Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Eisenhower and Pierce. May 28, 2018

About 10.1 miles, 3,100 feet

Mt. Clinton Road, Edmands Path, Eisenhower Loop Trail, Crawford Path, Crawford Connector.

Union of Concerned Scientists is an organization that works to further the public's knowledge of the environment and suggests how to be more environmentally friendly.  For example, here are UCS articles on how to increase vehicle fuel efficiency and make one's vacation as environmentally friendly as possible.

Alex has also made a trip report of her experiences on this hike, as we took different paths.  Go to alexinthewhitemountains.com to check it out.  Note: she will not be posting this report until tomorrow.

We started out in daylight, after a 45-minute drive from our house.  Alex is trying to complete one round of the 48 solo; therefore, whenever we can (not during the winter), we let her hike by herself.  So, on this hike she started out going up Mount Pierce via Crawford Path while Mom and I walked the two miles on Mt. Clinton Road (because it is closed) to Edmands Path and started up Mount Eisenhower. 

However, we decided to take the first picture of the day together...

Photo by Trish Herr
From the parking lot, all three of us walked a short way on the Crawford Connector to where it intersects with Mount Clinton Road.  Here, Mom and I said goodbye to Alex.  We started the road walk toward Edmands Path and she walked what was left of the Crawford Connector and then up Crawford Path.


After the road walk, which was very green and beautiful, Mom and I got to the Edmands Path trialhead.



Photo by Trish Herr
We started up Edmands.  It was flat for a while, but then it started going up more steeply.



We saw two fallen trees that had pulled their roots and a great amount of dirt up when they came down.  It was quite amazing.




Yay!  We got to tree-line (however, there were no views, just fog) and the intersection between Mt. Eisenhower Loop and Edwards Path.  Mom and I started up Mount Eisenhower.


Here is what Mount Eisenhower looked like from the above intersection...


We ran into Alex coming down Mount Eisenhower!  She had gotten up Pierce and over to Eisenhower already.  We chatted for a little bit and then continued on our separate ways (she was to go down Edmands Path, then walk Mt. Clinton Road to our car, and wait there and we were to continue over to Mount Eisenhower, then Mount Pierce, and then down Crawford Path to our car).



After seeing Alex, we continued up Eisenhower...



Yay!  We got to the summit of Mount Eisenhower.  All the snow was completely gone, and it was very foggy, but we were happy to be there.



Photo by Trish Herr



We then continued over to Mount Pierce, seeing some beautiful flowers along the way.





Yay!  We got to the summit of Mount Pierce!  We had a snack before heading down Crawford Path.





Photo by Trish Herr


Hiking down, the bugs started to come out.  Before, because we started so early, there had been none, but as the day went on they became more noticeable.  However, we were almost done for the day and they didn't bother us that much.



We got to the intersection between Crawford Path and Crawford Connector, then walked the .4 miles on the Crawford Connector back to the car.  Mom and I met up with Alex and we all agreed that we had all had fun and that it had been a good hike for everybody.


Monday, May 14, 2018

Moriah. May 9, 2018

Alex and I are alternating writing the trip reports. So, to check out our last hike in the White Mountains, go to Alex's blog.

Carter Moriah Trail, 9 miles, 3550 feet

Union of Concerned Scientists is an organization that furthers scientific and public knowledge about climate change and clean energy.  They also give the public many ways to take action, such as offering different kinds of emails one can sign and then send to politicians.  Click here to find out ways you can take action.

We started out in daylight, feeling warmer than we have in months.  Instead of our usual long-sleeves, we had T-shirts under our coats.  The warm weather affected our mood, and we were all pretty chipper.


The trail was relatively flat starting out...


A slight hill, but the sun was so beautiful we didn't really notice!


Silhouette!




 This was amazing to see. I can only imagine the multitude of organisms that live in the dirt and old roots.


The trail started to go up more steeply, but it wasn't too bad yet...


Some views!




We started to see the first signs of snow after we passed the summit of Mount Surprise.  However, we delayed putting on our microspikes for as long as we could.




We finally caved about our microspikes after we slipped a couple of times.  It was easier than we thought to put microspikes over trail runners, though the microspikes were a bit big.



We finally got to the sign by the summit!


An artistic photo... 


The very small sign...


We got to the summit and walked onto a beautiful rock ledge with amazing views and a very blue sky.  It was a wonderful day!





We stopped for longer than we usually do on the summit, as it was such a beautiful warm day!



Heading down...


We noticed a huge amount of feathers strewn about the trail while we were nearing the bottom of the mountain.  This was the largest grouping of them; it was very strange.


The very last stretch of trail before the car...


And we were done!


It was a wonderful hike on a beautiful warm day.  It truly felt like spring!