[Sadie's Driver]

OK, OK, for all of you Northwest purists who never read a trip report about hiking outside of the 49th Parallel N, you can move on now! However, for those continuing on . . . Let's start this little tale with some good, old fashioned RED, WHITE & BLUE! One thing we don't know how to do is celebrate the Fourth of July appropriately. Maybe you have to be part of the 13-er Club in order to qualify, but they just know how to throw a party in New England! They decorate. They have beach bonfires. They have bag-piped parades But, do they have a fireworks show! I watched from the deck of my daughter's place in Winthrop - we could see not only Winthrop's show, but a dozen communities all around, along with the BIG show on the Charles with the Pops! Spectacular.

Ohhhhh!

Ahhhhhh!

Wow!

Ahhhh!

Whoppee - 4th of July!

But this is about hiking in the Appalachians - so, on with the show! It was a chance for Katie (KT) and me to do a hike up in New Hampshire for a couple of days and then with her beau, Mike, for a day. Clover, KT's four-legged buddy came along. Clover always loved hiking with Sadie "out west" so she was anxious to get started! We got a "nice" early start on July 5th . . . one of us isn't a morning person!

Get that camera out of my face!

It was rather cold and rainy when we left Boston, but by the time we got to the New Hampshire border, the sun was breaking out - and by the time we got about 2 1/2 hours North (and, yes, a little WEST) to Bartlett, tucked just next to the White Mountains, it was almost 80 and mostly sunny. We checked into the little motel and drove to the trailhead. Our destination today would be 5715' Jefferson Mountain - the third highest peak in the Appalachians (behind Washington @ 6288' and Adams @ 5798'). Oh sure, go ahead and smirk. A "mere" 5715'! Well, let me tell you bucko, I earned each and every one of those nasty little feet! Tazz and Middle E, you failed to mention to me those Class 3 rock scrambles to get to the top of this little hummer! Oh sure, it starts off easy enough, but after the first mile, It must be their vicious little sense of humor to urge me on "Do the Presidentials!" Barry sent me off with a 36-year old beefy guide - - - - - - book you voyeurs! I've got to say one thing about the folks in the Appalachian Mountain Club - they know how to mark a trail! Between signs and cairns, you'd be hard pressed to get lost! So, here we go.

In the beginning . . .

Trailhead for Mt. Jefferson

Trailhead for Mt. Jefferson

Just a quick 2 1/2 miles!

The route to Mt. Jefferson

Planks through the mud

Mud is mud - wherever you find it!

Not the best swimming hole!

Starting out towards Jefferson

Time for a quick drink!

KT and Clover mid-way with our destination behind

Little white flowers tucked away in the cracks of a rock

Part of the well-marked trail system

Often-found trailmarker

KT passing a hiker

A semblance of a path!

A view along the ridge - people on the ridge

Katie on the "trail"

Folks take a break all along the way

Looking up-slope to what we think is the summit

More rocks to climb up to Jefferson

As we were heading up the ridge, above us an eerily silent glider swooped by us.

Glider in the sky

Looking out over the NH Appalachians

KT with Caps Ridge ahead

Doing the Clover in the grass

Looking towards Mt. Washington

I was amazed to behold a couple of dogs bounding down the trail - what, could it be . . . . LABRADOODLES! TWo Dog Dad continued his trek from the Pasayten and caught up to us in New Hampshire! Amazing.

Labradoodles on the loose!!!

I must have been delirious from the altitude! On we climbed

More steep up solid rock!

and soon we saw the summit and a few of our closest friends!

A few folks on the summit!

I learned that there are a number of ways to get to this summit!

Cool ridge walk

Our alternate route down

Saddle off the ridge of Jefferson

Look for the cairn . . . .

Driver reaches the summit of Jefferson

So, we decided to make up our route down. I worried a bit about the steepness and rocks on the route down, but it wasn't bad. We reconnected with the Caps Ridge trail without much difficulty.

Very different trail and vegetation in the Appalachians

Little Clover would suffer however - more on that later. We got a work-out on this hike. Even though it was about 5.4 miles roundtrip, the gain was 3000'. We didn't get on the trail until 12:30 p.m. and it was iffy if we would make the summit, because we were both pretty hot. But we stopped just 1/2 mile from the summit, had some lunch and made it up (there are 4 false summits!) and back to the car in 3 1/2 hours! Geez. On our way back to the motel, what should our wondering eyes behold? A moose grazing along the side of the road - not enough time to get a pic. Got back, cleaned up and got ourselves ready for the next adventure - 5363' Mt. Madison. Mike would join us on this little adventure. Our approach would be from the North heading South/Southeast from the Appalachia parking lot to take the Valley Way trail. Again, Miss Sunshine is eagerly getting ready for the day's adventure.

Little Miss Sunshine packing up for lunch.

But not one to be left behind, off we headed.

Getting ready!

Appalachia Trailhead for Mt. Madison

Start of the trail - looks happy doesn't she???

Trailhead marker for Madison

Starting out

This kid is tough.

Many warnings about the potential for danger

She's tough enough!!!

This trail starts out much more reasonably - today there would be about 4300' gain in about 4.25 miles to the summit of Mt. Madison. On the way, we would get to visit the Madison Spring Hut - what a great way to hike! No tent, no food to carry. Such a deal! You can travel several days hitting a new hut every day! You do need reservations well in advance. The Madison Hut can handle 52 hikers. The trail we selected on the way up follows the Snyder Brook (they call them brooks on the East Coast - we call them creeks).

Heading up "reasonable" Valley Way to Madison Hut

Valley Way heading to Madison

Our route down

Nature's arrangement

Heading up towards Madison Hut

No camping in many areas

This was a very, very humid hike. We started about 9:15 a.m. and even through the trees there wasn't much relief. We had set a really good pace, but we were all soaking wet (and it wasn't raining!). We met up with lots of people who were heading out - after all, it was Sunday. Most folks had been overnighters. They assured us it was cooler a little farther up the path. Finally, our destination was in sight.

Mt. Madison in the distance

And then we quickly were above timberline (funny term, "timberline" - it's more like "scrubline" - not a lot of conifers in these forests). Ahead of us was the hikers' hut.

Approaching hut

Madison Hut

We stopped here and ate our lunch and changed our shirts, because by now it was much cooler and the clouds had rolled in. Fortunately, you could even buy a shirt at the hut! How convenient. Great folks work the huts - 11 days on, 3 days off. We decided to make the ascent on Madison - we thought about doing Adams, too, but it was covered in clouds.

Mt. Adams in the clouds

If it cleared by the time we reached the summit of Madison, we would reconsider. Up we went.

Looking down on Madison Hut on way to summit

Star Lake between Madison and Adams

Mike on way to true summit

Mike up above on false summit

Heading up to summit of Madison

When we got to the summit, we realized that Clover had managed to tear the skin off of the large pads on her paws because of all of the rock climbing.

Fixing Clover on top of Madison

So we did a little first aid, covering her back paws with telfa, a torn t-shirt, adhesive tape and even a little duct tape. We snapped a few summit photos . . .

On top of Madison

Group photo

and decided against attempting Adams this day. A guy on the summit said that the Watson Path would be the most direct route down, so we opted for that.

The "direct" route down!

Well, there is a reason why this is a direct route . . . it's straight down some very nasty boulders . . . and Mike ended up carrying Clover down most of it.

Heading down the boulders

Nasty rock we came down

Coming off of Madison down Watson Path

Coming down the Watson Path with the walking wounded

Brings new meaning to "backpack!"

We were able to let Clover walk where there was trail or more level ground - but she was hurting. We had to cross Snyder Brook and she got to soak her paws some.

Salmacis

Salmacis Falls

Then we headed down Brookside, where we thought we would hook back up with Valley Way, the trail we had taken up. But we missed the turn-off and continued down Brookside, which would still get us back to the car, it was just steeper than the other trail. All of a sudden, Mike stopped in the trail and turned to me and whispered, "Is that a black bear?" OMG!!! there about 50' ahead of us laying completely across the trail was the biggest damn bear I have ever seen!!! It was sound asleep! I immediately told KT to grab Clover and move quickly back uphill. I should have taken a picture, but I decided to let sleeping bears lie and beat feet. About a 1/2 mile back up the trail, we ran into two guys coming down. They had a dog. We warned them about the bear ahead and they agreed to follow us back up the trail to connect with a different route. We crossed back over the creek, connected to a path that took us back up several hundred feet to Dome Rock.

Dome Rock

We ended up going several miles out of our way and climbing much more then we had intended, so this day ended up being an 11+ mile jaunt with about 4500' of gain. So far, KT and I had managed almost 17 miles and 7500'. Who would have thought that would happen in the Appalachians? Mike headed back to Boston, while KT and I decided, gosh we should get a little more mileage and gain . . . so, on to Mt. Washington on Monday - the big daddy of the East. We're tough. What's a few more thousand feet gain and several miles? At the trailhead, there's a warning.

Right . . . .

Don't believe everything you read.

"Wildlife"

This guy was quite accustomed to visitors! But, enough wildlife, we were on a mission - soon our destination was in sight.

Another summit!

We even were able to get a kind soul to take our picture on top.

Check hiking boots!

(do we look fit or what?) OK, back up, here's the truth, we left Clover in the motel and decided to get some help up the hill - not particularly speedy, but it's fun to do . . . once!

Casey Jones eat your heart out!

Tracks leading up the hill!

Because . . .

Heading up the hill on a different path

At the top of Mt. Washington

The Prez trio - Jefferson, Adams and Madison (left to right)

Lots of weather stuff on top

On the top

Road heading down off the mountain

Route from Washington to Jefferson

Trail and ridge from Washington to Jefferson

We got lucky

Hikers coming from Jefferson toward Mt. Washington

I think I can . . . I think I can

Railway to the sky . . .

Probably just as well, save some adventure for the next time!

We'll be back!

Fun to hike (or is that run?) with KT, Mike and Clover. Back in Boston and it's nice and sweltering! PNW air conditioning will feel great.

[TrailPair]

Gee, I didn't know there was a "tree line" on the Appalachian Trail. Nice report

[Middle E]

You stayed in Bartlett? That's really a destination! Back in the day when the 36 year old guidebook was brand new, I worked summers in Crawford Notch State Park, which is the least developed of the 'Notches'. Bartlett was the closest town to the south, 12 miles, or you could go to Twin Mountain to the north, also 12 miles. There was not much to do in one's spare time except hike, which I did a lot of! The state park straddles US302, which is the most direct route from Quebec to the Atlantic Ocean (at Old Orchard Beach, Maine), and heavily traveled by French Canadians in the summer months. Some days it seemed there was more French being spoken than English. A coveted summer job for robust NH lads (and lasses) who loved the mountains was to work for the AMC hut system. This entails packing 80-100 pound loads up the huts every few days during the '11 on, 3 off' work schedule you noted. Thanks for all the pictures - they bring back a lot of good memories, and it's nice to see that everything looks much the same. Next time, I want a picture of the bear!

[SeaTacExpat]

Great shots of the Whites - I had a chance to explore them when I lived out east several years back. I especially liked the shots of Mt. Jefferson - about half of the route is more scramble than trail, but that seems to be forgotten in most trailbooks..

[Sadie's Driver]

[Yet]

Aw, poor Clover! SD, you and your daughter are such slackers.

[Tazz]

jefferson is one of my favs in the whites! thanks for the flashbacks of my fav area in NH! Oh I need to get back there to visit...

[Sadie's Driver]

[GeoTom]

Hope Clover recovers soon. Jasper's buddy Loki tore the skin on his paw pads on our trip to Marmot Pass/Buckhorn Mountain a week and a half ago. He was running around our backyard on the 4th of July though., so his recovery is proceeding nicely.