into a level walking path. The work done by the RMC all over the mountain is amazing, making for easily walkable, well marked trails in an often hostile environment.

From Gulfside we descended to the AMC Madison Hut. It was closed now but looks like a good base for future area hikes. Speaking of which, while the plan had been to climb the .5 mile to Mt. Madison, it was now 2:00 and really not a good idea.

We descended the mountains via the Valley Way. A bit slippery for the first mile of the descent it was a relatively nice hike. Toward the last mile the trail followed along a beautiful stream with falls and pools that looked especially inviting - come some warm summer day.

During the hike (down - on the way up, between trying to catch my breath, and stop myself from getting vertigo) I developed and perfected the hiking pole draw. The art of pulling the poles from the pack without breaking stride. It’s really very easy. By inserting them individually, one on the left side of the Gregory ISO pack, one on the right, thru the compression straps and into the water bottle pockets – handles up – you can draw them in a second. Also developed two new uses for the poles, fencing sword, and javelin. S. introduced one as well – drying rack.