Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: FINISHED THE NEW HAMPSHIRE 4000 FOOTERS!!!!!

A little washed out because of the sun but
this is the view looking up at Adams from
the Gulfside Trail. It is about 700 feet of
vertical hopping up boulders.

It's not everyday that you complete a goal that you have been working on for 17 years, three months and nine days. That is what I did on Thursday. There are 48 mountains in New Hampshire that qualify as 4000 footers. Thursday I did my final two.

Before I go one with my description of the hike, I want to write down some stats. I kept fairly decent logs of my hikes and since I need this info to apply for the 4000 foot club (yes, there is an actual club with an application process) I went through it today.

First 4000 footer hiked June 18, 2001- Franconia Ridge (Lafayette and Lincoln)
Last- September 27, 2018 Adams and Madison

Number of hikes to do all 48 mountains- 30 (some mountains are close enough to do 2 in a day. There were two hikes where we did 3 mountains in a day)
Number of years in the seventeen that I hiked at least one 4000 footer- 12

Least Favorite- Owl's Head
Many favorites- In the 17 years, I've done some mountains more than once. If I hadn't, it obviously would have taken me less time. Mountains I've done more than once- Jackson, Pierce, Garfield, Osceola, Lincoln, Lafayette, Liberty

Longest one day hike- Owl's Head 18 miles
Shortest hike to a 4000 footer- Hale 4.4 miles round trip. We did it in 3 hours

Of the 30 hikes, the number I did with DJ- 20, 10 alone.

Okay, I'm pretty excited, so you will have to excuse the stats. It took seventeen years to finish those thirty hikes. There are a lot of reasons for this. Some years we just never made it to New Hampshire. DJ played three seasons of baseball, little league, all stars, and fallball. In those years it was tough to hike. One year I went to NH many times, but was trout fishing mountain lakes every weekend. One other year, I was so sick of "the pressure" to hike 4000 footers, I hiked trails that I really wanted to see, the list be damned!

Finally after a few years of not finishing over my head, I got serious again in 2016. That year I hiked seven new 4000 footers (and Garfield for 3rd time with Laurie). This put me in position to finish in 2017 with only four hikes left. (Wildcats, Carrigan, Cabot, and Adams/Madison.

In 2017, I was in great shape running up to four miles a day. Then I got plantar fascitis in my left foot. I couldn't really walk for a month. By the fall, the pain hurt the same whether I used it or not, so I got a couple hikes in. I knocked off Wildcats ans Carrigan in October. Not finishing the four hikes was the biggest letdown in 2017 for me.

So last week I did Cabot, which I wrote about two posts back. That left me with two big presidents Adams and Madison. Adams is 5774 and the second tallest mountain in NH. But because the trail starts at a lower elevation it has more of a vertical climb than Washington! Madison, its next door neighbor, is no slouch. It weighs in at 5367 and is the fifth tallest mountain in NH. Both have giant rock boulders that need to climbed to reach the summit cone. Worse, is coming down those rock boulders.

From Madison Hut it is .5 miles of climbing
boulders to the summit

Because I am so slow right now and this would be one of the most difficult hikes I've ever done, I got a very early start. In fact, I arrived at the trailhead while it was still dark. I packed my bag and left at 6:15 am as it was just light enough to see in the woods. I took the Valley Way up to Madison Hut. The hut is 3.8 miles and 3500 feet from the trailhead. Madison Hut sits at 4800 feet and during the summer you can sleep there (for $90 a night). However it is closed this time of year. I sat on a bench and ate a snack.

Madison's Summit

From Madison Hut it is only .5 miles to the summit of Madison. It is 500 feet above the hut. The entire hike is rock hopping and scrambling up and over boulders. It is quite tedious. However, the view was magnificent. I made it to the top in about 45 minutes. I only stayed there for ten minutes or so. I knew it would take me a while to negotiate the boulders on my way down. I got back to Madison Hut at noon and ate my lunch (turkey pepperoni and fruit snacks. the pepperoni for the salt I sweated out and the fruit snacks because they are light and delicious.)

A look down at Star Lake

After my lunch I tackled Adams. Adams is almost a thousand feet above Madison Hut. From the hut, I had to climb the Gulfside Trail to the Airline Trail. The Gulfside Trail was steep but it was an actual trail. Once I got to Airline, it was another 700 feet or so of boulder hopping. At first the boulders were easier than Madison because they were smaller, but the closer I got to the summit the bigger and the more difficult the scrambling. I made it to the top about 2 pm. Three other guys made it to the top at the same time. We took pictures for each other. All three had finished the 4000 footers so they very kindly congratulated me. I had no plans to celebrate until I was at least off the summit cone.

While climbing Adams I took this photo. Madison Hut with
Mount Madison in the background

I got back to Madison Hut at 3:40. From there it was 3.8 miles and the same 3500 feet down. My knees were aching. It took me until dark to get out of the woods. How did I celebrate? The same as I always do after a big hike. With a delicious chocolate milk!

On the summit of Adams

Total mileage 10.4
Elevation gain- 5050 feet.

Weather- I can't say how lucky I was with the weather. It was absolutely gorgeous for late September. It was about 60 degree on the summits! There wasn't any wind whatsoever. On Wednesday the wind was howling over the summits at over 60 miles per hour!!! While I was above treeline (roughly 5 hours) I never needed a jacket. There were big white puffy clouds in the sky. Overall, it was a red letter day!!!

A look into King Ravine. You can't see it, but just over that ledge
is a 1600 foot straight up headwall.

More pictures below.
Adams was the mountain I was most looking forward to. That is why I did Madison first, so Adams could be my last. There are more pictures with Madison because it had better light.