Hiking in the White Mountains: goldendoodle

- July flew by in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and I stayed on track to reach my goal of one million feet of elevation gained by the end of summer for the Do It for the Vert 2026 Challenge. For the month, I stacked up 137,785' to go with 330 miles on trail, raising my yearly total to 877,671'. With another great month behind me, I have moved my goal from the last day of summer, September 21st, up to August 31st.

- The month started off with Sarge watching the snow arch melt away in Tuckerman Ravine. After the 4th of July, he was able to jump up on the last big block of crumbled snow from the arch, and by the 10th he got in his last "turn" of the year for "Bowl Pawtrol"

- July was also the second Run the Whites - White Mountain Throwdown of the summer, Skookumchuck / Garfield Ridge Trail to the summit of Mount Lafayette, 5.1 miles and 3,650' feet of climbing (Results). This combination of trails has the best footing to the summit, soft trails and easy grades for the first two miles followed by some punchy steep sections over mostly good footing until gaining the ridge, then a sustained moderate grade to the summit over slab and dirt. My goal for the run was to try and beat my Tuckerman Ravine Trail Thowdown time of 1:14:48, which was over 4.2 miles and 4,200' of climbing. To prepare for the run, I took the weekend off from rock hopping in the Presi's, doing a Carrigain - Nancy Loop, and spending some time in Shelburne's tail system off North Road. Monday, I took a zero day and Tuesday morning I hit the trail at dawn and gave it my all. I felt good over the first two very gradual miles, and felt great during the steeper climb toward Garfield Ridge Trail. The last half mile until breaking above treeline meanders a bit and it was the only part where I didn't feel locked in, but once I hit treeline and the junction I was refreshed and motored to the summit as fast as I could, clocking in at 1:15:17, a half minute from my goal. Was I upset about the time? Hell no, I was pumped to come so close, be able to push the pace, and feel fine post run considering how many miles and elevation I have been grinding out for over six + months straight! There were over 120 runners that took on the throwdown, I placed 40th, pretty - pretty good.

- The most creative route I had in July was doing all the trails in the Dry River Wilderness + summiting Washington for my New Hampshire 4K #3,000 on Sunday the 26th. I started out along the Dry River Trail for 4 miles, then did and out and back of the Isolation West Trail, 4.8 miles, followed by another out and back off the Dry River Trail, 0.6 miles on the Mount Eisenhower Trail to the Dry River Cutoff junction, before making my way 4.3 miles past Dry River Falls, Dry River Shelter, and climbing up and out of Oakes Gulf to Lakes of the Clouds Hut where I ran into Austin, Nate, and Todd who Sherpa'd me up to Washington before I double back to the hut, 3.0 miles, and continued 2.0 miles south to the the top of the Mount Eisenhower Trail. From the alpine zone, I dropped 2.1 miles into the Dry River Valley over a cushy trail bead to the Dry River Cutoff, which was the complete opposite, a muddy ascent of 2.0 miles to the Mizpah Spring Hut. The last descent of the day was 3.0 miles over my favorite trail in the Dry River, the Mount Clinton Trail. It's remote and wild, I have hiked this trail close to a dozen times and have never seen a soul on it. 2.5 miles of this trail is in great shape, the other 0.5 miles has some eroded and muddy spots to contend with but nothing to difficult, although there are three spots where hikers could get lost when descending. The highlight of the trail is the end where it dumps out into the Dry River off an eroded cliff bank followed by a river bed walk to the Dry River trail junction. From the junction I hiked 3 miles of the Dry River Trail back to 302. It was the perfect way to summit my 3,000 4K, 30 miles in mostly wild terrain deep in the Dry River Wilderness that is constantly changing from storms that have wiped out riverbanks.

- The month ended on a high note for Sarge too, I was able to get him to Evans Notch for a Baldface -Meader Loop and over to Franocnia Notch for his annual "Classic Franconia Doodle Loop" at dawn before work!

- Looking to August, the first weekend will be MMD 50K, a fun run and BBQ I organize for enthusiastic mountain runners. Outside of that it will be more of the same, rock hopping the Rockpile during the week and exploring different areas on the weekends.

Sarge heads into the Bowl to check out what is left of the snow arch

Sarge was sad that this was the last of the snow

Beautiful July morning on Mount Washington

Sarge taking in the view from above Tuckerman Ravine just north of Tuckerman Junction

Hermit Lake, AKA HoJo's, and the floor of Tuckerman Ravine

That's a wrap! Sarge gets the last turns of the year in Tuckerman Ravine on July 10th

Mount Jefferson's Monticello Lawn

Madison Spring Hut and Mount Madison

Heading south along the Gulfside Trail just past Thunderstorm Junction

Great Gulf Wilderness

Descending Crawford Path to Lakes of the Clouds and Mount Monroe

Catching up with friends crewing a White Mountain 100 slackpack effort

Views from a Mount Carrigain to Nancy Loop

The soft, sweet, and picturesque railroad grade of the Nancy Pond Trail

Sarge scampers up Wildcat the morning after Seek the Peak

Cushy trails up to Bald Cap Peak

Gorham and the Presidential Range from Bald Cap outlook

Classic Franconia Ridge picture after finishing the Run the White Skookumchuck Throwdown

Eagle Lake and Mount Lafayette

Sarge is all smiles on the Polecat ski trail early on a Friday morning

King of the Cat!

Baldface Knob

Beating the heat on the Baldfaces. Sarge takes a water break in the shade

North Baldface summit

Landslides from hundred-year storms of 2011, 2017, 2022 that destroyed the Dry River Trail between mile three and four.

Forgiving footing along the Isolation West Trail

Dry River Falls

Dry River Shelter and the wild and secluded upper end of the Dry River Trail

Lakes of the Clouds

Amazing views above treeline along Crawford Path

Dry River Cutoff and Mount Clinton Trail

Mizpah Springs Hut

Looking upstream along the Dry River, the Mount Clinton trail drops abruptly from the cliff bank on the left.

Rock hopping the river, looking downstream at the suspension bridge

Dry River suspension bridge

Greenleaf Hut

Above treeline heading up to Mount Lafayette

Franconia Ridge

Classic Franconia Doodle Loop!

Seven months down and feeling fine! Jan: 100K / Feb 125K / March 120K / April 114K / May 117K / June 162K / 138K. Amber just ticked over 2 million feet of elevation gained as she chases the world record for most vert in a year. She spent the month in Vermont doing repeats on Mount Mansfield's ski trails. She is scheduled to attend MMD, can't wait to see her grind out elevation for a day back in the White Mountains!

- Month #2 of the 2026 Elevation challenge was a huge success. I was able to get in 125,000' of vertical gain in the 28 days of February. 70K on foot and 55K on my splitboard. I have been widely enjoying sunrise skins up Wildcat Mountain and snowboarding down. I've caught a few glorious sunrises from the Polecat Ski Trail while getting lucky with comfortable weather and little to no winds most mornings. As the days have gotten longer, I have mixed in a few late afternoon Wildcat laps, heading up after last chair and snowboarding down at dusk. The afternoon lap has its pros and cons, the advantages is the temperature is warmer, the disadvantage is the trails have been skied off, sometimes down to ice.

- On days when we get fresh snow, I head across the street to HoJo's to snowboard the Sherbie. We didn't have any huge snowfalls this month, but I was able to get in a half dozen Sherbie runs, down from ten last month. My Wildcat runs went up in February, from eight to twenty. I prefer the Sherbie because I can go during my lunch break, and it's a more exciting ride down, but as an intermediate-level snowboarder, I need fresh powder to enjoy navigating the dozens of moguls.

- On foot, I was able to get in a few beautiful days above treeline. The highlights of the month were two solo bluebird days on Madison and Adams. Three perfect days with Sarge, two in the Presi's (Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, and Pierce and Eisenhower), and a terrific day on Franconia Ridge.

- We also spent time doing local favorites, hikes up to HoJo's, Imp Face, Chapel Rock. Mixed in with all this was couple of North of the Notch Run Club Wednesday night meetups and knocking off some 4000's for Grid #3 on weekends when the weather was too cold to go above treeline.

- After two months, I am up to 225K of elevation gained, a quarter of the way to my goal of 1 million. If I stay healthy and strong, I hope to achieve 1 million by September 20th, when I leave for Arizona for two months. We shall see!

- Best pictures of the month below, enjoy!