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View Full Version : The Presidentials over the 4th of July



dje97001
07-06-2004, 08:04
An Aside...
We heard at Mt. Washington's summit that there have been steps taken to rename Mt. Clay into Mt. Reagan. From what we heard, the process will take around 5 years or so... but I just thought that you all might think that was interesting.

Trip Report (Gear following)
Well, we just got back from the whites yesterday. I believe we hiked a little over 20 miles (given the early tentsite hunting on Day 1) in three days--we went pretty slowly, but not too bad considering we hadn't done much in the way of hiking this year. Our packs weighed in at around 26 (wife's) and 30 (mine) including 3L of water each and about 2 days of food (since we'd be eating in a hut) since we haven't really bought all of our light-weight stuff... The goal is to have our packs weigh just about that much with 3 days food, and all of our early season clothing.

Our hike...
Day 1 (Friday)
We parked at the Appalachia parking area 4.5 miles west of Gorham (on Rt. 2), arriving there about 1pm--starting the hike around 1:30pm. We took airline up, up, up over the knife edge, and then took the short trail east to Madison hut arriving at the hut around 5:30 or so. At this point we dropped my sister off at the hut and began hiking back down valley way to find a campsite to pitch our tarptent. We finally found/decided upon our spot around 7:15pm and then basically just crashed.

Day 2 (Saturday)
We hiked up valley way (starting at 8am), back to madison hut to pick up the others... (9am) filled up our water and headed up the Gulfside trail (9:15am). It was really foggy (20-40 ft. visibility?) windy, and fairly chilly (for July--I put on a stocking cap and my fleece gloves). We trudged deliberately along, heading for Mt. Washington's summit--and then Lake of the Clouds). Met several south bounders who seemed in really good spirits (didn't catch any names all weekend! :o). Met an older man who told us that his grandson was about to become the second 10 year old ever to complete all of the 4000 footers in N.H.... apparently he should know because his cousin was the first... Made our way over the cog railroad tracks (didn't see anyone moon the train, saw a couple of guys threaten, but all in jest) and up to the summit (around 4pm). Ate some candy bars, some pizza and saved a waypoint at the top. Left around 4:40 or so, and made our way down to Lakes via crawford path. Don't know what time we got there, but it was probably an hour later... had time to stow our gear, and lay out the sleeping gear on a bunk, change clothes, look around and then it was time for dinner. Dinner was basically a thanksgiving meal... turkey, mashed potatos, cranberry sauce, bread, salad and a nice tomato soup. Desert was gingerbread cake with icing. Fell asleep around 9:40pm.

Day 3 (Sunday)
Woke up, ate Cream of Wheat with Brown sugar, raisins, peaches, nuts and cheerios (Cheerios in cream of wheat with brown sugar is really good), ate some pancakes and turkey sausage... along with hot chocolate. Got going around 9:15am again... hiked down crawford path, met some northbounders (who were flying up the trail--zero days taken ranged from 7 (including 4 sick days and 3 fun days) to 14). Ran into tons of hikers with dogs (of course the dogs were doing better than their owners, and looked really happy). And finally emerged at the parking lot on clinton rd. in Crawford notch around 3:10pm or so. It was one heck of a trip. My feet are tired now, but I'd do it again in a second.

Day 4 (Monday)
Outlet shopping... Lindt truffles... 96 for $9.99!
Our gear...
Tent
The tarptent performed admirably... even though we weren't able to pitch it to its full taught shape. It was a little long for our first night's tenting spot, so we had a little less head clearance than we wanted/the tent could provide. We didn't really get wet (other than some condensation in the morning--but the amount seemed comparable to typical tents--).

Packs
Our ULA P-2 packs were awesome. Both my wife and I really enjoyed them. The hipbelt pockets were definitely worth it! As were the side and shovel pockets... The hydration sleeve fit our 3L bladders without any problem. Excellent packs. I would recommend them in an instant for men or women.

Windshirt
I had a golite Wisp wind shirt, and well... in the Presidentials and with the "World's Worst Weather" (and somewhere around 45 mph wind) that skimpy 2.5 ounce windshirt also became a keeper. Great little shirt... awesome protection and durability.

Boots
My boots sucked, but I hadn't bought good ones yet... my wife's scarpa's served her well.

Bladders
Those 3L bladders were camelback wide mouth omega resevoirs... my wife says, "These things are worth their weight in gold." I think she meant to add, "Even when full"... we store them full in the freezer (so nothing grows in them) and then pull it out of the fridge a few hours before using it... so there is always ice left in it (nothing like a nice ice-cold swig of water). The screw-on cap worked very well without leaking and thankfully, I never set my pack down on the bite valve.

It was a blast.