First Presidential Traverse

Prologue

I missed the bus to get on AMC’s Presidential Traverse trip in June 2007 (I found later that the trip was aborted at Madison Spring Hut due to bad weather and rescheduled to July) and wanted to get on this annual trip in 2008. I emailed the leader Joe Comuzzi on May 2 and was told his co-leaders were doing the registration. I emailed Brian, a co-leader on May 21 soon after I did the Northern Presidential Traverse and I was put on the wait list once again. I planned to do it solo if I was unable to join the group and stay at the Highland Center. When I tried to book my room for June 20 and 21 in early June, I found it was full. June 21 was the 2007 summer solstice day and this was probably why it was so popular. I asked to be put on the wait list for the lodging and also started considering doing the traverse the week before or after. I waited till two weeks before June 21 because there is no refund for canceling within two weeks of the booked time and there was still no room available. I gave up and decided do it on June 28. When I was in the process of booking my lodging for June 28 I received an email message from Jeanne, the other co-leader of the AMC Presidential Traverse group informing me that someone canceled and I was in. I was thrilled. A few days later, I received quite a few calls from AMC telling me there would be vacancy on June 20 and 21.

On June 8, Joe asked the group whether we would be interested in a 20-mile training hike to traverse the Twins and Bonds. I was so swamped by various things that I waited till June 12 to let him know that I was interested in it and it turned out I was the only one joining him at the hike that was very enjoyable and helpful for preparing for the traverse a week later. I had better idea about the hydration - amount and type of liquid I need to bring with me. I need about 3 liters of liquid for a 20-mile hike on a warm day. Gatorade and orange juice should be a bulk of it.

I originally planned to take the afternoon of Friday June 20 off and drive from my workplace to the meeting place. On Friday morning, I found I still had so many things to do to prepare for this hike that I decided to take the whole day off from work as vacation time. I left home at about 14:00 and withdrew some cash at the ATM machine in the Rowley Marketplace. It started raining intermittently after I got on Rt.95. I had a short nap in a rest area and got off Rt. 16 at Rochester to fill the gas tank by taking advantage of the lower price in New Hampshire. My colleague, Howard, was helping present my moderated poster at the annual conference of American Society of Internal Artificial Organs in San Francisco. He called me to ask a few questions. The mobile phone signal strength varies greatly on Rt. 16. I could not finish our conversation before he had to go to another session. The downpour was coming on and off. I reached the Highland Center at 17:45 and three group members including Joe were already there. We waited for about half an hour till everyone one arrived. I got hold of Howard again to complete my answer to his questions. I also called my hiking friend Joe who was going to Pinkham Notch for hiking on that day.

At the meeting, unexpectedly I saw Brenda whom I hiked with at the Greylock Loop hike in May. She was not on the list sent out to everyone by mistake. Very unfortunately, Jeanne, a co-leader got a speeding ticket while she was rushing to come to this meeting after helping set up the camping site in Gorham.

I was surprised that we had a stand-up meeting in the parking lot while some mosquitoes were attacking us. I thought we would take the advantage of the nice meeting room of the Highland Center which is a property of AMC. Later, the leaders told me they were afraid the Highland Center would not allow us using their facility even this was an AMC event. I have doubt about this and decided that I would ask the Highland Center whenever I had a chance. I stayed there a few nights and its staff are very friendly. After a brief meeting mainly to decide on the car spotting plan, we headed to a restaurant at Fabyan, a village-like place. The restaurant looks very nice with a model train running around the ceiling. The menu had limited choices. I ordered a pasta and immediately ordered a hamburg when I saw the pasta smaller than I expected. I was the smallest guy in the group and my appetite seemed to surprise some people. The meal was certainly larger than my normal ones but I needed some energy loading as I always do before a long hike or marathon. I had a very pleasant chat with Chris, Ted and Brenda. However I would rather spend $20 to have a buffet dinner at the Highland Center than spend $30 for the pasta and hamburg.

After spotting cars, we headed to the Moose Brook State Park. I found the batteries in my headlamp had completely corroded. It is apparently a bad idea to leave batteries in the headlamp. I went to a Wal-Mart, which is about 5 miles away, to get a package of AAA batteries. When I came back it was about 21:50 and everyone had already gone to bed in his tent. It was my first time to set up my tent and I could not figure out how to do quickly. To avoid bothering people, I decided to sleep in my car which back seats can be laid down. I went to bed with my feet in the trunk and my head on the back of the back seats.

People started getting up at 4:00. I got up at 4:10. It took more than half an hour to finish my morning ritual and get everything ready.

The Journey

The hike finally started at 5:22. I was quite bright. We took the Valley Way then switched to Watson Path which I never traveled before unlike the Valley Way which I traveled on twice. Watson Path is only slightly more difficult and a little bit more exposed than the Valley Way, much less than I expected. Brenda, who has a fairly large backpack, started struggling at steep sections. It was partly cloudy. The views were great. We reached the summit of Madison at 8:56. I rushed down to the Madison Spring Hut to have my breakfast. I met another group member, Larry, at the door of the hut. He told me he just came up and did not stay at the hut as planned. He camped by a trail the night before because he could not reach the hut last night. He said that he is slow so he would go ahead to bypass all the summits and stay on the Appalachian Trail and asked me to relay the information to the leaders .I told Joe and Brian later. The lemonade costs $1/cup and all-you-can-eat break cost $2 at the hut. I ate three big pieces of bread and drank two cups of lemonade to my great satisfaction. I did my morning toilet ritual after the breakfast.

We headed to the Adams via the Gulfside Trail. Though I had hiked the Adams twice before, it was my first time to go there via the Gulfside Trail. It certainly is easier than the Star Lake Trail that I took before. I noticed that three leaders -Joe, Robin and Brian -had a meeting with Brenda and Chris, who was an AMC lieder, at the hut while we were ascending. We arrived at the summit at 10:30. Steve, a retired architect and manager from US Army Corps of Engineers's Engineer Research and Development Center, shared my interest in photography and technologies. I struck a good conversation with him and took photos of each other.

We had a good break at Thunderstorm Junction where three trails (Lowe's Path, Great Gully Trail and Gulfside Trail) join or cross each other at a huge cairn. I found then that Brenda had difficulty and Chris was kind enough to accompany her to hike only a part of the traverse. We marched toward Jefferson as a tight group again. To my surprise, we caught up with Larry at the junction of Israel Bridge Path and Gulfside Trail. This showed how slow he was. If he were to do the traverse, it would take him at least 20 hours. We regrouped at Edmands Col and started climbing Jefferson and reached the summit at 12:32 where we had another good break.

Soon we were hiking in clouds, in drizzle, in hail, then in downpour. I was soaked before I felt it was the time to put on my rain coat. After Sphinx Col, I started to speed up with Munib, Amy and Jon. I wanted to give me some extra time at the summit of Mount Washington to have a decent lunch. My hiking buddy Joe and I reached each other by mobile phone as planned. We discussed how to meet at the summit. Our traverse group was behind schedule and he also started quite late and was hiking with a Canadian friend. I reached Mount Washington summit visitor center at 14:42. The prices at the food service were surprisingly reasonable. I bought a bowl of each of chili soup and Italian Wedding soup and they went very well with the two bagels I brought with me. I found a electric outlet and started charging my GPS watch. After I finished my happy lunch, I asked Bruce, a group member, to watch my backpack and GPS watch, I went out to take care of Joe's dogs so he could have his meal inside the visitor center. A nap would have been ideal after a satisfying lunch, but I could not fall asleep. I turned off my GPS watch by mistake and when I turned it on, I forgot to start the timer and this messed up the record. When Joe took over his dogs, he asked me to get a cup of hot chocolate for him after he saw Amy drinking it. It looked so good that I wanted to it. On my way to the food service, I saw Joe from Fall River totally unexpectedly. I rushed out to give the hot chocolate to Joe and joined the group for a group picture, then I returned to the visitor center to chat with Joe and his Canadian friend for about 15 minutes, then I took off to chase our group. Joe was going to stay at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut.

There was another good break at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut. I started asking the leaders to make a decision whether one group would hike to Jackson and Webster while others would most likely hike the short traverse by skipping them. We were three hours behind the schedule. The reason that I asked them was that if one group wanted to do the longer one, they could break out to speed up so the others would not wait for too long after finishing the shorter traverse. The three of the leaders had no interest in doing it and one did not want to decide until Pierce. AMC's strict policy prevents group members from hiking alone. Soon, I gave up and decided to try my best to do the long traverse on July 26 with the group of my hiking friend Rob Powers.

The hiking of Monroe, Franklin and Eisenhower was quite relaxed and enjoyable. The views on both sides of the ridge was spectacular after the rain. I put on insect repellent to fight mosquitoes. We reached Mount Pierce at 19:50. The group lay on the top of the mountain and enjoyed the last break bathing in golden twilight. We charged down the Crawford Path after the break. I asked the leaders a few times whether we should call Chris to let him know that we were hours behind the schedule and find out his status but did not get positive response. I was still wearing my raincoat expecting it would shield me from wind on the ridge or keep me warm after significant temperature drop. Neither happened. I had to take it off after quite some perspiration. With about 1.5 miles to go, I had to wear my headlamp for the first time. The headlamp worked very well. We reached the parking lot at 21:38. Chris finished hiking all the summits till Jefferson with Brenda and rescued two French women who were lost by hiking the range without a map and waited us at the parking lot for a while. I regretted that I did not go ahead to call Chris so he could have an easier waiting time.

We ran across a couple also doing the traverse a few times and saw them again in the parking lot asking for a ride to retrieve their car 4 miles down the road. They had the ambitious plan of doing the longest Presidential Traverse but ended up in finishing only the shortest one late night. Among our group, some wanted to go to a pizza place to have dinner and some wanted to go to the camp site directly. I decided to ride in Chris's car and was willing to go wherever he preferred. He decided to go back to the camp site. We waited till the ride for the couple to retrieve their car arrived before taking off.

Epilogue

I retrieved my car at Appalachia and reached Moose Brook State Park at about 23:00. I took a wrong turn and traveled in the wrong direction of the one-way road of the camp site and got out and had another try to find our camp site - #32. I asked Joe to help me set up the tent but unfortunately he is not familiar with it either. It was very late, other people had already got into their tents. I decided to sleep in my car for another night. There was a short line in the coin-operated shower room. I did not figure out how to turn on hot water until I finished my shower with quite chilly water.

I woke up at 6:00 and saw Brian, then Jeanne and Amy were up. I suggested to Jeanne the day before that we write a petition letter to ask the judge for leniency regarding her speeding ticket because she got the ticket while volunteering to help other people. She was not sure how much it would help. I talked about this idea to Chris and he said he would not sign the letter. I told Jeanne again that I would be willing to help in whichever way I could.

After I finished my morning ritual and headed to Joe Dodge to have my favorite buffet breakfast. Surprisingly I saw Joe who changed his plan and hiked down with his Canadian friend. What a chaotic weekend for him. He booked beds at both Joe Dodge and the Lakes of the Clouds for his friend Bob and Bob's nephew, but they could not make it and the three beds at the Lakes of the Clouds were essentially wasted. We chatted over the breakfast, then I had a conversation with Kellie who works at the front desk of Joe Dodge and I had met many times before. She was going to do the 31-mile Pemigewasset Loop that I was planned to do in early August. I wanted to hear her experience and exchanged our e-mail addresses. I want to do a hike of 5 to 10 miles without large elevation gain. Raymond Path appeared to be a good choice. I asked a few people including Kellie and no one was sure about the trail condition there. I saw a few water crossings and was a bit concerned about it.

I started the post-traverse hike at 10:40 wearing low cut trail running shoes. I wore my 6.6 inch GoreTex boots for the traverse the prior day. The sun came out and it was quite warm. I took the Tuckerman Ravine Trail for the first 1.2 miles. I saw quite a few hikers coming down. It was warm and there were quite a few mosquitoes. I put on some insect repellent. I reached the junction of Huntington Ravine Trail at 11:20. The trail condition was not bad. I had only a few slippery mossy rocks to deal with. I was surprised by the rapid water of Cutler River that I needed to cross after 0.6 miles. I looked around and there was no way to find a spot to do boulder-hop across the river. I tried to use my pole to do some acrobatic maneuver but slipped into knee deep water. I twist-dried my socks after crossing the river. I went to a side trail leading to the Harvard Cabin and it turned out to be a very long trail and I never saw a cabin. I somehow missed it. The side trail was so long that I reached Tuckerman Ravine trail by following it at 12:20. I backtracked a bit to the Raymond Path. About one mile into the trail, rain started and soon it turned into thunderstorm. I was soaked quickly. Fortunately all the water crossings were quite easy. I reached the Old Jackson Road at 13:26. In about one mile, I saw the first hiker since I left the Tuckerman Ravine Trail at 1.2 mi. I came back to Joe Dodge at 14:14 and I saw Joe in front of the Pinkham Notch visitor center. We chatted for a few minutes. When I mentioned that I would go to a Chinese restaurant in North Conway to have my lunch, he immediately recommended Beijing Garden which he used to go frequently. It took quite some effort to find the restaurant because I assumed the wrong side of the road for the restaurant. The food was not bad, but the service was very slow. I still think China Chef is the best Chinese restaurant in North Conway. I filled my gas tank again at the same place in Rochester and arrived at home at about 19:00.