Day 27: The Presidential Traverse

Our alarm was set for 4:30, but I didn’t get out of the tent until 5. The campsite along the Valley Way trail was just a spit away from the side of the mountain. The wind was blustery, but the sunrise was nice.

We walked up the 0.6 miles back to our white blazes. It was shaping up to be a very nice day.

We immediately entered the Alpine Zone with warnings of perishing under bad weather. We knew we had a good weather window until the mid-to-late afternoon, so we weren’t worried.

The walk to Mount Washington was spectacular. It was all above treeline, and the surrounding area was clear enough to see for what felt like hundreds of miles.

There’s not a whole lot I can put into words about our trek up to New Hampshire’s high point. If you ever get the chance to do this yourself, I wouldn’t hesitate. The weather shaped up to be better than the forecast. Hardly any clouds in the sky, and the visibility was greater than many of the days we’ve had above the treeline so far.

There are huge rock cairns everywhere to guide the way, as the weather and visibility can get so bad up here. This is much more helpful than the small white blazes in a vast environment. It also helps to keep hikers on the right path so as not to harm the fragile flora that, in spite of itself, survives in this harsh environment.

Eventually, we made it over the last pass before the big one. We spotted train tracks along the side of the mountain! Then, we heard the toots and saw the cog train heading back down the mountain. I found out later that a one-way ticket costs around $70. I prefer the hike to the top. Alas, it is still neat to see this thing go up and down.

Entering the saturated tourist area that is the summit of Mount Washington is a weird experience. It’s funny to see people pay a fare to drive up to the top of this beast in cars just to take a quick picture and scour the gift shop. But we took advantage of the benefits anyhow.

We made it just in time for the cafeteria to open at 11 am. We were told by some other folks that they serve chili dogs and I was all in. Nick and I both got chili dogs and soft pretzels with cheese along with a couple of sodas. I couldn’t finish my entire pretzel. Nick needs the extra calories anyhow, so he happily obliged.

As we were about to head back to the trail, we noticed some commotion around the trail. It turns out that John Kelly was about to pass through on his FKT attempt. By the time this post is published, he will have finished or not, and this will be old news.

FKT stands for fastest known time. It’s whoever can hike or run a trail the fastest. There are two different ways to do it, supported and unsupported. John is fully supported so he is moving about the AT as if it were a race, with aid stations and pacers along the way. Last year a woman named Tara Dower set the FKT for the AT. It’s pretty incredible what the human body can do.

We didn’t have the time or wherewithal to sit around and watch like the rest of the folks; we figured we’d cross paths with this guy anyhow since he was headed north. Sure enough, five minutes after we headed off the summit, a posse of about ten dudes was headed up the hill. Some had camera equipment and some were in their running garb. They all looked vaguely the same so it was difficult to pick John out of the pack. We greeted them, and Nick exclaimed, “Which one of you is John?!” They all looked pretty worn out and one of the men pointed behind him. The climb up seemed to be a little rough, plus this man had been doing over forty miles per day for the last 34 days.

We spoke to one of their crew members, and he said that John plans to finish around a day before Tara’s record. They’re about to head into some rough terrain and storms and as you go farther north there are some detrimental river crossings. Best of luck to them.

After the hubbub concluded, we had a quick six miles to home. Still above treeline for the majority, we took our time, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Eventually, we got to Mizpah Spring Hut and the Nauman Tent Site. We planned to stay at the tent site but hung outside of the hut for a while with some other thru-hikers. They were heading north and brought their dog Abby with them. We swapped stories and recommendations before the caretaker came to help show us around the tent site. It was none other than Neo, the caretaker we had previously seen twice. It’s so nice to see familiar faces out here, we don’t get much of that as early SOBOs.

We had a fairly early dinner and I got cozy in my quilt for the majority of the rest of the night.

Tomorrow is going to be a small resupply day with over ten miles of hiking.