W-O-W! What a day in the Presidentials today. I have never, ever been in conditions like I experienced on my hike up Ike's cone. SO freakin' amazing.

Left Concord about 6:30, hit the 93 with a full tank of gas, Bill St. James and Time Warp and a large cup of coffee. Good to go. Saturday night my plan for hiking was far from solidified. My tentative plans were: A. Tripyramids via Pine Bend B. Liberty and Flume C. Tom, Field & Willey. Somewhere between bedtime and waking I thought I should try to get over to Eisenhower. I have been turned back, or turned myself back or thrown in the towel or run out of gas or found another reason to not make the traverse over to the peak named in honor of our 34th president. BUT NOT TODAY.

Today I made it. And it was so incredibly worth the effort.

Hit the trailhead at 8:25. There were about four cars in the lot. Took the Crawford Connector. Trail was like a sidewalk.


Bridge over Gibbs Brook


Bare booted the entire way over to Ike.

The trail wasn't like that all the way over, but it was pretty chewed up and not wide enough for shoes. I had my Hillshounds and they got a free ride also. I think they would have been more of a hindrance on the majority of the trail.

I love the symmetry you can find in the woods


If Dr. Seuss had designed the trees here in winter, they would look just like this


Approaching the upper, open, exposed, wind-swept portion of the Crawford Path




Shouldn't there be about 3 more feet of snow by this sign?


Dropped down without hitting Pierce's summit. I knew if I stopped there I would talk myself out of heading over.





Uhm...??? Not that I'm envious or anything


Two ahead of me, already heading up Ike


Looking back toward Pierce. Took these pics on my way back as the wind was gusting way too strong for me to even consider stopping to take pics on my way over.







Two that were coming up as I was descending Ike's cone


Had three songs reeling through my head on the hike today. This inspired Sting's Walking On The Moon. One of my favorite shots from today


Heading back

Sometimes the 4Ks do serve a purpose. This appears to have been one of those times. Nice and other-wordly hiking. The shot of the two ants hiking up Ike is cool. And add me to the list of people jealous of those staying at the Red Roof Inn. We're hanging out in Lincoln for a few days and I could see the Franconia Ridge as we snowshoed to the Basin with the kids and was aweful jealous of anyone up on a snowy high peak like that. The high overcast and the few inches of new fluff just made everything look like it was an Ansel Adams picture, as do most of your pics. Nice job.

Awesome pics! Add me to the list of jealous people. Nothing like barebooting a presi in winter. I'm completely shocked you didn't stop at pierce,. However I do get why you didn't. I wonder where the grey jays were? You always seem to run into them. Again, great pics. That's such a beautiful landscape to walk through.

Very cool! Reminds me of when I hiked Moosilauke in the winter a few years ago... I love the alien-looking snow sculptures that form in the trees.

Amazing pictures! Beautiful. Wonderful. All the fuls!