Wednesday, July 4, 2018

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.

Mt. Madison

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.

Mt. Madison

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.

Mt. Madison

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

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.

Mt. Adams

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.

Mt. Adams

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