Tuckerman Ravine and the Great Gulf Wilderness

Date of Hike: 7/18/10

Tuckerman Ravine Trail: 4.2 miles
Gulfside Trail/Mount Clap Loop: 2.3 miles
Sphinx Trail: 1.1 miles
Great Gulf Trail: 2.0 miles
Nelson Crag / Old Jackson Road: 5.2 miles
Total Miles: 14.8 miles (7,000 feet elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- The forecast on Mount Washington called for starting in the clouds then clearing to in and out of the clouds under mostly sunny skyies...Perfect weather for a long day hike!
- On Trail at 7:30am, summit of Washington at 10:00am, finished at 4:30pm. Temps below treeline in the 70's with decent views, Mount Washington Summit in the morning was 49 degrees with wind chill of 40, very low visibility, winds of 30-50mph.
- I decided to hike up Tuckerman Ravine to the summit which I had not done since I was a teenager, I had descended "Tucks" several times since then but for some reason just didn't get back to hiking up it.
- The views hiking up the headwall were pretty interesting, to the east towards the Wildcat Ridge were sunny with high cloud cover but immediately above me were a thick blanket of clouds that soon came rolling in. (click here for video clip)
- Once above the headwall I was in the clouds with visibility at about 75 to 150 feet which dropped to about 50 feet with some pretty good wind gusts at the summit observatory and along the Cog Railway. (click here for video clip)
- From Washington my next goal was to hike over Clay and to the Sphinx Col where I would hike down the Sphinx Trail and check out my newly adopted trail the Sphinx.  While hiking on the Mount Clay Loop Trail the views opened up for a few minutes here and there from time to time.
- It was my first time on the Sphinx Trail and loved it, it's steep, rocky, part of the trail is a mossy brook bed, passes by a couple of awesome cascades, and has rough and rugged footing as well as great views into the great gulf. The trail is in excellent shape and the only thing I'll have to do for now is clip back a couple of overgrown branches here and there and make sure the couple of water bars are clear.
- Once I reached the Great Gulf trail I had two options, descend to Pinkham Notch in the woods with no views via Great Gulf, Madison Gulf, and Old Jackson Road OR hike one of the best parts of a trail around UP the Great Gulf headwall and then over to the Nelson Crag Trail back to Pinkham enjoying many miles with many views...of course I chose the hike with the views!
- As I ascended the headwall above the clouds continued to blanket Washington (so much for that forecast!) but everywhere else in the Great Gulf up to Jefferson through Madison was wide open with sunlight and high puff clouds making for some great views.
- Last year when I hiked up the Great Gulf Trail I lost the trail about halfway up and ended up about .1 miles to the left of the trail, this year I was able to stay on the trail and what a difference that made making the ascent much more enjoyable.
- Once above the headwall I was back in the clouds until I hooked up with the Nelson Crag Trail where I was awarded with great views of the Northern Presidentials to my left, the Wildcat/Carter/Moriah Range in front of me, and partial views of Huntington and Tuckerman Ravine up to the Boot Spur Ridge back and to my right.
- Once back below treeline I was exhausted and had to gut out the last 1.1 miles on Nelson Crag and another 1.7 miles on Old Jackson Road but at the end of the day it was worth it as I got to hike up the most traveled trail up Washington (Tuckerman Ravine), check out one of the least traveled trails in the Whites (Sphinx), enjoy the great Great Gulf Wilderness views while climbing up the Great Gulf headwall, and enjoy the descent above treeline on the Nelson Crag Trail!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Bright Sun and Puffy Clouds

Above Hermit Lake Shelters

Last of the Snow (near lower right)

in Tuckerman Ravine

Tuckerman Ravine Trail

Mount Clay Loop

Sphinx Col

Looking down the Great Gulf Trail

to Spaulding Lake

Nelson Crag Trail with the Boot Spur

off in the Distance

"The Adams Family"

Date of Hike: 7/17/10

Airline / Shortline / King Ravine Trail: 4.6 miles
JQ Adams Summit: .4 miles
Sam Adams and Adams V: 1.5 miles
Lowe's Path: 1.2 miles
Gray Knob / Spur Trail: 1.4 miles
Amphibranch / The Link: 2.6 miles
Total Miles: 11.7 miles (5,000 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- The RMC (Randolph Mountaineering Club) has carved a ridiculous amount of trails from the west that head deep into the ravines and ridges of Mount Adams and Mount Jefferson and on Saturday I headed deep into the King Ravine to hike one of the most spectacular and wild trails in the White Mountains.
- My goal for the day was to hike up the steep King Ravine Trail and then summit Mount Adams and its four sub-peaks (JQ Adams, Sam Adams, Adams IV, Adams V).
- On trail at 7:45am, Mount Adams and all sub-peaks 10:30am - 12:15pm, finished 2:45pm, temps hot and humid below treeline, in the high 50's with 30-45mph winds above 5,000 feet, very hazy views.
- For this hike the fun really started at Mossy Fall on the King Ravine Trail, from here you ascend 2,000 feet in about 1.3 miles.
- The first highlight is when you come to a fork in the trail where you have the option to hike the main and easier path "Elevated" or the alternate "Subway." The Subway leads down into, under, over, and through some pretty huge boulders. (Click here for video)
- The Subway rejoins the trailer proper and then comes to another fork in the trail, where you have the option to stay the course or veer right into the "Ice Caves." The ice caves are a series of boulder caves similar to the Subway but with more tight, tougher, and underground spots. (Click here for video...not 100% in focus, camera lense missing and trail was tough so lots of bouncing around!)
- The ice caves usually maintain ice in them year round and in a couple of places has the feel of walking through a storage freezer. In two places ice was still remaining which is amazing considering the heat wave of the summer of 2010.
- Once past the ice caves the real hiking starts as the foot of the headwall is reached and over the next .5 miles you ascend 1,100 feet up boulders, boulders, and more boulders until you pass through the "Gateway" between two huge crags before gaining the ridge. One of them is an extreme steep smooth rock wall rising to the right of the trail and to the left of the trail high above are outcropping rock ledges below the Airline.
- I was pretty exhausted when I finally made it to the Airline, it had been awhile since I had enjoyed a trail that much as well as being wiped out that much.
- From here the hiking was very easy, first I branched off the Airline and rock-hopped over the summit of JQ Adams, where there are some killer close up views of Mount Madison. Then I reconnected with the Airline up to the Mount Adams main summit and then down to Thunderstorm Junction. From here I ventured off the trail to Mount Sam Adams and instead of hooking back up with the Gulfside Trail I hiked along the ridge above it until I found the Storm Lake, which is a small body of water hidden along the ridge.
- From here I dropped down off the ridge crossed the Gulfside Trail up to Adams "V" peak. I relaxed here for a while with the Great Gulf and Mount Washington looming in front of me and then headed back to Thunderstorm Junction on the Gulfside Trail where I hooked onto Lowe's Path and up and over Adams "IV" peak.
- The hike back to the car went pretty quickly, I jumped onto the Gray Knob Trail and checked out Gray Knob and Crag Camp huts. Crag Camp is perched high above the King Ravine and has magnificent views into the ravine and all the way over to Mount Madison.
- This hike beat me up more than I though it would, I find the approaches to Mount Adams much more strenuous than Mount Washington (with the exception of Huntington Ravine) as well as the summit cone around Adams with rougher smaller pointier boulders which do a number on the boots...With that said it felt great after two weeks away to be back hiking in the White Mountains!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

Mossy Fall on the King Ravine Trail

"The Subway"

Storm Lake

King Ravine

Spur Trail

"The Devil's Rejects"

Date of Hike: 7/11/10

Devil's Path/SW Hunter Spur Trail: 13.3 miles
Route 214: 1.8 miles
Becker Hollow Trail: 2.0
Spruceton Trail/Road: 6.7 miles
Total Miles: 23.8 (6,150 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- After I week off from hiking I was ready to get back into a weekend in the Whites, unfortunately with rainy cloudy weather and no views on the higher elevations I decided to head west to the Catskills!
- Having already took on an out n' back of the Devil's Path eastern section in May (click here for that trip report) I returned to do an out n' back of the western section.  However within a couple of miles I had made up my mind to change up my hiking plans.
- Unlike the grueling, excessively steep, and fun east section of the Devil's Path the west section is very tame, easy, and other than Diamond Notch Falls beyond boring!
- In order to make the day more challenging I looked at the maps and came up with a pretty killer loop hike that involved the Devil's Path, some road walking, a 4,000 footer, a carriage road trail, and some more road walking all of which created a hike I'll call "The West Kill~Hunter Range Traverse"
- On trail at 6am, Stony Clove Notch (Route 214) 11:30am, finished at 4pm.  Weather was in the mid to high 70's and humid, partly cloudy skies, good views from the outlooks and fire tower.
- There were not many highlights while hiking the west part of the Devil's Path or the spur trail to SW Hunter summit. I didn't see a single person, there weren't many views, the "cave" was well a little sub-par, I fell hiking down to Diamond Notch Falls which was bad enough to knock the lens off my camera rendering the zoom function useless and making most of the pictures I took out of focus. However Diamond Notch Falls was beautiful and a great spot to cool off, the lean-to between the Hunter mountains was old but well built, and I found it humorous that some of the trail signs were wrapped in gridded wire to keep porcupines from ripping them to shreds!
- At Stony Clove Pond I took a much needed break to refuel before I started my road walk to the Becker Hollow trailhead.  The walk on Route 214 was exciting for a little while but after about ten minutes I just wanted it to end because my feet where taking a beating on the pavement.
- The hike up Becker Hollow trail to Hunter Mountain's summit was pretty grueling as the temps were now pretty hot and the humidity was starting to get to me.  While ascending I finally ran into other people hiking in a big group of about ten or so who were going extremely slow but enjoying their hike.
- There were some pretty good views to the east above 3,500 feet, excellent views near the 4,040 foot summit to the west, and super 360 degree views from the old fire tower.
- The hike down Spructeon trail was fun as the trail is an old horse carriage road with easy grades with great footing. There is a fairly new lean-to the trail passes by that has been assaulted by a porcupine in one spot and a spring with water dripping into an old barrel where I was able to cool off from being a little overheated.
- The final stretch was the road walk along Spruceton Road back to my car, this was much more fun than walking along Route 214, this section of road has a few old houses and old farms in the middle of nowhere and was very enjoyable and picturesque.
- Once back at the car I was pretty exhausted, hiking in the Catskills while fun becomes tiring because all hiking is in the woods and lack open views.  However the weather was great, I was able to do a super long hike, and the hike up Hunter Mountain was awesome!

Pictures: Click here for all Pictures

Devil's Path

Southwest Hunter from Hunter Mountain Summit

Hunter Mountain Fire Tower and Cabin

Spruceton Road