The weather lately has been in a funk a little sunny but occasional showers, clouds and some severe thunderstorms. This was the case early Friday evening when storms blew through knocking out power and falling trees near our house and across Rt 202 making packing and preparing for the hike Friday night a headlamp affair.

In looking at the weather they were forecasting the higher summits to be mostly sunny Saturday and partly cloudy Sunday so I decided I had a window that would provide fair views. Thunderstorms were due through Friday in all areas and they should suck up all the bad weather, right? Well that’s my theory anyway. Worst case we should have views with clouds moving through the question would be what the cloud ceiling would be for views at the top.

We made the Appalachia trail head off route 2 at about 8:00 am. The lot was quite full and we got one of the last spots. The sun was popping in and out of the clouds all up through the drive through the valleys. It was very cloudy and the ground fog was still lifting. We were hoping the forecast hadn’t changed overnight. My group consisted of Keeley and Rose and our plan was to take the Airline up to Mt Adam’s 5774′ and then if things went well swing over to Madison Hut and ideally summit Mt Madison 5367′. The mileage up and down just Mt Adam’s would be roughly 9.6 miles with over 4600′ of elevation gain. This equates to steep, steady and long. We got rolling and made decent time up to the junction of the Valley Way / Airline Trails. I decided an alternate route might be best opting for what likely would be the easiest accent the Valley Way trail since this was the one used for moving supplies to the Hut. The Airline trail is supposed to provide excellent views but I could see we still had a few clouds and figured take the easier trek up and we could make a loop back down the Airline to pick up the views. This would add a small amount if mileage but easy up is always better.

The group liked the idea and we charged up the Valley Way trail. Keeley had some heal blister trouble so we stopped a couple times for Moleskin and took in a couple short loops to view falls right along the trail. The Valley Way Trail was a decent walk and proved a great choice. We made the Madison Hut at about 1:30pm. It was cloudy but you could see these windows of blue sky in the breaks of the lower clouds. We had lunch at the hut and discussed our plans. Since we had taken so long to reach the hut, we decided to summit Mt Madison since it was only a half mile away if that went well we could still grab Mt Adams. So we started off and up the bolder pile. The route we used was the Osgood Trail which was reasonable and similar to boulder walks on the summits of Mt Jefferson and Mt Monroe. As we gained elevation we grew more exposed to the wind and at the summit the blow was strong and steady. I checked the Mt Washington Weather later that night and they were clocking steady winds for the day of 52 mph with the highest gust at 88mph. The winds did not feel as strong they were on Mt Jackson last year. I was curious and looked them up and discovered they were steady at 59 with a highest gust of 89. It’s a really cool experience to feel the force of nature this way. We hung out and enjoyed the views that came and went with the cloud breaks and took some pictures.We hiked back the way we came reaching the Madison Hut and then taking the Airline cut-off trail over to the shoulder of Mt Adams. The Cut-off was really a short walk in scrub about a 1/8th mile long with unremarkable features. Looking at the GPS is was almost 4:30 and clouds were darkening a bit to the west, and we never got a high clearing of the clouds as we hoped. Rather than press for higher elevation we decided to stroll down the Airline and take in the views of the King Ravine and the Knife Edge. The Airline Trail afforded excellent views as we meandered down. The knife edge isn’t really that precipitous but it was interesting and affords great views. After an hour or so we could hear thunder in the distance and picked our pace up a bit to ensure we made the safety of tree line.After making tree line the trail became steady steep for a stretch with large rocks and lots of big step downs at this same time it started to rain, and rained for 20 min. This tougher area of Airline was not far before the Scar Trail junction. We gave thought about crossing over to the Valley Way Trail knowing that it was relatively easy, but decided that staying on the Airline would be best. We were wrong…The Airline trail continued to get even steeper and remained difficult for quite a while. We made slow pace over this section of trail and it seemed like over a mile before there was any real relief. When the relief started to come the trail had a lot of work being done on it for drainage which seemed to loosen the clay on the trail making for very greasy footing, even on the flats.We made the Valley Way Trail junction and stayed on the Airline and plodded along quite quickly. We made it back to the Appalachia lot and the car about 8:15pm. I estimate the total distance for the day to be roughly  10.2 miles.

When I head up this trail again I would do the Valley Way up, Airline down and diverge to the Scar and Valley Way to complete the decent. If the Scar Trail (which i haven’t been on) happened to be as bad as the middle section of Airline I know it’s only about 3 tenths long and the views the upper part of the Airline provides are well worth the effort.

The King Ravine is a magnificent view from the Airline Trail. I know the King Ravine trail comes up it, but that would be an extremely long steep head wall to come up even in the best of conditions, so avoid that unless you’re looking for the challenge. By all accounts we made good choices for the day with the exception of not taking the Scar to cross-over to Valley Way Trail. Keeley’s back was bothering her on the way down but she marched on like a trooper. Rose did excellent for the day.

So we had a wonderful day with less than ideal weather. We left a hike to Mt Adam’s for another day, which Rose said was becoming a habit for us. I must say though I won’t mind another trip up the Valley Way Trail to this area of the White Mountains. On a clear day the views here would be indescribable. Here is a link to all the Pictures from the Day.

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Today also marked the one year anniversary of my Dad’s passing. I am not sure that I believe that makes it a truly special day, but it special enough that I remembered it so I will acknowledge it here. Going forward I would prefer to remember his birthday, anniversary or even the day he was discharged by the army, but today I remembered.

When my father became diagnosed and ill I realized just how precious and short lived our time is on this in this world and I wrestled with my own mortality. I struggled with his fight and seeing his suffering. After talking to him about the old times I hiked to Mt Willard, a place we visited via snowmobile in my teens. On that short hike returning there I discovered all the joys of hiking, cleared my mind, recalled happier times, and acquiesced his fight with cancer.  I suppose then it is fitting then that I stood on a rocky, timeless summit a year to the hour since his passing and remembered him.  I do think it is unfortunate we never had the opportunity to hike when he was alive, but that’s o.k. I take him and his memory with me today on every trip!