If i haven't been blackballed since my poke at "peakbaggers" (if i'm one of them, aren't i allowed to joke?), i'd love to hear some hints/opinions about...
1) If i tag the sign, climb the tower, walk in the middle of the road, do a jumping jack at the intersection of Ebright & ______ (i forget), kiss the USGS marker, and offer a beer to the owner of the highest trailer...is it safe to say i've really, truly highpointed Deleware?
2) For fellow HP walkers, which street would make for the most pleasant 1-mile HP walking approach? I'm assuming there is no way to approach by trail or park...just by trailerpark.
3) Does anyone have recommendations for a nice overnight backpack approach to Mt. Washington? I'll be there the first week of October and with an inexperienced companion, so i need to try to stay away from trails that could become technical or particularily rime-icy.
4) Does anyone have recommendations for dinner nearby Mt. Washington?
5) I know my trip reports got buried, but i'm still wondering if i walked the "right" road up to Charles Mound, and if there are thoughts about the marker being the true HP...also i'd be curious to hear feedback on the alternate route i hiked up to White Butte.
Thanks for the input...and i'm looking forward to the next open access day at RI. I'll be the one casually walking a grid over the whole area, nonchalantly taking pictures and measurements, but most certainly NOT peakbagging. For the 19th time.
Almost everyone does Mt Washington as a day trip, it's four to five miles each way with about 4,000 feet of elevation gain whichever way you go (assuming, of course, that you do not start at Springer Mountain ).
The most used route is up Tuckerman's ravine, and it goes through a spectacular ravine. The fact that it is heavily used should not bother you in October. You could loop down by either the Boott Spur or the Lion's Head trails, the latter is steeper and rockier.
We happen to have 2 days, so i'm just figuring why not stay out there and enjoy them both in a beautiful place. (Besides, it's turning into a personal eccentricity of mine to make each highpoint more difficult than necessary.)
I looked thru your site and will do that again when i have my maps in front of me. Sounds like i have lots of good options.
Camping near Mt Washington is problematic. Lakes of the Clouds will be closed, there won't be enough snow to camp above treeline, there's no camping allowed anywhere in the Cutler River Drainage (basically the whole eastern side of the mountain).
This leaves you with a few options.
1) Stay at Hermit Lake Shelters, down below Tuckerman Ravine. It's the only place in the Cutler River Drainage you can camp, but it doesn't cut off a huge amount of the trip. It's nice up there though, and you can then do a day hike loop up Tuckerman down Lion Head.
2) Camp in the Great Gulf Wilderness Area. The hike in is about 5 miles, you can only camp below the Sphinx/GG trail junction so you still have the whole headwall to climb up Wash. You'll have to carry your full pack up the headwall and back down to Pinkham or Marshfield, as it really doesn't make any sense to go back down into the Great Gulf.
3) Camp in the Dry River Wilderness. It's also a long hike in, and you'll have to carry a full pack up Washington since it doesn't make much sense to hike back into the Dry River to pack up and head out. You can go up Boott Spur or Glen Boulder, then take Dry River or Davis Path towards Washington and back down Tuckerman to Pinkham.
4) Camp below treeline at one of the nearly legal bootleg sites on the Jewel trail. Downside is you'll have to carry all your water as there's none up there. Not a bad option, but again you don't save much hiking time by doing the overnight.
My choice would be to do Wash as a dayhike (up Ammonoosuc, down Jewel or up Tuckerman down LionHead or Boott Spur) and then do a second dayhike on Adams, which IMO is a much nicer peak.
1 - The Ebright Azimuth highway sign is at the corner of Ebright and Ramblewood. A visit to the sing generally qualifies as an "ascent." Supposedly, the USGS marker is across the street heading in towards the trailer park, but I have no direct knowledge of this since there was snow on the ground the day I visited. As for the trailer park, it's all graded so although there may be a lot or two with slightly higher elevations, they're not true measurements. I walked around in the trailer park for 15 or 20 minutes feeling pretty much like an idiot and stayed off any private lots. I've also heard the true HP is in the middle of Ebright Road. Who knows? Who cares? Walk around a bit and it counts.
2- I climbed Mt. Washington via the Edmands Path, going over Eisenhower on my way to Washington. The Lake of the Clouds AMC Hut at the base of the final summit push would be an outstanding place for an overnight stay. I know there's a phone number you can call to reserve a spot ... maybe Mohamed has it handy.
The Presidentials are what I call "backpacker hostile" territory, no camping allowed above treline until there are two feet of snow on the ground, and dense growth for quite a distance below treeline. Add camping restrictions in the Great Gulf (no camping south of the sphinx trail) and it becomes quite a challenge to put together an overnight to Mt Wasgington.
I looked at the website for it, and it says "full service ends 9/13"...i'm wondering if that means definitively that there would be no tent camping onsite after that date.
Yes, i'm being stubborn about camping ON Mt. Washington, i know it's silly. I've done this on Guadalupe, Elbert, Harney, and Katahdin, even when advised not to, and i haven't regretted one yet.
> i'm wondering if that means definitively that there would be no tent camping onsite after that date.
The hut is above treeline and tent camping here is forbidden at all times.
> Yes, i'm being stubborn about camping ON Mt. Washington
Fair enough, its your trip
The easy option is Hermit Lake, you go in two miles and about 2,000 feet on day one, summit is another two miles and 2,000 feet followed by four miles down. All in all an easy and not very rewarding trip.
Or you could do something much more ambitious in the Great Gulf. Go in for about four or five miles and camp at one of the many designated spots around the junction of the Great Gulf, Wamsutta and Six Husbands trails. Next day lug your pack up the spectacular headwall and descend by one of the standard trails (Lion's Head, Tucks, Boot Spur) to Pinkham and thumb a ride back to your car. I agree with Dave that there is no point in doing the long (nine miles as I recall) return trip through the Gulf.
The Great Gulf Trail is absolutely spectacular, and fall views into the Gulf from the headwall should be superb.
OO, i like the sound of that trip report. Now i way way like doing loops, but i'm concerned about being ABLE to thumb a ride mid-week in October...plus i'm thinking that the headwall would be a lot more fun without full packs. Sooooo...wouldn't it be reasonable, if not as scenic, to stash packs at the lake and just return via the great gulf? It would make an easier climb, plus would afford us the choice of doing the bigger day (up and down the headwall) on whichever of the 2 days looked like more optimal weather.
I really appreciate the ideas...and i really wish the map i ordered would get here already.
I know that there are people in N. Conway who will pick you up or drop you off at a trailhead for a fee. I've seen it done. I don't have contact info, but you may be able to find some info on the web.
Round trip vs loop is obviously your choice. You win by going up with no pack, you lose on the way down (steep, easier to go up than down, and quite a bit longer).
I have many local hiking friends so I never need to thumb a ride, hence cannot speak with any authority. But Rt 16 is a major road, and it will be in leaf peeping season so I think you should have no problems.
1. Until somebody does a representative archaeological sampling of the dirt under the trailer park and determines for sure whether the closed 450' contour on the current topo is natural or man-made (see my DE trip report under "highpointing" on my WWW site for further discussion), the sign and benchmark count. (opposite sides of the road, so watch for traffic) Also, I believe the owners of the trailer park are asserting private property rights, so visiting the park is of questionable legality as well as questionable utility.
2. Ebright Road is mostly residential. Drive to the highpoint, go 1 mile past, then hike back.
3. Dunno. We took the cog. (but that's a whole 'nother debate, isn't it??)
4. Darned if I remember the name, but there was a very nice restaurant in an old railway station not far from where we stayed and just up the road from the Mount Washington Hotel (the old, fancy and very expensive hotel near the base of the mountain).
5. See my June, 1999 trip report for further discussion...between the sign and the two benchmarks, you ought to have crossed "the" highest blade of grass at least once...
4. Darned if I remember the name, but there was a very nice restaurant in an old railway station not far from where we stayed and just up the road from the Mount Washington Hotel (the old, fancy and very expensive hotel near the base of the mountain).
This is probably Faybans, right at the junction of the Marshfield Base Station road and 302.
Hi Alan. Lovely weather we're having, hm? (i really should call you up one of these days since i live just across town.)
It was actually YOUR trip report of North Dakota that upon further review sounds like the one and only report that mirrors the route i took. 2 hours RT? approach from the east? no one home where you parked? Intersecting a use trail from the north?
I think perhaps we BOTH took the same alternate route, not from the Van Daele farm...or am i nuts?
Concord High School is at the corner of Ebright and Naamans Road (Del SR 92). You can park your car there and walk north one-half mile to the corner of Ebright and Ramblewood.
The USGS marker will be on the west (left) side of the road traveling in that direction (this is the opposite side of the road as the Delaware sign).
As for the actual highpoint itself, the street sign and the USGS marker should suffice. However, if you believe Don Kjelleren's article in the 4Q01 A-Z Newsletter, he identifies the HP at 192 feet west of the monument sign. This puts the HP in an open field on the left side of Ebright Rd. which is adjacent to the trailer park, and is open to the public.
Ebright -- its a suburban intersection, as others have stated, but if you want to do something unique, you can park at the Claymont transaction, which is right along the river, and travel from the Delaware River -- which is sea level, and therefore the lowest point in Delaware, and then walk roughly six miles, most of it on Naaman's Road, to Ebright Road, and then to the highpoint. It's got to be the closest proximity of lowest and highest points in a state -- less than a one hour run apart. I'm really not recommending it, just pointing out the option. Also, roughly a mile or two north of Claymont, you pass into Marcus Hook, PA, which has the lowest point in PA.
As for Washington, the first of the three times that I've done it was in mid October. We had high winds but no rime ice. I did Katahdin in mid October as well, and the ice there was stunning. It may be a day to day thing, however.
But I second the view that camping is not worth it. In the presidentials, you have to stay in a hut in most of the good places. When we went in October, we did Washington via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, then went across the highway and hiked up into the Carter Range. We got about a half mile off the trail and found a great campaing spot before nightfall, then did three NH four thousand footers the next day. There's so much to do besides Washington in the area, so think outside the box.
It was great...quite a bit harder than i expected, with the snow and ice. I was up there at the beginning of a business trip, so i just got back last night. I'll write up a report tonight or tomorrow i hope.
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