Deep in the Dry River Wilderness

Date of Hike: 6/13/10

Saco River Trail: 1.8 miles
Dry River Trail:4.7 miles
Mount Eisenhower Trail: 2.7 miles
Crawford Path: .2 miles
Mount Eisenhower Loop: .8 miles
Crawford Path: 1.2 miles
Webster Cliff Trail: 7.3 miles
Total Miles: 18.7 miles (4,650 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- On Trail at 6:30am, finally above treeline at 10:45am, finished at 3:30pm. Temps were above 60 degrees all day, no wind, cloudy but pretty good views.
- The first 9 miles of this hike were brutal! The Dry River Trail has one spot with a great view into the Oakes Gulf up to Mount Monroe, Washington, and the Boot Spur but other than that once you get past the Mount Clinton Trail junction it's a rugged, wet mess, with numerous small blowdowns which become very annoying after the fifteenth one!
- The Mount Eisenhower Trail although easy was a struggle, the last mile of this trail has not been trimmed back in years and you have to just slog through all the tiny fern branches, plus the trail "Corridor" is very low so if you are over six feet tall you may get your eyes poked out!
- Once I finally popped up above treeline I was rewarded with some of the best views looking down into the Dry River Wilderness up to Mount Isolation and the Davis Path.
- From here the hiking was alot of fun as usual, I ran into dozens of hikers of all kinds coming from Mizpah Hut heading to Mount Pierce and Eisenhower.
- The large summit cairn on Mount Eisenhower has been taken over by huge nasty-ass wasps that were probably going to start stinging if aggrivated in any small way...watch out!
- At Mizpah Hut I relaxed for a little bit and had the greatest coffee cake ever (take that Drakes coffee cake!)
- On the Way over to Mount Jackson and Webster I finally had great views from both summits after two previous clouded in hikes.
- The hike down Webster Cliff was phenomenal! The views down into Crawford Notch and the close up view of Mount Willey were incredible. The hike along the ridge on the Webster Cliffs is tremendous and made the last stretch of the hike alot of fun!

Pictures: Click Here for all Pics

Dry River Suspension Bridge
Hiking along the Crawford Path (AT)
to Mount Eisenhower
Alpine Meadow on the Webster Cliff Trail (AT)
Crawford Notch from Webster Cliffs

1 comment:

  1. about to give this a try this week. do you know if the mt clinton trail is as bad as the upper stretch of the dry river trail?

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