Next Weekend- Hiking the White Mountains
Edit on 6/27 (original post was 6/22): We’ve postponed the trip due to lightning and potential hurricane-force winds on Mt. Washington and the Ridge this weekend. We’re going to be doing the same trip, same route, 7/29–31!
Last spring, we did a 2-day hike which included summiting Carter Dome and a stay at the AMC Carter Notch Hut. It was a fun trip, the goal of which was a little conditioning for my hiking in Peru, but it was really challenging and made me realize just how much more I needed to prepare for my later trip!
I’m more excited this year because I’m in much better shape, and we’ll be carrying much less gear as it’s full service season at the AMC huts- so dinner/breakfast is included in our stay, and we also get blankets so we can bring lighter sleeping bags.
This summer, we’re headed up to New Hampshire’s White Mountains for Labor Day weekend and a three day, half-ish-traverse of the Presidential Range. We plan to hit Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison if we’re really crushing it!
Day 1 (Saturday): Drive to Pinkham Notch Visitors Center (from Boston). Hike from Pinkham Notch Visitors Center to Lakes of the Clouds Hut via: Tuckerman Ravine Trail to Tuckerman Crossover to the hut. Total mileage: 4.6 miles; net elevation is 3,450 feet. I’ve read a safe bet for timing is 1 mile/hr when you’re up this high, so my thought is we will finish this day after about 5 hours.
Day 2 (Sunday): Lakes of the Clouds to Madison Spring Hut via Mt. Washington Summit (big day!) via: Crawford Path/AT, Mt. Washington Summit, Trinity Heights Connector Gulfside Trail/AT. IF the weather is bad, we will just do the summit (if we even can) and then come back down either to the hut or all the way down and make a plan from there. If the weather is really good and we’re moving well, we may also bag Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Adams, two short detours from the Gulfside Trail. If we do Mt. Jefferson, we’ll detour off the Gulfside Trail to the Mt. Jefferson Loop. If we do Mt. Adams, we’ll leave the Gulfside Trail where it meets Lowe’s Path, following that to the Star Lake trail, through the summit and back down Star Lake to the hut. Total mileage w/o extra summits: 6.8 miles, net elevation is -300 feet. Total Mileage w/ extra summits: 7 miles, should be about 7 hours total with a lunch stop.
Day 3 (Monday): Madison Spring Hut to Pinkham Notch Visitors Center via: Osgood Trail/AT to Tuckerman Ravine Trail/AT. We may throw in a Mt. Madison summit if we’re up for it! If the weather is bad, we can come down to the Auto Road and take that down to get a shuttle back to Pinkham Notch. Total Mileage: 6.5, net elevation is -3,300. Since this is mostly down hill it shouldn’t take us more than 3 hours.
We plan to stay that night at a hotel and then drive home Tuesday morning to hopefully avoid traffic. We’re looking at The Wentworth hotel in Jackson.
