One Day Presidential Traverse (from Madison to Webster) Hike 9/1/07

Alarms went off at 3:30am and we started at Appalachia at 4:30am in the morning, heading up Valley Way with headlamps. The weather was cool, which made moving easy despite it being dark. After a little more than an hour, it was light enough to pack the headlamps. At Madison Hut, the wind picked up. We ditched our packs to get our first peak, Madison, before 7am. Then we backtracked to hut and got our packs again. There were no views in the morning. Occasionally we saw the sun break through, but then clouds would dominate as we made our way over the Northern Presis. There rocks were very wet in the morning. We had to be careful, especially on the descents. We still had a lot of energy and we powered our way up Adams, Jefferson, Clay, and onwards to Washington Summit by noon. We ate some lunch and got some hot chocolate and felt good that we had done most of the elevation. Now time for the Southern Presis. We descended the Crawford path to Lakes of the Clouds as scores of people were coming up and the sky cleared up and we had our first view by the time we reached Lakes of the Clouds Hut, but as journeyed up Monroe, the wind picked up as well. The wind was strong in some places and other times it would die down a bit. I had my jacket on the whole time above treeline and I had my hood on when the wind was blowing. Because my hands were touching my poles, I needed gloves to warm up my hands (this possibly could have been a benefit from preventing my hands from getting blisters). We continued onto Eisenhower with strong winds and we took the short side path to Summit Mt. Franklin as well. By the time we reach Eisenhower, Washington was in the clear, but it was probably the windiest it had been all day, although the wind quickly lessened as we hiked down from Ike's dome-like summit. The wind may been useful in prevented me from overheating. When I headed back in the trees and started to climb Pierce, I had to ditch the jacket and gloves as I first time all day I was beginning to overheat. Then we continued over Pierce Summit to Mizpah Spring Hut by 4pm. We took a quick rest. My calves were started to feel tired, but I knew I had it in me for Jackson and Webster so we continued on the Webster Cliff Trail to Jackson. All day we felt good, but that final scramble up Jackson was the toughest of then all (and probably the steepest). We finally got up Jackson and continued onto Webster. By the time we reached Webster, I could definitely feel that my calves were getting tired. Going down the Webster Ledges were killers to my calves (after 20+ miles and 9000 ft elevation gain), but the views were amazing and completely worth it and we knew the finish was all downhill from here. Then as we descended below the trees, the trail became easier and as we quickened our pace with thoughts of food and beer and we wanted to avoid getting out our headlamps. Finally we reached the cars at 7:23, just before dark after nearly 15 hours of hiking. We refueled with sandwiches from Quinzos and after we retrieved the cars and got to the hostel, opened up a nice beer and relaxed our leg muscles. A great day for a hike and excellent day for a presi traverse.

Click here to view spreadsheet of my actual time for each section of the traverse

Jason at Madison Summit