Last week I went backpacking for three days / two nights with my brother-in-law, Casey, in the White Mountains of NH. These are the mountains I grew up hiking in and it was great to get a chance to see them again before heading over to Europe. We had a full-value White Mountain experience: hard rain, driving wind, piercing blue skies, bright sunshine, clammy fog, trails full of boulders & roots & downed trees left at just the right height to poke out your eye, beautiful alpine meadows & vistas, and barely anyone else on most of the trail. Unfortunately my phone battery died after the first night so I don’t have many pics & will instead have to rely on the descriptive power of my words instead ;).
We have discussed that the hikes & adventures we have undertaken probably place us somewhere in the top 1-5% of the hiking population. Casey fits in the 0.1-0.01%. He’s quite humble and unassuming, but well more than a few thousand miles of trail and many summers working trail crew & fire crew in Montana turned him into a backcountry machine. Hence, he is the “Trail Boss”.
Casey also picked up a strong “affection” for ultralight backpacking years ago when he through-hiked the PCT. My packing has historically been on the other end of the spectrum, which has provided us (or at least me) no end of entertainment while hiking together. On this most recent trip the (completely normal, regular) toothbrush I brought looked like a bear club next to the thin, 2-part collapsible stick that Casey used. Other accoutrements commonly found in my overnight backpack such as a solid metal whiskey flask or fresh apples & oranges are completely anathema in Casey’s pack. He can also often be observed doing such things as dumping water out of his pack because “it’s too heavy to carry now – we’ll find some later before camp” (we didn’t), sleeping on 1/2 length 3mm foam pads, or cutting up sleeping bags to remove “excess” insulation. Though, he’s probably on to something because he can kick my ass on the trail any day.
To prove the above point, Casey ran 9 miles Monday morning before we even started off on the hiking trail, around noon that day. Our first 12-13 miles were along the Dry River Trail, in the Dry River Wilderness, a wide valley south of Mt. Washington that sees relatively little hiking traffic. This is likely due in no small part to the rather rough nature of the trails there. Under normal conditions the trail is rough enough, with plenty of up and down over roots, boulders, downed trees, through bushes, etc. In general it feels like putting in an effort equivalent to ~3 mph on nice groomed PCT-type CA trails gets you ~2 mph on these. The Dry River trail, though, has been hit by recent floods in the past year resulting in significant portions of trail being washed out by mudslides or collapsing river banks, or just completely disappeared underneath tangles of downed trees and muck. Fun hiking :).
We were expecting rain our first afternoon on the trail, and were not disappointed. Light showers started about an hour in to our hike, turning into several 20-30 minute long full-on downpours later than afternoon, complete with thunder and lightning on the ridges around us (we were safe in the valley). After the first of these downpours both Casey & I were completely soaked through and subsequently found ourselves hiking along a trail that had turned into a small river of muddy water for the rest of the day, at times shin-deep. Our spirits were still high, however, because the ambient temperature was relatively warm and we knew our gear was protected inside the packs by pack liners.
That evening during a lull in the storms we found ourselves at a dry and inviting 3-sided forest service shelter where we stopped to camp for the night. While we were cooking our dinner a lone hiker showed up on the trail in our footsteps, with spirits not quite so high as ours. He was on day 2 of a ~14 day thru-hike of the area and very relieved to find the shelter, where he spent the night with us. With our gear hung out inside the shelter to dry we settled in to a night of continued showers, but no more thunder & lightning.
The next morning dawned windy and mostly cloudy with a bit of sun. Our new thru-hiking friend was looking rather despondent when he woke up, and by the time Casey & I were packed up and hiking out of camp ~0830 he was still just sitting in his sleeping bag sipping his coffee looking sad. For the rest of our hike we wondered if he rallied and kept going or if those storms on day 2 were just too much to push through at the beginning of his long hike…
This second day of hiking embodied the White Mountain hiking experience that draws people here from all over. We continued on up the Dry River trail to the Lake of the Clouds Hut (an AMC mountain hut that houses hikers and serves them meals) and then on up to the summit of Mt Washington @ 6,288 ft above sea level, highest peak in the NE USA. As we climbed out of the Dry River valley towards the hut we rose up into the clouds and the wind began to pick up significantly. By the time we crested the major ridgeline just before the hut and ~1000ft below the summit of Mt Washington the wind was whipping past at what must have been 60-70 mph. It was easily as strong as the wind Kevin, John, & I battled on the top of San Gorgonio earlier this spring, maybe even a bit stronger. Both Casey and I were nearly knocked over once or twice. We regrouped inside the hut for a few minutes, had a quick snack and looked at the map, then pushed on the next mile up to the summit of Mt Washington, where the wind was still blowing a constant 50 mph, but not gusting quite as strong as when we crested the ridge before the hut.
The Mt Washington summit is usually a zoo filled with clueless tourists due to the presence of an auto road and cog railway leading from the base right to the top, where there are several buildings including a science building for meteorologists and a tourist building with cafe & other tourist stuff. The inclement weather this morning seemed to keep some of the people away, though, and it was relatively quiet on top compared to how it often is. We hung out in the cafeteria for a bit and had a snack there while we watched the clouds slowly part to reveal a bluebird sky and stupendous view of the presidential range, north and south of us. After our snack we headed down towards Tuckerman’s Ravine (famous backcountry ski spot) but then veered off to the Davis Path, which would eventually take us ~15 miles back to the trailhead.
Down the shoulder of Mt Washington the wind continued to roar around us, though now we had a warm sun on our backs and gorgeous views all around. We eventually made our way below treeline again where the wind was much quieter and we could enjoy a long pleasant hike through the woods. We passed over the summit of Mt. Isolation, named such because it is one of the most isolated 4000 footers in NH, though it only comes in at 4005 ft. Six feet lower and no-one would care about it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Our afternoon hike through the forests along a slowly rolling ridgeline brought our mileage for the day to around 15-16mi before we ended up at our campsite for the night on top of Stairs Mountain, looking out at another beautiful view of the southern White Mtns.
After a well-appreciated sleep that night we woke up the next morning to small blackfly type bugs buzzing around our camp, surprisingly the first real bugs we had to deal with this trip. Once we were packed up and moving down the trail they mostly left us alone, and we had an easy 4-5 mile hike out downhill to the trailhead through the typical New England hardwood forest. The trailhead was on the edge of the Saco river, which looked too inviting to pass up and I took a short swim there to wash off before heading home.
Wow. Real trees and forest. I wish we had those shelters here on the west coast. Great report. Made me want to go and revisit that area. Dorie and I are thinking about a New England tour next fall. We used to ski Tuckerman’s Ravine.
Green. Shade. Rain. So completely different from our usual.
As we prep for our 2-week backpack in the Sierra we need to adopt some of those weight saving ideas from Casey.