Mt. Madison & Mt. Adams
Where: Mt. Madison (5367') & Mt. Adams (5793'), NH
When: 10/3/2024
With: Solo
I was already two hours into my drive north when dawn finally broke. I'd had a fitful night of sleep (as usual before a hike), and rolled out of bed 20 minutes before my 5AM alarm. I got on the road quickly and was at the Appalachia parking area three hours later. When I'd driven past Appalachia about the same time two weeks ago on my way to Mt. Cabot, it had been full, with cars overflowing onto the highway, but today there were plenty of open spaces.
One other hiker was packing up to go, and he set off while I was getting ready. I was on my way up the Valley Way trail pretty quickly, a few minutes before 8:00, but never saw him again. A few steps along, I came to the junction with the bottom of the Air Line trail. Depending upon how I felt after climbing Mt. Madison, I might climb Mt. Adams as well and Air Line would be my return trail. Or I might just tag Madison and return down Valley Way.
The lower part of Valley Way was fairly mild, following a pretty stream (Snyder Brook). After a bit it turned rocky and steeper, but still wasn't too bad to walk. I paused briefly to take off my North Face sweater and stow it in my pack. It had been cold on Jefferson last week, so I'd also packed my Patagonia puffy jacket. The day turned out to be warmer than expected though, and both the jacket and the sweater just went along for the ride.
A sign appeared for a Forest Protection Area (FPA) boundary, with a map showing the area ahead. Those boundaries mark no camping/fires zones to protect fragile areas. The zones (in purple on the map below) are 1/4 mile from shelters, huts, and trailheads, and 200 ft. from certain trails and water bodies. I thought that meant I was getting close to the Valley Way tent site, but it was for the brook running beside the trail, and I still had a ways to go.
Eventually I arrived at the side trail leading to the tent site. As I approached, I heard a noise behind me. A young man & woman in t-shirts and running shorts were moving quickly up the trail, with a dog tagging along, and they passed with equally quick greetings. A bit later I came to another FPA boundary sign (for the 1/4 mile zone around the hut). Just a few steps after that sign, there was a large campsite with a fire pit between the trail and Snyder Brook. I took a few moments to explore a side path there that led to a view of the brook.
Returning to the trail, I continued my climb and arrived at the Madison Spring AMC hut at about 10:20. The hut was closed for the season, but I could hear activity inside as the hut was being prepared to be shuttered for the winter. I wandered around outside for a bit, checking out the area and taking photos, then headed toward the summit of Mt. Madison, half a mile away on the Osgood trail.
The trail quickly emerged from the scrubby trees around the hut onto a bare, rocky slope. Cairns marked the way up the rocks, but the route was still somewhat difficult to follow. The Osgood trail is part of the Appalachian Trail though, so occasionally there were white AT blazes on the rocks. About halfway up, the couple with the dog passed by, going down at a quick pace. The dog was doing remarkably well! I continued to carefully make my way up, cramming my hat down on my head to keep it from blowing away.
A summit rise appeared, which of course was not the summit. The actual summit was just a short distance further though, and I made my way up the summit rocks to claim #41 of my NH48. It also completed my climbs of the Presidential Range peaks. I've explained often that I've climbed them in random order: Washington, Adams, Eisenhower, Jackson, Pierce, Monroe, Jefferson, and now Madison. This was also the final 5000+ foot peak on my NH48 list. All of the 48 are at least 4000 feet high, but six are 5000+ feet high and one (Washington) surpasses 6000 feet (6288).
I joined another hiker hanging out by some trail junction signs. "This must be the top," I said, and he confirmed. He said he'd been looking for a summit medallion (without any luck), but we both agreed we were at the top. He was also from Massachusetts (Tewksbury), and agreed to take my photo for a summit picture. I took a wind/weather reading with my handheld meter and he talked about the various devices and systems he was using to allow his wife and others to keep tabs on him while he hiked. I didn't say anything, but thought, "Well, I left Jane a note that I was climbing Mt. Madison in NH, and I've got a map..."
I stopped for a snack near the hut, then began my walk. The trail was nearly level to start, travelling along the rim of the Great Gulf with spectacular views. The fall foliage was pretty much at peak color, and the view in every direction was gorgeous. The path passed Star Lake (mostly dried up), then began to ascend. There were some scrubby trees at first, but it quickly turned into an open, rocky slope. Cairns - some big, some just a few smaller rocks - marked the way, along with faded blue paint blazes. Sometimes the trail was apparent, and sometimes I just beelined to the next cairn.
I used my hands often as I made up way slowly upwards (I'd stowed my hiking poles in my pack before heading up Madison). I was acutely aware that a) there was no one else around and b) a slip on these rocks would be...problematic, so I was extra cautious in my foot & hand placements. Slow and steady, one step after another, I thought. One foot in front of the other. I was in no great hurry and knew I'd make it eventually.
The trail went through a particularly steep, rugged section, then leveled off (a bit) on a shoulder. It had been heading southwest from the hut, but now it turned northwest and aimed at the summit. More rough scrambling and hands & feet rock climbing, and then there was only one bit of rock above me. I climbed up and found other hikers and trail signs. I was at the summit of Mt. Adams again (I'd been there in 1997).
In hindsight, I hope they forgive me! As I began my hike down Air Line, I realized it was much easier to hike and follow. Rugged, to be sure, but with large, obvious cairns and none of the semi-rock climbing sections of the Star Lake trail. Hopefully they made it down okay (or turned back quickly). For my part, I made my way steadily down Air Line, passing trail junctions and other hikers heading up. One woman asked my opinion for routes to Madison after Adams, and I told her to come back down Air Line.
At the bottom of the main summit slope, at the rim of King Ravine, I met an older gentleman wearing an AMC t-shirt who was heading up. We exchanged the usual, "How are you doing?" greetings and he said he'd just come up the King Ravine trail and was pretty beat. The name of the trail sounded vaguely familiar, and when I reached its junction a few minutes later, I remembered why. The trail sign there said, "Not recommended for descent." It's one of the most difficult trails in the Whites, and one of The Terrifying 25. From that junction, the Air Line trail followed the rim of the ravine, and I kept pausing at view points to marvel at the view.
As I made my way along the trail, I was entertained by a helicopter making runs to/from the hut. It came around Madison from the north, with a large bundle wrapped in white hanging from a cable. It hovered over a spot by the hut, where folks on the ground released the bundle. It then moved to another spot closer to the hut, and other folks attached another bundle (a net full of material) to the cable. The helicopter then headed back the way it came with the bundle in the net. It made at least 10 runs while I hiked along. No idea what it was bringing in or taking out.
Finally, the exposed trail moved back into the tree cover and began to descend the ridge. It was a tough, rocky descent, dropping 4500' feet in 4.3 miles, nearly a 28 degree average slope. Coming at the end of the hike, after climbing two 5000+ foot peaks, my legs were not happy! I kept hoping the trail would level off or smooth out a bit, and it did - briefly - at one point, but for the most part it was just a steep, rugged downhill slog. I'd brought my poles back out up on the ridge, and I used them steadily now to stabilize each step down.
I refused to look at my trail app to see how much further I had to go, concerned I'd find the answer discouraging, but I kept track of trail junctions I encountered. There's an extensive network of trails along the northern slope of the Presidential Range maintained by the Randolph Mountain Club. They mostly head along the side of the slope (rather than up to the peaks).
The junctions became more numerous the further down I went, and I began to hear road traffic about the same time the trail finally turned into a smooth, level dirt path. It emerged into a power line cut, made one final turn back into the trees, then ended back at the Valley Way trail. From there it was just a few steps back to the parking lot. I'd guessed a 3PM finish time, but it was 3:45. My descent from Adams had taken nearly 3 hours. I de-geared myself, settled into the comfort of the car, and pulled into the driveway 3 hours later.
Notes:
- I beat the AMC's "book time" for the climb to the hut by a lot (2:20 vs. 3:40), but was pretty much on target for the climbs to both Madison & Adams (30 minutes for Madison, an hour for Adams). As I said, I took a cautious approach climbing the rocks.
- I recorded the hike on the OsmAnd+ app on my phone, but other apps (and the AMC's White Mountain Guide) gave different numbers for the distance and elevation gain. The distance ranged from 9.9 to 10.1 miles and elevation gain ranged from 5036 to 5209 feet. All were within 2-3% of each other though. Close enough!
- In some respects this was an unremarkable hike. There was no drama - a straightforward drive to the trail, no parking problems, no slips & falls, no wrong turns, no foul weather, no equipment issues. Yes, the mountains and views and weather were amazing, and the folks I met were nice. But really it was just a day (nearly 8 hours) of walking, mostly by myself.
- Wait! There was one hitch. I usually make a pit stop at the Hooksett rest area on 93 on the drive north, but it was closed. There'd been a minor fire which was quickly extinguished, but someone pulled an alarm at the gas pumps and the fire suppression system went off. I pulled into the next rest area up 93, but its rest room facilities weren't open yet. I wound up using the porta-potties at Falling Waters/Old Bridal Path trailhead parking area in Franconia Notch.
Here's a screenshot from the Mt. Washington Observatory's North view webcam, showing most of the peaks I've climbed recently. In the foreground are the Northern Presidentials: (L:R) Clay (which I haven't summited), Jefferson, Adams, Madison. Behind them are Waumbek & Cabot.
