Saturday, December 16
Start: Appalachia TH
Finish: Crawford Notch TH
Miles: 19.77
Elevation gain/loss: 8527′
I was finally fully recovered from my bout with COVID and excited to do some big miles with good weather! After driving up to the mountains on Friday night and sleeping at Barnes Field, I was up at 3:30am and hiking by 4:15am. There were a few people in the parking lot when I arrived, but there had been no one parked there the night before. I headed up Valley Way, which was nicely packed out; I made good time to the hut, where I added my shell, hat, Buff wrap, and thicker gloves in the shelter of the trees before braving the 60 MPH winds and 0 degree windchill on Madison. The trail was in good shape and I thought my path forward might be easier than I’d expected.
I then decided to take Star Lake trail rather than Airline to avoid the wind as the sun began to lighten the sky; that was a mistake. Star Lake trail had deep snow on most of the trail, all waist deep, with a thick crust of slick ice on top. I should have changed to snowshoes immediately, but pressed on instead. On one particularly steep section, I fell and slid 10′ before I was able to arrest my slide; my right knee was bruised and stiff after my fall. I managed to make the summit of Adams, but that segment slowed me down to 50-55 min/mile pace.
After I made it over the summit of Adams, the winds decreased and the visibility really opened up. It slowly turned into a warm (~25 degrees) and mostly windless (10-15 MPH) day. However, as I descended Adams, the snow only got deeper and I kept breaking through up to my thighs. I finally accepted that I needed to wear my snowshoes, and they successfully kept me on top of the crust. I kept them on all the way past Jewell trail intersection and they were needed.
Since I didn’t need Washington, I took the Westside trail for the first time to cut off the climb; I was glad of my snowshoes there since no one had touched the trail since snow arrived. I finally saw my first hikers for the day, as they ascended towards Washington. At the Lake of the Clouds hut, I yogied sunscreen off of another hiker, as the sun was beating down and reflecting off the snow. Since I hadn’t seen the sun while hiking for the last month, I was taken by surprise. I then wore my snowshoes around Monroe on Crawford Path, since I didn’t need Monroe either. The snow was deep enough I was glad for them, but soon took them off as the snow depth decreased and I made it to the intersection with Monroe.
From there, it was smooth sailing over Eisenhower and Pierce, and then over to Jackson. I was able to wear spikes the entire way, and made great time. I arrived at Crawford Notch at 2:30pm, just as my friend and her 2 friends finished their hike! She had kindly agreed to help me with a shuttle back to my car. It was lovely to have friendly faces at the end of a big day.
Transcending Mountains 