Like, hey, why not hike for 20 miles across the White Mountains, making sure to summit Mt. Washington and the other presidential mountains on my list of 4000 footers left to cross off? And do it in one day. Sure, that seems like a grand idea….
Actually, this is a well-travelled path and is called a Presidential Traverse. There are variations of it, but the minimum requirements for complete what is affectionately referred to as a “death march” include hitting the following 7 summits:
Mount Madison - named after James Madison
Mount Adams - named after John Adams
Mount Jefferson - named after Thomas Jefferson
Mount Washington - named after George Washington
Mount Monroe - named after James Monroe
Mount Eisenhower - named after Dwight Eisenhower
Mount Pierce - named after Franklin Pierce
The route I chose
started me off at the Appalachia Trail Head on Route 2 and then hike south to north to Crawford Notch. The original plan was to wait until the Summer Solstice (June 20th this year), under the theory that it is the longest day of the year. However, the weather forecasted a heat index approaching 100 degrees and exhaustion and dehydration were already going to be on the menu – I didn’t need to pre-order extra helpings; so I set off two days earlier at 4:30 AM. I hit the top of Mt. Washington around 1PM (after getting a little lost trying to find the right trail to summit Mt. Jefferson) and finished at the AMC Highland Center at 8:10 PM.
My hope is to write an extended piece about the trip, but for now, here are the shots from the seven summits.
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| Mt. Madison |
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| Mt. Adams |
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| Mt. Jefferson |
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| Mt. Washington |
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| Mt. Monroe |
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| Mt. Eisenhower |
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| Mt. Pierce |
