Invasive species removal

I spent Friday helping Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and volunteers from Tibbetts Brook Park remove water chestnut from the lake in the park. Water chestnut grows fast and smothers everything else in the lake, including fish.

The project is expected to take several years, and this year's work is a pilot. It's a rather slow process, but you can see in these two photos that it's possible to make a dent in the problem.

End of the traverse

After breakfast the next morning, I set out for Mt. Jackson. It was nice to take advantage of being on the traverse to reach a peak, rather than hauling up from the valley floor.

The trail was quiet, since day hikers from the valley hadn't reached the ridge yet. The trail passed through boggy areas, with modest ups and downs, then some modest rocky climbing. This was the first peak I found myself surprised to be approaching - the elevation gain from the hut is really quite low. The weather was quite lovely, and the views from the top were nice.



I went down via the Webster-Jackson Trail, which is no joke.



On the way down, the crowds picked up. What with it being a nice weekend day, they were considerable. Near the end, I stopped at Bugle Ledge for a snack, though, and had it to myself.



From there I went around Saco Lake, back to the Highland Center, for one last night before the bus ride home.

It was disappointing to only make half the peaks, but that was always a possibility given the weather up there, and it was still a nice trip.

The middle of the Presi traverse

The Madison Springs hut woke up to bad news the next morning: Thunderstorms and rain all day. The hut croo advised that no one walk along the ridge to Lake of the Clouds but instead to descent to valley level.

While a few people did opt to go on, I decided it wasn't worth it. I'd have to skip past the summits anyway. Instead, I descended via Valley Way, which is supposed to be the most sheltered trail.

My initial plan was to take the shuttle over to the Highland Center and then climb up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, which is the most sheltered way up to the Lake of the Clouds hut. However, I didn't relish doing another mega climb for the second day in a row. So when I got to the Highland Center, I inquired about changing my reservation to stay there instead - and they could do that.



The next day the weather cleared up - at least, it wasn't raining. However, it was very cloudy, which turned to fog at higher elevations. I followed the Crawford Path up to the top of Mt. Pierce, which was still wreathed in fog.



However, within a few moments of sitting down to eat a snack, I watched the clouds blow away.



From there I hiked down to the Mizpah Springs hut for another evening's rest.

Starting the Presidential Traverse

The idea was that for my birthday I'd hike the Presidential Traverse - not in the hard-core way, all in one day, but hut-to-hut, north to south.



I went up from the valley floor via Fallsway and the Brookside Trail. It's only slightly harder than Valley Way, which is considered the easiest - not that any of it is really easy. But as the trail names indicate, there were a lot of cute waterfalls along the way.

Then I turned onto the Watson Path, which leads to the summit of Mt. Madison. It shortly rises above tree line. Well ... shortly is relative; it's not easy going. It is mostly a boulder scramble at that point.

But the nice thing is that being above the trees means magnificent views.



After trying to eat my sandwich for a bit, I gave up due to all the extra protein flying into it, and headed down to the Madison Springs hut.



After checking in and resting up, I decided to head up Mt. Adams. It was supposed to be part of the next day's journey, but the forecast for the next day wasn't great.



Mt. Adams is entirely a scramble, requiring hands rather than poles. I was going a little fast because I was worried about weather - and I wanted to make it back in time for dinner. Here is a photo from my brief stop at the top.



I left Adams behind and settled in for a nice dinner and a good night's sleep, with the next day's weather looking ominous.