My name is Chris Dailey and you can usually find me on and off trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. When I was a child my family did the "tourist thing" and rode the Cog Train up into the clouds to the summit of Mount Washington. My father, who had never hiked before, stood in a cloud on the observation deck when all of a sudden the clouds cleared off revealing the northern Presidential Range and the Great Gulf Wilderness. From that moment there would be no more taking trains, auto roads, or leaf peeping drives through on the Kanc, it was time to hike.
My first hike up a 4,000 footer was Mount Washington when I was nine by way of the Jewell and Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. We stayed at Lakes of the Clouds Hut which at the time was affordable for a family of four, not so much anymore unfortunately. I don't remember much from the hike other than my dad saying if my brother, Joe-Ben, and I didn't complain we'd each get $10... and I remember my dad mooning the Cog Train!
Over the next several years we would hike a few of the 48 - 4,000 footers in New Hampshire, Mount Katahdin's Knife's Edge in Maine, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. When my brother and I went off to college my parents would go on to hike the 48 - 4,000 footers of New Hampshire and were usually accompanied by our dog Teddy. I didn't hike anymore except for a rare occasion on summer breaks, where I'd head up with my dad and Teddy to hike Mount Washington via Huntington Ravine or to hike the classic Franconia Ridge loop. Eventually, I lost interest all together and didn't hike from 2001 to 2006.
In 2006 my college friend Brandon Blindt asked if I wanted to go hike the Knife's Edge on Mount Katahdin, I remembered when I was younger loving that hike so I tagged along. It was a one in a million day on Katahdin, no wind, no clouds, extreme heat and humidity, and I just winged it in my sketcher sneakers, cotton everything (I didn't have the super cool trail runners, good backpack, camelback, etc.,) and loved every second of it!
A couple of months later I would finally head back up to the mountains and do a Franconia Ridge loop hike, and the following summer of 2007 I would make my way back to Mount Washington via Huntington Ravine. Later that summer I hiked Mount Moosilauke and I was slowly starting to get back into it. Over the winter of 07/08 I was reading the old guidebook my dad had from 1987, and decided I was going to hike the remaining 48 - 4,000 footers. I then did research online and stumbled across something called am extended Presidential Traverse (Madison through Webster)...in one day, I decided I'm going to do that! Once June and the summer solstice came around I headed up with my dad who car spotted me and up the Valley Way I went. When I popped above treeline and took in the views heading up the summit cone of Madison I was hooked and haven't stopped hiking since.
Since that day I have hiked all of the 4,000 footers in the Northeast, explored old abandoned trails, off trail slides, historical old logging campsites, while mixing in trail running with hiking.
In October of 2015, I moved to New Hampshire from Rhode Island to a nice little home in the heart of the White Mountains. As of June 2017, I have a new hiking buddy Sgt. Pepper the Golden Doodle "Sarge." :)
If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at dailey7779@gmail.com
Happy Hiking!
-Chris
My first hike up a 4,000 footer was Mount Washington when I was nine by way of the Jewell and Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. We stayed at Lakes of the Clouds Hut which at the time was affordable for a family of four, not so much anymore unfortunately. I don't remember much from the hike other than my dad saying if my brother, Joe-Ben, and I didn't complain we'd each get $10... and I remember my dad mooning the Cog Train!
Over the next several years we would hike a few of the 48 - 4,000 footers in New Hampshire, Mount Katahdin's Knife's Edge in Maine, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. When my brother and I went off to college my parents would go on to hike the 48 - 4,000 footers of New Hampshire and were usually accompanied by our dog Teddy. I didn't hike anymore except for a rare occasion on summer breaks, where I'd head up with my dad and Teddy to hike Mount Washington via Huntington Ravine or to hike the classic Franconia Ridge loop. Eventually, I lost interest all together and didn't hike from 2001 to 2006.
In 2006 my college friend Brandon Blindt asked if I wanted to go hike the Knife's Edge on Mount Katahdin, I remembered when I was younger loving that hike so I tagged along. It was a one in a million day on Katahdin, no wind, no clouds, extreme heat and humidity, and I just winged it in my sketcher sneakers, cotton everything (I didn't have the super cool trail runners, good backpack, camelback, etc.,) and loved every second of it!
A couple of months later I would finally head back up to the mountains and do a Franconia Ridge loop hike, and the following summer of 2007 I would make my way back to Mount Washington via Huntington Ravine. Later that summer I hiked Mount Moosilauke and I was slowly starting to get back into it. Over the winter of 07/08 I was reading the old guidebook my dad had from 1987, and decided I was going to hike the remaining 48 - 4,000 footers. I then did research online and stumbled across something called am extended Presidential Traverse (Madison through Webster)...in one day, I decided I'm going to do that! Once June and the summer solstice came around I headed up with my dad who car spotted me and up the Valley Way I went. When I popped above treeline and took in the views heading up the summit cone of Madison I was hooked and haven't stopped hiking since.
Since that day I have hiked all of the 4,000 footers in the Northeast, explored old abandoned trails, off trail slides, historical old logging campsites, while mixing in trail running with hiking.
In October of 2015, I moved to New Hampshire from Rhode Island to a nice little home in the heart of the White Mountains. As of June 2017, I have a new hiking buddy Sgt. Pepper the Golden Doodle "Sarge." :)
If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at dailey7779@gmail.com
Happy Hiking!
-Chris
Summit of Gothics with the Great Range behind me (Adirondacks, July 20014)
Sarge and I on Moosilauke (White Mountains, March 2020)
