Trail Adopter: The Sphinx Trail

Since getting back into serious hiking over the past couple of years I have always kept my eye on the AMC Trail Adoptions list hoping some interesting trails in the Pemi Wilderness or the Presidential Range would be available.  A few days ago I checked the list and saw a couple of kick ass choices that were availabe, and although my first two choices ended up being taken (Mount Clay Loop and Mount Eisenhower Loop) my third choice (Sphinx Trail) was still available and I was happy to accept the challenge of trying to maintain this rough and wild trail deep in the Great Gulf Wilderness!

Maintenance Requirements
My duties will be to remove blowdowns, keep any draining structures clear, cut those annoying hanging branches in the trails back, paint blazes where needed, fix cairns, and anything else to keep the trail well maintained, enjoyable, and easy to follow.

Trail Location
The Sphinx Trail branches off from the Great Gulf Trail at 3,619 feet and ascends 1,367 feet in 1.1 miles to the Sphinx Col at 4,975 feet inbetween Mount Clay and Jefferson.  There will be two ways to access this trail, from the east it's a 5.6 mile hike in from Route 16 via the Great Gulf Trail or from Pinkham Notch Visitor Center via Old Jackson Road, Madison Gulf, and Great Gulf Trail.  This will be the easiest way to access the trail with no steep elevation gains, no above treeline hiking, and no high winds to worry about. From the west I can access the Sphinx Trail by hiking up the Jewell Trail and the Gulfside Trail (4.5 miles) a more enjoyable hike on a nice weather day but more strenuous.

Trail Description (From AMC White Mountain Guide Online) :
The trail branches northwest from the Great Gulf Trail near the crossing of the brook that flows down from Sphinx Col through the minor ravine between Mt. Clay and Mt. Jefferson. It soon turns due west and ascends close to the brook, first gradually, then very steeply, crossing the brook four times and passing several attractive cascades and pools. Just before the third crossing the trail runs along the steep edge of a flume-like formation. For about 100 yd. above the fourth crossing it runs directly in the brook bed, where the rocks are extremely slippery. At the foot of a broken ledge with several small streams cascading over it, the trail turns left away from the brook and angles up across two more small brooks with a couple of short tricky scrambles. It climbs a small, fairly difficult chimney where views out from the scrubby slope start to appear, then scrambles up ledges with several rock pitches of some difficulty. About 100 yd. above the chimney, after a slight descent, the trail crosses a small meadow where there is usually water under a rock just downhill to the north of the trail. The trail then climbs steeply up a rocky cleft, ascends easily over the crest of a small rocky ridge, and descends into a slight sag. It finally climbs to the ridge crest and traverses a grassy passage at the base of a rock wall to the Gulfside just north of Sphinx Col.

Sphinx Trail outlined in red (image from google earth)

Sphinx Col

Crawford Path and the Cog Railway (Mount Pierce, Eisenhower, Monroe, Washington)

Date of Hike: 4/24/10

Crawford Path: 3.1 miles
Webster Cliff Trail: .2 miles
Crawford Path: 1.2 miles
Mount Eisenhower Loop: .8 miles
Crawford Path: 1.4 miles
Mount Monroe Loop: .7 miles
Crawford Path: 1.6 miles
Cog Railway Tracks: 3.0 miles
Base Station Road: 1.0 miles
Total Miles: 13 miles (elevation gain 5,650)

Trip Report:
- With a promising forcast for Saturday I decided it would be a pretty cool idea to hike the Crawford Path all the way up to Mount Washington as well as Mount Pierce, Eisenhower, and Monroe along the way.
- Since a majority of this hike was going to be above treeline I wanted to make sure I got on the trail early to give myself plenty of time in case I had any problem locating trails or if anything went wrong I'd have plenty of time to bailout before dark.  However this meant another early ride up from RI
- Left RI at 3:15am, on trail at 6:30am, finished at 1:30pm.  Temps in 30's above treeline with 20-40 MPH wind out of the west. Sunny skies, 100 miles visibiliy!
- On drive up to Crawford Notch I was lucky enough to see two moose, one in Franconia Notch and another about a mile after I took a right onto Route 302
- Trail was in decent shape for first .5 miles and then I was surprised to see there was still alot of snow below treeline, luckily it was packed solid and made for a quick and easy hike until the tracks I had been following wandered around a few different ways just below Mount Pierce Summit
- Winter conditions are making one final stand on the higher summits and after last weeks snowfall no one had broken out the trail between Pierce and Eisenhower, the trail was tricky to follow a couple of times in spots in the scrub where the cairns where burried in the snow.  If the visibility was low and the weather was iffy I would have turned around and got off the moutain ASAP but because the weather was perfect I was able to carefully stumble back on the trail not falling into any spruce traps
- I didn't stay long on the summit of Mount Eisenhower because the wind was whipping, the views looking back to the south to Pierce and up towards Washington where kick ass as always! (Click here for video Clip)
- On the Way to Mount Monroe I made a side stop at the tiny Mount Franklin summit which had terrific views into the Oaks Gulf/Dry River Wilderness
- After Going up and over a windy Monroe and down to Lakes of the Clouds I got out of the wind and relaxed/reheated in the sun and put on all my winter gear (snow pants, crampons, mittens, etc.) for the 1.5 mile slog up to Washington.  Luckily the winds started dying down as I got higher and higher which made for a pleasent climb
- Just below the summit I finally ran into the first two people of the day who had come up Ammonoosuc Ravine trail and where headed down the Jewell Trail
- I made it to Mount Washinton summit at 11:30, there were quite a few people, mostly all skiers, only a handfull of hikers and one dog who was running around having fun
- I decided to descend along the side of the Cog Railway tracks, I had always wanted to do this to see what it was like.  It was the quickest way down I have ever hiked and was pretty easy going, the only steep part is a section above and next to "Jacobs Ladder" 
- About two dozen skiers and handfull of snow boarders coming up to go ski into the Great Gulf and all around where the snow was still deep and not chewed up
- Back at the Marshfield Station I started to walk the Base Station Road to Mount Clinton Road back to my car which is 5 miles but about twenty minutes into my walk a couple of AMC crew guys were nice enough to let me jump in the back of their truck and drive me the Highland Center at Crawford Notch across the street from my car!

Pictures: Click here for all Pics

Mount Eisenhower, Monroe, & Washington Summit

Mount Eisenhower Summit

Mount Monroe

Southern Presidential Range

Lakes of the Clouds Hut & Mount Monroe

Great Gulf Wilderness

Cog Railway down to Brenton Woods

Jacobs Ladder

Hope Springs Eternal (Mount Little Haystack, Lincoln, Lafayette)

Date of Hike: 4/3/10

Falling Waters Trail: 3.4 miles
Franconia Ridge Trail: 1.6 miles
Greenleaf Trail: 1.1 miles
Old Bridle Path: 2.9 miles
Total Miles: 9.0 (4,200 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- I was going to take the week off from hiking but seeing the incredible forcast for Saturday I couldn't pass up a chance to get up to the mountains for a quick hike of one of the most popular loop hikes around...the classic Franconia Ridge Loop
- What a difference a week makes! Last Saturday I hiked in total winter conditions, frigid weather, ice, deep snow, steep slopes, wind etc...this week 60 degrees, slush for snow, powerful sun, no wind, postholing!
- Left RI at 4:40am, on trail just after 7:30am, finished around 1:30pm.  Temperature at trailhead were 42 degrees and rising fast, warmed up to about 60-65 degrees on the ridge!  Clear skies made for 75 plus miles visibility
- Trail consisted of mud, rocks, monorail snow, postholing snow, chopped up slush snow, rotting snow, slippery snow, and ice snow, every kind of snow except for powder snow!.  I brought all my winter traction and ice axe but other than wearing my microspikes up to Little Haystack the other gear never left my pack.
- All the water crossings on Falling Waters trail were running high and slick, every crossing was half rock-hopable half you're going to get your boots wet but not to difficult
- At the second crossing I made it across mostly unscathed and was thrilled, I wanted to take a picture and my camera wasn't strapped to my pack, I had left it about .2 miles down trail at the prevuois crossing...needless to say as I re-crossed the brook my right foot went in up to my knee!  My toes got pretty cold but with the warm temps I knew by the time I got into the sunshine on the ridge and a change of socks I'd be fine
- Popping up out of treeline and stepping onto the Franconia Ridge Trail never gets old, the views are some of the best and no matter how many times I've hiked this section of the trail I always find myself stopping over and over again to take in the views!
- The walk across the ridge was great as usual, most of the trail was mud and bare rocks, except for a few sections between Lincoln and Lafayette that had slippery snow with one or two pretty gnarley dropoffs
- I saw about a dozen people on the ridge, all kinds of hikers out and about and as I desceded the Greenleaf trail I ran into two guys, one with ski's one with a snowboard.  They were headed to a small, steep, insane vertical looking shute between Lafayette and Lincoln
- The hike from Greenleaf hut to the car was slower than usual because the trail is beat to crap, plus I fell and smashed my upper back into a boulder.
- Ran into three more skiers who had aborted their hike up the mountain, they tried telling me the were going to ski "Tuckermans" as in Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington, wrong guy to try to pull that one over on dudes! I should have responded with "Yeah and I just took a piss off Lunch Rocks!!"
- All in all a great day on a great hike that never gets old!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Mount Lincoln

Mount Liberty and Flume from Mount Lincoln Summit

South Twin Mountain with Mount Washington

Looming in the background

Franconia Ridge

Eagle Lake and Mount Lafayette