Eisenhower & Pierce 1/29/2016

I took a vacation day today.  I need it.  The next 2 weeks are going to be very hectic.  I'll be on remote locations every day and will be driving about 1,800 miles.  The last few weeks have been busy and sort of stressful with the new diet and some other things that have gone on.  Root Canal, Crown, Broken Snowblower, Snow when they call for Rain etc.  Planning has been bad and nearly anything that could have gone wrong has.  My car did pass inspection though with no fixes required so there's a positive.

The weather forecast looked good so I decided to go above treeline.  I always hesitate when solo hiking so I picked an area I figured other people would be and I saw 12 people all day long.  I hiked Eisenhower and Pierce via the Crawford Path from the Mt. Clinton Road Parking area.

Being on this new diet, the food was a bit tricky.  I was sort of lacking energy all day.  Not sure how to rectify that.  I think I needed more fruit and I really miss bread.

After about 3 miles I crested the ridge and came upon my first view of the day which also showed my destination, the bulbous hump in the middle of the photo is Mt. Eisenhower.

After another mile and a half I was at the summit of Eisenhower with a spectacular view of the cloudy Mt. Washington.

I took this Panorama on my phone.  Forgot my gloves were in the way.

I hiked back the way I came and hiked the .1 miles to Mt. Pierce.  On the way on the uphill out of the col I started to cramp up in my Quads.  I'm not sure why.  I drank a half liter of water, swung my legs around a bit, ate some almonds and pushed on.  About a half mile later I was feeling better.  My hips hurt a bit but that went away too.  Not sure what the issue is there.

On the way down I sat down and ate some more food.  It was in the mid 20's but I could have taken a nap if it wasn't for the butt-sliders making all kinds of noise on the trail.

All in all it was a great day.  The trail was well consolidated start to finish.  There was slight drifting in the col between the peaks but there were no issues.  All water crossings were doable and were mere trickles at best.9.4 miles down 140.6 to go to get my yearly goal.