Date: July19, 2014
Peaks and Points of Interest/Trails: Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, Franklin, Pierce via Valley Way, Osgood, Airline, Gulfside, Crawford, assorted loop trails and Mitzpah Cut-off trail.
Trail Conditions: Everything in pretty good shape
Cast of Characters: CrazyBob, Stella, Scott, Ken the Canadian and I
Stats: 19.8 miles, 9000ft of gain, 13 hrs (Bob and Scott added Jackson for 2 more miles, and another 500ft of gain, and 14hrs)

Commentary:
This has been another bucket list hike of mine for the last 3 years, and coming off a Pemi-Loop last weekend, I had the confidence to give it a go. The weather forecast was looking great with low winds and no precip, so all the cards fell into place for a great trek from Rt2 to Rt302. A car was spotted Friday evening, and the night was spent up in Gorham. CrazyBob, Stella, Ken the Canadian, Scott and I set off at 5:30am from Appalachia and began climbing. I had conservatively budgeted about 15hrs for the hike, and figured we should be down to the Highland Center no later than 8:30pm. We ended up beating that time by 2hrs, so I was quite happy with 13hrs for this journey. Scott and CrazyBob decided they wanted a little extra pain- so they added Jackson. We went our separate ways at Mitzpah hut, and met up at the Highland Center.

Some Pics:

Along the Gulfside on the way to Adams


The climb to Jefferson


Monticello Lawn


Crawford Path on the way to Lakes of the Clouds


Lakes and Mt Washington


Monroe Summit


Thx to CrazyBob, Stella, Ken the Canadian, and Scott for coming along!


Slideshow from this trip(click on pic)

You are quite the hiking machine lately. So what is worse? Presi traverse or pemi loop?

Congrats on the PT. What's next on the list? Hut to hut?

Looks like a pretty nice day to be up there. I've only done it as an overnight trip in winter but a one day summer one is high on my list too.

And what on God's green earth is up with that statue?!

...and where and when did they start serving dunks up there?

Based on the 2 hikes I did, I would say the Pemi-Loop was more difficult. It took us 6hrs longer, 15 more miles, and close to 2K more gain. But the Presi-Traverse had the rougher footing by far.



The Pemi and the Presi where my high mileage goals. No Hut-Hut stuff for me. Let's save those crazy treks for the trail-runners.

That statue has been up there for a month or so. Just off the summit sign area. It's gotta be at least 8' high. A striking young lad!


Ah yes, the Dunkin' Cup......Ken didn't have time to finish his coffee before we started, so he finished it along the Valley Way. We needed a little humor and a prop, so he gratiously agreed to carry the empty styrofoam cup in his hands for the remainder of the 20 miles.......it became quite a conversation piece.

thx
Petch

Congrats Mike and company. Hikes in the northern Presi's has been high on my list this year, almost did another Friday. The Presi. traverse looks very enticing but this is another one of those endurance hikes in the Whites that is probably out of my reach now. I could do the mileage but the poor footing along with the elev. gain would probably kill it for me.

The Dunkin's cup a great idea and much lighter than Henrietta. And I think it's, Time, for a new watch.

Great job and nice report! I still can't convince myself that I even care to do this much of a hike, yet I'm always amazed at seeing people that do it.

Nice report and pictures Petch!

I enjoyed the hike and the company.

20 ish miles of rugged beauty interrupted by a very short section of carnival-like insanity.

We couldn't have asked for better conditions - overcast with great views and a nice breeze.

It sounds like you are emptying your bucket out Petch. Time to fill it up with some more stuff!

Seriously though, that's a pretty awesome back-to-back weekend pairing of hikes.

Canada doesn't run on Dunkin. It runs on Tim Horton's

Well put. The Pemi Loop took more out of me physically in the long haul, but the Presi Traverse beat me up more. The Pemi Loop is loooong.

And Petch - you and Bob did the Pemi Loop with full backpacks meant for staying out a night. That adds A LOT of extra work. I went as light as I was comfortable going and it was plenty hard enough. An extra 15 pounds and no thanks!

nice work, some day, if I ever grow up, I wanna be just like you guys

If you ever grow up, you'll never be like us....

By the way, I hear there are pictures circulating of a topless man on the Bonds.......any idea who that may be??? just sayin'.......

Congrats Petch! And what great pictures! The traverse is awesome on a good day and it looks like you had one. We had to settle for Madison- Monroe this year because of bad weather. But being above treeline for 10 hours when you have views is worth the hard work getting there.

Wow! You had a fantastic day! Happy for all of you. By the way, does that knee band help any?

This is so impressive to me, a huge congrats to you! My hat's off to anyone doing a one-day Presi traverse, but doing it right after a Pemi is just nuts.