By the time we made the drive to North Conway, Shelby remembered that she forgot her hiking shoes for the day. She was looking to get a new pair anyway so we stopped at EMS and hooked her up with a new pair of Boots.
We finally made it to the trailhead at about 11:00AM which is way past the time I usually start hiking, but Eisenhower being a relatively easy 4000' we had plenty of time. We put the bug dope on and found a lack of buggs at the trailhead. A good sign for the day. The first view of the day was Abenaki Brook.
There were quite a few blowdowns after Abenaki Brook, but they were all easily passable. Soon, the trail changed from relatively flat to a steady incline. We took a few breaks as it was very humid out with the forecast in the 90's. Still only a few bugs, and they were repelled by the bug dope we put on earlier.
We soon came to a spring that had formed from the snowmelt and this was a great break away from the heat. The water from the snowmelt was very cold, but felt good.
Soon after this stream, we came to the first real views of the day and within a few minutes, we were at treeline and in the Alpine Zone. I don't care what anybody says; there is nothing like being above treeline in New England. It really gives you an appreciation and a sense of awe that is hard to find every day.
The climb was starting to wear us out pretty good as we entered the final push up to Mt. Eisenhower. The humidity and the late start slowed us down quite a bit.
Today's hike isn't about speed, it's about being out in the mountains and reaching the summit. Looking towards the Presidentials, we could see that thunderstorms were building, and there was a good shot of us getting wet. We decided to head up Eisenhower without a break at the junction with the Edmonds Path and Mt. Eisenhower Loop. We did however, get to the top of Eisenhower. Here is a Summit Photo of Garrett and Shelby at the top Celebrating their achievement. This is Shelby's 3rd 4000' mountain in NH and this is Garrett's First.
At the summit, the wind was strong and in the 50 MPH range. Despite the threatening clouds, we stayed at the top for 45 minutes without any issues. I was surprised however to see people hiking to Mt. Franklin and I hope they stayed dry. The northern Presidentials had what looked to be the same weather that we had. Threatening to say the least.
We headed down the mountain and got back to the car at abuot 5:00PM. I didn't take any pictures on the way down because my Camera card was full. Next time I'll have to pay attention before I leave and make sure it's empty before starting the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment