Monday May 30, 2005

Mt Adams

Today we joined our friends John and Sarah on Mt Adams as Sarah completed her 46th peak on the NE48 list. Mt Adams is the second highest peak in New England, and the one with the greatest elevation gain by any of the standard routes.

This is the route we took today. We did the loop clockwise.

Directions to the trailhead: From Twin Mountain take Rte 115 East to Rte 2. Follow Rte 2 East, past the Water Wheel (good breakfast spot). Just past Lowes store/gas station, park at the Appilachia parking lot that is well marked on your right.

Time to summit: @ 5:00

This is the profile of the hike.

A 3-D view of our hike to the summit.

Sunday night, John and Sarah stopped by our trailer on their way back from a marathon that John ran in Vt. As you can see he was pretty tired.

Monday morning we met at the trailhead under a rainy sky. We arrived a little before John and Sarah and watched two other hikers head out. With John having done a 26 mile run the day before we thought that between the rain and his aches and pains we would be going out for breakfast - or should we say we hoped we would do that.

John and Sarah really wanted to hike so we dug out the rain gear and got ready.

Here we are, ready to go.

WE started out on the Valley Way trail. John was really dragging at the start - something about every muscle in his body screaming at him.

The trail starts out along a river for the first 3/4 of a mile or so. The flow of the water from the rain and melting snow was a reminder of how forcefull water can be.

We kept to an easy pace stopping to take pics along the way.

More flowers today.

One of many stream crossings. This one was being fed from 5 differant smaler streams converging just above the crossing.

We found the snow line at @4100 feet. From here to the hut we hiked on top of 2 - 3 feet of snow which was solid but soft enough to get good footing.

The rain came and went most of the day, but with the protection of the trees and rain gear we stayed fairly dry.

AS you come out of the trees the summit of Mt Madison is the first thing you see.

Just after, the hut comes into view.

Here is Geri approaching the hut with John behind her.

Sarah and John approaching the hut.

The hut was not open yet (it opens on Wed June 1), but we took advantage of the protected doorway to grab some food and change out of any wet clothes..

After a short break we headed out for the summit of Mt Adams. Here John and Sarah make their way past Star Lake.

Continueing on you get a good view of Mt WAshington and the Auto road. WEll - in good weather you would anyways. Although the rain had stopped we were in the clouds.

A little further on we came to more snow. Geri is trying in vain to see the summit.

Here comes John in his bear hat bringing up the rear.

Looking down on Star Lake through the clouds.

About an hour after leaving the hut we reached the summit. The last .2 miles is a scamble over large rocks which requires the use of both feet and hands.

We made it. This is Sarah's 46th Peak!!!!! John is looking pretty tired here.

But - no matter how tired he was, a bet is a bet :> Geri looks on as John dons a bikini top and startes to disrobe. It was @ 45 degrees with a 25 mph wind on the summit.

Somehow we think the bikini would look better on Sarah.

Have to give this guy a lot of credit - he is crazy, but after a hike on Sat, a marathon on Sun, and hours of hiking in the rain to reach the summit, he still manages to find the engergy to make us all laugh. Soon after we started our descent back to our cars. The rain came and went, but we all enjoyed the hike.

A little over halfway down, John is looking pretty beat :> He still had a long day ahead of him. We returned to our cars at @7 PM.

This was Sarah's last of the Presidential peaks, so we gave her this t-shirt to remember the day.

Be sure to join Sarah on Mt Moosilauke on June 11th as she completes her goal of the NH48!!

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