Chuckle gets his first big hike - Trans Presidential Traverse

Sat July 13th, '13
Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Washington, Monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, Pierce

Since starting hiking ive been hearing about few of those special long hikes in the Whites that are treasures. One of them was Presidential Traverse. I wanted to do it for the last year and a half. I was little concerned at first about my abilities to do so and maybe thats why at first i didnt really truly plan on doing it. But with my experience getting better and me getting more fit and able to hike for longer periods of time i was getting antsy to finally do it.

I have planned it on doing it in winter, hearing that it was actually easier with all the snow packed in between huge boulders that all Presidentials are made of. Tha way you skip hopping and most of the scrambling. Unfortunately last winter weather did not cooperate that well. My few dates that i could actually do it had to be cancelled because of snowfall or way below freezing temperatures. I was very disappointed when on my last date the winds decided to be over 60mph on Washington summit. Winter Presi Traverse was a dream once again.
Spring has passed and the Summer approached and i had my hopes growing again. I decided to ask one of the experienced Facebook friends to join me, hoping for some advice and ideas for future hikes.
We had to delay the date couple weeks because of the family visiting and Riches hiking plans.
But finally on July 12th i found myself driving to Highland Center to meet with Rich and spot cars. We then spent the night in Hikers Paradise motel and put the foot on the trail at 5:15 at the Appalachia parking lot.

We started the trek from Valley Way trail.That section of the hike, kicked my ass!! I was barely catching breath and sweating profusely. We were going fast paced, around 5mph and in 2 hrs we were at the Madison hut.  Quickly we left the packs and "ran" up the mountain. For the first time on Madison i had views!! Usually there was some fog accompanying me. We had another hike take a pic of us and Chuckle had his first "chuckle"on the mountain.
On the way down i fell in the spruce trap (yeah in the summer, who would have thought) and scratched myself a little, my leg would burn me all the way to Washington and then again around Pierce.
We got some extra water from the hut at the bottom and out some sunscreen on, sun was getting higher on the sky and it was suppose to be almost cloudless day.
                     

      We went off  to Adams shortly after. Going up to first section of Adams is hard, there are several sub peaks around and you have to know which is actual Adams summit and not too climb unnecessary peaks. I almost went up one of those! Thank god for Rich, he knew where we were going.Swarms of bugs greeted us on top of Adams. We did not spend much time around there. Quick shots and we were on our way down lookig for Thunderstorm     Junction. From there it was all the new things for me. I have not been in that section of the range before. I was really excited.What a beautiful area it was. I could not believe my eyes. This part of the hike was for sure one of my favorites. Great Gulf Wilderness is just breathtaking.
I did not realized how broad the whole Jefferson massive was. I only hiked it one before from the other side of the mountain. I liked this view much better. It was pretty easy to get up there though. I recognized the summit area and all the intersections nearby. I have been there before with my dogs only and had the summit to myself. This time it was also pretty quiet.

One person swung by while we were there but he didnt even stay for a minute. Monkey and Chuckle got their shot taken and we went down looking for Gulfside trail.The area there is suddenly very flat and covered by grassy field. Its called Monticello Lawn and its very beautiful. Rich said he would love to be able to camp there one day,  you just do not wanna leave that area right away.
On a way to Clay i started feeling a little more tired but still with tons of energy. We didnt see any signs there just little cairn.
Then it was the final approach to the mighty Washington. Also never have been on that side of the mountain before. I admired the rail cog on its way down. There were many colorful wagons on the trucks but only two of them actual rail carts. One of them passed us on our way and we took pics of it, also we got photographed by people riding in it. Yeah, we were the stars!!! After walking under the rail i decided to pick up the pace even more. I felt that summit rush, wanting to get the the summit even faster. Silly me, wasn't paying attention to where i was going. After maybe 10 min Rich is calling after me, it turned out i totally missed a trail and i was following something else. We could not even see where was the right trail any more. We decided to "rockwack" it.

That section of the hike turned out almost the most tiring. There were patches of grass in between the rock sections and it was really hard to walk in it fast. My feet were sinking in grass and i slowed down a lot. There went my summit fever. I was sweating and puffing.After a little while we finally found the trail. From then on it was much easier, we also started seeing a lot of people.
And of course at the summit we saw tens of tens of tourists. There was no chance we could get a pic of us at the summit. We had our lunch and studied the map a little. We checked if maybe the line shortened but there were still a lot of people so we just run up and touched the marker. Also at the summit i met my friend Kim. It was nice to chat for a bit.

I was itching to go back to the hike though so we hit the trail once again. That part i knew well. I have done it twice before so i focused on footing more and dodging the crowds going up.
We got ourselves more water at the hut and got ready to go.
Monroe seemed like a breeze. It always is very fast but this time seemed even faster. Next in line was Franklin and Eisenhower. Once again part that i have not been on before. I have not realized how pretty the area was! I was absolutely amazed. Second of my favorite part of the hike. The ridge walk was just out of this world. I stopped several times to admire the scenery. We talked to an AT hiker on his way to Mitzpa hut,he was on his Second month of hiking and said he loved White Mountains as well.
We went over Franklin but i was not sure where the actual summit was, from there to Eisenhower was just a short section. Trail there was very pretty and i liked it a lot, the summit itself was less attractive and we only stayed couple of minutes.

At that point we got to some sections where the trail goes in the tree line, there was still a lot of ridge walk but slowly you were getting ready for your way down in the trees.
Summitting Pierce wasnt as exciting and i got a little deflated. I wasnt too tired just sad it was over already. We opted for not going over Jackson and headed down back to the intersection and on a path that would take us down towards Highland Center. Whole descend seemed longer than it was and i almost jogged parts of it. We were happy to get the the end. Surprisingly i was not that tired. I think i could stretch the whole thing a little and hike for even longer.
So i think i should plan my next long hike soon.
Rich was an awesome hiking partner and we had really nice time. Our pace matched pretty well and i hope to hike with him soon again.