Annual Father Son Backpacking Trip Day 2 6/14/2015

Day 2 started early.  Both my dad and I were up by about 4:45 and we were packed up, breakfast eaten and on the trail by 5:15AM.  It did not take us long to reach the summit of Pierce.  This is my second visit to Pierce and makes my dad's #8 4,000' peak.  Not bad for someone who isn't trying.  We took in the views quickly and pushed on. 

We followed the AT along the East side of Eisenhower.  Having already summitted this peak in June I was not inclined to make the side trip. 

As we continued on to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut, we noticed some snow still up high.  Pretty cool to see snow in June.  We again skipped Monroe as we both had a feeling it was going to be a long day and I've already tagged it once. 


We took a short break at the hut and continued on towards Mt. Washington. 

We noticed along the way that the summit was in the clear.  We picked this hike this weekend because the weather looked really good and boy did we luck out.  We were at the summit by 10:30AM and the weather was fantastic.

We took advantage of the tourist amenities and both had a few hot dogs and a bowl of chili.  We also loaded up on extra snacks for the trip.  Once we were done, we filled our water bottles and snapped the obligatory summit photo. #9 for dad.  This is my second summit of Washington.

Once beyond the summit one of the Cog trains started to head down so we took a quick picture.  We thought about mooning it but there were a lot of people around.We had plans to continue on to the Madison Springs Hut and play our plans by ear in hopes we would feel well enough to continue on to Osgood Tentsite.  We followed the AT along the side of Clay and along the side of Jefferson.  Alongn the way I snapped this picture of the Great Gulf Wilderness. 

As we passed by Jefferson we came to more snow.  We actually had to walk across this snow.

Shortly after this, I opted to take a side trip to the summit of Adams.  It's the only 4,000 peak in the Presidential Range that I need for the list of 48 so I wanted to make sure I tagged it.  My dad waited for me at the junction with the Israel Ridge trail but continued on when he saw me coming down. 

Me on the summit of Adams #43 for me.  I only have Owl's Head, Liberty, Wildcat A, Middle and South Carter left. 

I snapped this picture from the summit of Adams looking towards Madison (our final peak of the day).


I caught up to my dad on the trail about half a mile before the Madison Springs Hut.  We hit the hut about 5:00PM.  We hung around for about 20 minutes taking a break but then decided we should leave to the Osgood Tentsite.  The climb up Madison as we left #10 for dad seemed easier than coming down the other side and all the little ridges we had to climb over. 

 

 

On the way down my knees started to hurt and I could feel some minor blisters forming in my feet.  We stopped a few times for breaks and eventually had to put headlamps on.  We pulled into the tentsite around 9:15PM.  We were set up and in bed before 9:30.  We both opted for no dinner we were so tired.  Dad did about 15.3 miles while I did 16.  I actually hiked 17 miles backpacking last year solo but it only took me 12 hours or so.  This is by far the single hardest day of hiking I have ever done. 

With 13 miles or so above tree line we both were feeling exhausted and fell right asleep.