Frigid Black Friday: Pierce & Jackson

Date of Hike: 11/29/13

Crawford Path: 3.1 miles  /  Webster Cliff Trail: 2.6 miles  /  Webster-Jackson Trail: 2.6 miles
Total Miles: 8.3 (2,700 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- My original plan for Black Friday was to get up really early and head up and roam around the southern Presidential Range from Jackson to Monroe.  However, I saw that cloud cover was going to swamp the higher elevations most of the morning so I decided to stay below the clouds and hike Mount Pierce and Jackson.
- The Crawford Path was a mix of snow and ice so I put on my microspikes and headed up the 'ramp' to treeline.  Temps were in the single digits so it was a chilly but beautiful hike up to Mount Pierce.  From now until late April, early May the trees and trails will be covered in snow!  However, there still needs to be one more good snowfall before all the ice is hidden.
-  Just as I expected I saw Mount Eisenhower covered in clouds so I headed over Pierce and then dropped down to Mizpah Spring Hut on my way to Mount Jackson.
- There is a really beautiful alpine meadow with bog bridges just before heading up the tiny summit cone of Mount Jackson.  It's quite the sight to see, because before and after it you are totally in the woods then all of a sudden comes this patch of open space with terrific views!
- Mount Jackson was really cold, I have found that it's always one of the more windier summits and the cold really bites through you.  I didn't stay long until heading down the icy Webster-Jackson Trail where I encountered a lot of ice everywhere.  It's not easy to descend on ice but it sure doesn't make the trail look pretty.
- Along the way I started running into quite a few other hikers along the way.  They all times it perfectly as the views were starting to open up big time around 1 p.m. just as I finished!

 Gibbs Brook Dam

 The Crawford Path

 Small blowdown up the trail

 Grayjay!

 Snow blanketed Crawford Path

 Reaching treeline on the Crawford Path

 Crawford Path / Webster Cliff Trail Junction

 Heading up to Mount Pierce

 Frosted cairn on Mount Pierce

 Mount Pierce's summit in view

 Sun trying to burn through the clouds above Mount Pierce

 Mount Pierce Summit

 Christmas Trees!

Hiking along the Webster Cliff Trail 

 Ladder steps, these will be buried soon!

 Mizpah Spring Hut

 Closed until the spring!

 Mount Jackson in view

 Alpine Meadow

 Alpine meadow bog bridges

 The beautiful alpine meadow of Mount Jackson's northern shoulder

Heading up to Mount Jackosn's summit ledges 

 Steep final push up to Mount Jackson

 View north to Mount Pierce from Mount Jackson

 Mount Jackson Summit

 Dry River Wilderness

 Mount Isolation (I think)

 Mount Jackson Summit Cairn

 Webster Cliff / Webster-Jackson Trail Junction

 Mount Avalon

 Frozen staircase on the Webster-Jackson Trail

Silver Cascade Brook 

 Top of Crawford Notch

 Highland Center

 Mount Tom

 Webster-Jackson Trail

 Approaching Route 302

 Sacco Lake

 Sacco Lake and Mount Webster

The Red Sox Shoe Car!



Socked in on the Southern Presidentials

Date of Hike: 11/7/10

Edmands Path: 2.9 miles
Mount Eisenhower Loop: .8 miles
Crawford Path: 1.2 miles
Webster Cliff Trail: 2.6 miles
Webster-Jackson Trail: 2.6 miles
Route 302/Mt. Clinton Road: 2.4 miles
Total Miles: 12.5 (3,750 elevation gain)
Click here for trail descriptions page

Trip Report:
- After a long and tiring hike on Saturday and with a promising forecast for Sunday I was hoping to head up Mount Eisenhower via the Edmands Path and turn north up to Monroe and Washington then head down the Jewell or Cog Tracks and hoof it back to my car. However the Presidential Range had other ideas for my hike!
- I was on the trail at 8am and although the Edmands Path has moderate grades I had an awful time trying to hike at my usual pace.  What made things worse was the Mount Washington Observatory forecast of "in the clear under increasingly cloudy skies" was missing the part about the big time undercast as my hike up the Edmands Path was in the clouds.
- Once I popped up above treeline and hit the Crawford Path/Eisenhower Loop I was greeted with a steady 30 mph wind out of the north, views of a couple hundred feet, and full winter conditions with microspikes on my boots.
- As I headed up the Eisenhower Loop I knew I would be changing plans.  Washington was in the clear but how far above the undercast it was I had no idea and knowing that there was a good chance I wouldn't have ran into anyone from Eisenhower to Lakes of the Clouds and heading two miles strait into the wind with low visibility was not a smart thing to do on a solo hike.  So I played it safe (or wimped out) and decided to head over to Pierce and Jackson for the day.
- Eisenhower summit at 9:45am, Pierce 10:35am, Jackson 12pm, finished 2:30pm.  Temps in the mid twenty's to low 30's, 30 plus mph wind out of the north, totally socked in views, snow and ice!
- Once I descended from Eisenhower I was shielded from the wind and started to warm up.  The trail between Eisenhower and Pierce ranged from icy, frozen mud, couple inches of snow, and rocks with ice where the microspikes came in really handy.
- I figured I'd start to run into people when I was around Pierce or descending to Mizpah Hut but still I saw no one!  When I arrived at Mizpah Hut I took a few pics and made a new friend (click here)!
- The hike over to Jackson was more fun than it normally is with all the snow and ice especially the section over the bog bridges through the alpine meadow.  With the low visibility and snow everywhere it made for a very eire and cool feeling.
- The finally climb up to Mount Jackson over the steep ledges was alot of fun but it became very cold once I was out in the open.  The wind was still a constant 30 mph out of the north with some really big gusts approaching 40 mph.
- I finally ran into people hiking up while descending from Mount Jackson.  I took a break at the Webster-Jackson fork junction to eat some food, shed layers, and remove my microspikes.  While zoning out I was startled by a guy coming up the trail asking if I had seen any "Yaks".  I thought I misheard him and he really said "tracks" but no he repeated "yaks".  I have no idea what he was talking about other than animals so I said "I saw Yax Tracks but no animal or people tracks!"...he said "mmm no yaks" and happily went on his way!
- The road walk back to the car on Mount Clinton Road went really fast.  I passed by two hunters with their hounds about to head into the woods and I was stunned to see more than a half dozen cars and a big group of people at the Edmands Path trailhead when I finished, there was not one car when I arrived this morning.
- Eventhough there wasn't a view to be had it was still a real fun hike in the Presidential Range and for better or worse from now until late April it'll pretty much be all snow and ice in the White Mountains!

Pictures: Click here for all pics

View from Mount Eisenhower Summit

 Crawford Path

 View from Mount Pierce Summit

Alpine Meadow on Webster Cliff Trail 

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