Hitting the Trails: 10/20/2013-10/21/2013 Mount Adams and The Great Gulf

10/20/2013-10/21/2013 Mount Adams and The Great Gulf

10/20/2013 Great Gulf Trail / Six Husbands Trail / Buttress Trail / Adams Slide Trail (Abandoned) / Star Lake Trail /Mount Adams / Star Lake Trail / Buttress Trail / Six Husbands Trail / Great Gulf Trail

10/21/2013 Great Gulf Trail

Mount Adams via the abandoned Adams Slide Trail

Was really looking forward to this one! Another piece of unfinished business as I had planned on hitting the abandoned Adams Slide Trail a couple of weeks ago, but ran out of time. After doing a lot of online research on this trail, I was really excited to check it out. I have to give a "shout out" to Chris Dailey and his excellent blog site, if you haven't checked it out you should. His trip report and photos from July 2013 is here, http://dailey7779.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-beasts-of-east-huntington-ravine_15.html.

The weather forecast looked pretty good with clouds and chance of rain in the early morning, but clearing skies in the afternoon and evening into Monday. Arrived at the Great Gulf Wilderness trailhead off of Route 16 around 7:45am. Only one other car in the parking lot. Temperature was in the low 40s and felt a little raw with overcast skies.

Not to get off topic, but if you have visited the "facilities" at the parking lot, you will enjoy trying to manually unroll ultra-thin, translucent toilet paper that will not roll because the paper is attached to a metal rectangular bar which is too wide to allow the roll to spin. Anyway, I digress....

The Great Gulf Trail is pretty easy going at the lower elevations and follows the Peabody River. Over the first of two suspension bridges and into the forest. There are plenty of signs mapping out a ski trail that goes to the wilderness boundary. Lots of wooden bridges crossing over running water until the wilderness boundary sign about 1.9 miles into the trail.

Passed junctions for the Osgood Trail and further on the Osgood Cutoff Trail. Continued on to the junction with the Madison Gulf Trail, passing some designated campsites along the way. Over the second suspension bridge and continued up the Great Gulf Trail. Passed one guy headed down the trail (would be the only person I would see during the entire 2 day hike). Continued up the gradual ascent on a fairly rocky trail following the Peabody River on the right. Arrived at the junction with the Six Husbands Trail, took a quick break, then crossed the water and started on the new trail.

Arrived at a junction for the Buttress Trail and crossed the water to another designated campsite. Continued on Buttress and soon the talus filed appeared with views of a snow covered Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson (with no snow). Spent a little time exploring the top edge of the talus field looking for any paths into the forest. Eventually went back down to the start of the talus field and surmised the herd path just before the clearing must be the Adams Slide Trail.

The trail is steep, but very manageable. I was surprised at how well overall the trail was defined in the forest. There were a number of small detours off the original path, but for the most part, the faded blazes are there if you keep your eyes open and take your time. Anyone who has done any bushwhacking should be pretty comfortable with this path (assuming you have map/compass and/or GPS). There was not too much heavy stuff to break through and the blowdowns were manageable.

Getting close to 4000 feet, a clearing opens up in the woods which offers great views of the Wildcat Range, Washington and Jefferson. The trail started heading above tree line and it takes a little more effort to follow, but even through the scrub, there is a faint path to follow. The wind really started to pick up and the temperature was dropping at the higher elevation. After adding a couple of more layers (to include a shell) and a hat, the climb continued as the vegetation disappeared and the rocks and boulders began in earnest.

This entire section really offered some amazing views that can't be had anywhere else. The views of Washington and Jefferson were spectacular. Spotting small cairns along the way helped keep me on the old path. The wind kept getting stronger and did not let up the whole way up. Despite the wind, visibility was great the entire way up. There was one quartz rock that had obviously been blown off on the way up. I was able to find the "next cairn" for a majority of the way up. At some point, however, the friendly cairns either were blown down/ removed or I just got off track a bit. At this point going up is a good idea, and I knew the summit was close. After a short period of time, I spotted some much bigger, "typical" cairns and knew I had intersected the the Star Lake Trail as views of Madison came into my sight line.

A few more hundred yards of climbing and I reached the summit of Mount Adams. I think it's safe to say the winds were hitting 35-40 miles an hour. The summit was bitter cold and the trail signs were covered in a light coating of snow. Took the mandatory photos and quickly made my descent back onto the Star Lake Trail. After losing some elevation, I stopped for a drink. My hydration pack bite valve was frozen solid, so I had to break out the wide mouth Nalgene bottle. Stopped at the junction of Star Lake Trail and Buttress Trail to grab a snack and lose some layers. As I was heading down Star Lake Trail, got some great views of Madison and the hut. Also heard some voices from above, assuming they were at the summit, but I never saw them.

Began my descent into the Great Gulf Wilderness via the Buttress Trail. Looking back, got some great views of the ridgeline along with the cairns marking the way. Buttress had some big boulders to navigate, but it was no where near as steep as my descent down Madison Gulf Trail. I was on the fence about camping overnight, but as I was running out of daylight and did not feel like doing a headlamp journey, I figured I would get as far as I could before setting up camp. I got all the way down Buttress and linked back up with Six Husbands Trail. I still had about 45 minutes until sunset, so I thought I could make it to one of the Great Gulf campsites.

With daylight fading fast, I set up camp off of the Great Gulf Trail. It got dark quick and by the time my tent was up and my gear was situated it was pitch black. I heard some more voices briefly as they passed through and kept going. Had a nice hot meal and a steaming cup of coffee then settled in after checking out the stars through the trees. Had some wind blowing through the night but was nice and warm in my 15 degree bag.

Was up at 5:30 am before sunrise and was back on the trail before sunrise using a headlamp for the first 30 minutes or so. Could see the moon in the sky as daybreak started to brighten up the trail. The remaining 4 miles or so to the trailhead was a great way to start the day. Stopped at Frontside in North Conway for coffee and a delicious maple scone and was back in Southern NH late morning.

Great Gulf Wilderness Trailhead

Great Gulf Trail Suspension Bridge

Great Gulf Trail / Great Gulf Link Trail Junction

Great Gulf Trail Ski Trail on right

Great Gulf Trail - Chipmunk!

Great Gulf Trail - One of many water crossings before Wilderness Area

Great Gulf Trail - Wilderness Begins!

Great Gulf Trail / Osgood Trail Junction

Great Gulf Trail gets rocky

Great Gulf Trail lots of tree roots

Great Gulf Trail - Designated Campsite

Great Gulf Trail - View from clearing before Osgood Cutoff Trail

Great Gulf Trail - View from clearing before Osgood Cutoff Trail

Great Gulf Trail / Osgood Cutoff Trail Junction

Great Gulf Trail - Suspension Bridge near Madison Gulf Trail Junction

Great Gulf Trail / Madison Gulf Trail Junction

Great Gulf Trail / Chandler Brook Trail Junction

Great Gulf Trail / Six Husbands Trail Junction

Water Crossing to Six Husbands Trail

Six Husbands Trail /Buttress Trail Junction

Water Crossing to Buttress Trail and Designated Campsite

Buttress Trail Talus Field

Start of Adams Slide Trail before Buttress Trail Talus Field

Buttress Trail Talus Field

Views from Buttress Trail Talus Field

Adams Slide Trail faded blaze on rock

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail faded blaze

Adams Slide Trail nice open section

Adams Slide Trail still easy to follow

Adams Slide Trail faded blaze on rock

Adams Slide Trail small cairn

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail faded blaze

Adams Slide Trail faded arrow!

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington Auto Road

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail first sign of snow! there's a lot more higher up

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington Auto Road

Adams Slide Trail view of Wildcat

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Jefferson

Adams Slide Trail downward view of trail

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Jefferson

Adams Slide Trail trees are shrinking!

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail Panoramic Shot

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail - yes, there is a path to follow!

Adams Slide Trail view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail trees are gone

Adams Slide Trail downward view

Adams Slide Trail - the first quartz cairn!

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail - quartz cairn

Adams Slide Trail - view of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail - quartz cairn

Adams Slide Trail - quartz cairn ahead!

Adams Slide Trail - quartz cairn

Adams Slide Trail -huge quartz cairn

Adams Slide Trail - notice the snow on the ground

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail - quartz cairn

Adams Slide Trail - last quartz cairn (that I saw anyway)

Adams Slide Trail

Adams Slide Trail - View of Wildcat Range

Adams Slide Trail - View of Mount Washington

Adams Slide Trail - View of Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson

Adams Slide Trail - Near Star Lake Trail

Star Lake Trail near Mount Adams summit

Mount Adams summit!! (very cold and windy!)

Mount Adams summit- view of Mount Madison

Mount Adams summit- view of Mount Washington

Mount Adams summit- view of Mount Jefferson

Mount Adams summit

View of Madison Hut

View of Mount Madison

Heading down Star Lake Trail (it's cold!)

View of Mount Madison from Star Lake Trail

Star Lake Trail, I call this the Hershey Kiss rock

View of Mount Madison from Star Lake Trail

Star Lake Trail

Star Lake Trail / Buttress Trail Junction

Buttress Trail

Buttress Trail looking back

Buttress Trail

Buttress Trail large rock to pass under

Buttress Trail

Buttress Trail Talus Field

Great Gulf Trail daybreak

Great Gulf Trail daybreak with moon

Great Gulf Trail daybreak

Great Gulf Trail daybreak with moon

Great Gulf Trail daybreak

Great Gulf Trail Water Crossing Before Osgood Cutoff

Buttress Trail Talus Field with views of snow on Mount Washington

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Initial Ascent

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Ascent appox 3800 feet

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Clearing with views of Mount Washington

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail View of Snow on Mount Washington

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Approaching Treeline

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Above Treeline

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Above Treeline with heavy winds

Abandoned Adams Slide Trail Junction with Star Lake Trail to summit

Buttress Trail descent into Great Gulf Wilderness

Great Gulf Trail at sunset

GPS Track of hike

Google Earth kmz file of hike

Hitting the Trails

Monday, October 21, 2013

10/20/2013-10/21/2013 Mount Adams and The Great Gulf

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