Trip Report: Presidential Traverse Fall 2017

Seventeen hours of hiking summits with endless beauty and one evening with stars you have never seen before. I have been thinking about doing the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountain National Forest for a while but never had the courage to do it alone. I finally got fed up and did it. Here is how I went about it.

Transportation

The traverse is not a loop so either you have a car at each end of the trail or grab a bus from the Highland center for twenty bucks at nine am and get dropped off at the start at the Appalachian trailhead towards 10 am.

If you take a bus, take it to the end of the destination. You don’t have to worry about catching one when finishing your trek. 

Gear

I had about 17 kg of weight on my back. I could have gone a little lighter especially if I didn’t drag my bear can and if I reduced the amount of food I brought. I only needed on meal of dehydrated food. As for the bear can, I wasn’t sure what to expect for animal activity so I chose to err on the side of caution. I used a cheap military sleeping bag as old as me; I could’ve saved weight if I had something fancier.

The most useful piece of gear, I would have to say was my hiking poles. When you are carrying a lot of weight, it makes a big difference to have poles to help keep your balance and reduce ankle and knee strain. 

Clothes:

• MEC T3 Hoodie 
• MEC T2 Merino hoodie 
• Synthetic T shirt 
• Salomon soft shell pants 
• Sandals 
• Gore-Tex running shoes 
• Wool-synthetic mix long johns 
• Two extra pairs of wool socks 
• Wool hat 
• Gloves 
• Neck warmer 
• Visor 
• Black Diamond Hotforge Hybrid Jacket 
• Gore-Tex Jacket 
• Rain pants 

Cooking Gear:

• Beer can stove (DIY alcohol stove)
• MSR Titan 850 mL titanium pot
• ~300 mL of Methanol (fuel for the stove) 
• Two lighters 
• Aluminium Windscreen 
• Bear can 
• Plastic Fork 
• Four liter camelbak (if I had a two liter one I would have used that) 
• 750 mL bottle 
• 500 mL bottle 

Food:

• Two ziploc bags full of granola mix 
• Three instant oatmeal packs 
• Two dehydrated meals 
• Four Packs of Gatorade type mix 
• A banana 
• A pack of peanut butter 

Sleeping Gear:

• Military sleeping bag 
• Sleeping pad Thermarest 
• Hennessy Hammock Expedition Asym Classic

Other things:

• 50L old Mammut pack 
• Bear mace 
• Small first aid kit 
• Including six water purification tablets 
• Pill bottle with various pills 
• Climbing tape 
• Multi tool 
• Map 
• Compass 
• Toothbrush and toothpaste 
• Black Diamond Trail hiking poles

The route

I am not going to go in depth as to what trails to take. It is almost a straight line from Madison to Pierce so looking at a map should give you an idea of the trails to take.

For almost all the peaks, there is a trail that avoids the summit which is good if the weather gets bad. Where to get water and what trails to go down if you ever need to bail are covered in this blog.
It took me a little less than 17 hours of hiking with rests to accomplish the minimal presidential hike (Mt Madison to Mt Pierce) which is about 32 km.

Day 1:

9 AM Caught bus at Highland center
10 AM Dropped off at Appalachia / Valley Way trailhead. Took Valley Way then Air line to the AMC Madison Springs Hut.
1:45 PM Summit Madison

View from Mt Madison of Madison hut and Mt Adams

   3:15 PM Summit Adams

   5:15 PM Summit Jefferson

View of Mt Washington and Mt Clay from Mt Jefferson

6:10 PM Headed down Sphinx trail to camp

Day 2:

7:30 AM Head back up Sphinx trail
8:15 AM Mt Clay Summit
9:20 AM Mt Washington

Summit of Mt Washington with another hiker who is named Greg too

     10:50 AM Mt Monroe

     11:45 AM Mt Franklin

View from Mt Franklin

12:45 PM Mt Eisenhower then continued over Mt Pierce
2:20 PM AMC Mizpah Spring Hut
4:00 PM Back at car after hiking down Mizpah cutoff to Crawford path

Lessons Learned

Aside from the couple kilograms I could have shaved off from my pack, my water management could have been better. I assumed I could get clean water on day one at the Madison hut but it turned out it was already closed for the season. Thankfully, I was carrying iodine tablets so I purified water.

I let myself get dehydrated the second day. On day one, I calculated that I went through three liters of water so I attempted to save on weight by dragging two liters and hoping for find some water on the way. By the time I found water, I was dehydrated. This was pretty much at Mizpah hut. Once you are dehydrated enough, you are going to get a headache. I wanted to continue the traverse over Mt Jackson but I was too unmotivated due to my dehydration headache.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! Next time, I want to try it starting from Mt Jackson. I enjoyed doing it alone. You move at your own rate and there is something restorative about being alone in the woods. That being said, sharing an experience with a friend is epic and in two weeks from now, it’s going to happen.