| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-01-03 19:49:39 UTC-0500 |
| Description | Death March 2006 - The Superverse
Ben July 8, 2006 This was my first introduction to the MIT Outing Club, known from here as MITOC. The goal: the entire White Mountains National Forest in a day. OK, maybe not the ENTIRE thing, but a good hunk of the popular part. Start at the Flume, end at Madison, hitting everything in between. The estimated distance is 58 miles with around 15,000 feet of elevation gain (and descent). Steve, Dan and I left from Cambridge at 7PM on Friday night, with the plan on meeting Catalin at the Flume trailhead at 9. Three cars are needed for this trip, so we took mine and Steves up from MIT. Steves has a top speed of around 65, and I drive like an old lady, so we didnt make the best time getting up there. Everybody was accounted for (including the hitchhiker I picked up) at Flume Gorge at 10PM. Distributing the cars (and said hitchhiker) to Crawford Notch (the middle) and Valley Way (the end) took another 2-3 hours. It might be a 58 mile hike straight through, but going around everything is a bit longer. We got to bed at about 1AM with a planned start of 4:30. I stayed in Hotel Taurus, which is by far the most comfortable car Ive ever slept in (and Im getting quite a travel card in automotive hoteling). I can get my 61 frame in the back with the hatch shut and room to spare, and the floor with the seats folded down is pretty flat. Catalin setup in his tent, and Steve and Dan slept on the pavement. 4:15 came and we got ready to go. Now, if one knows the trails pretty well around there, one may ask, Why the hell did you start up Flume Slide instead of the much easier Osseo Trail? Liberty Springs trailhead (which is also Flume Slide trailhead) is in Franconia Notch State Park, which has no fees for parking, where Lincoln Woods (where you get to the Osseo trail) costs $3 a day. Yup, so at the beginning of a 58 mile hike, to save $6, we went up the steepest trail in Franconia Notch. Franconia Ridge to South Twin The offical start time was 4:38. It was light enough at this time to go without headlamps. The blow by blow of each mountain is pretty boring, so we can skip ahead to the end of Franconia Ridge. We finsihed the at 8:45. Catalin decided that in order to finish this in any sort of state that would allow him to keep livng, he wouldnt be able to do it at Steves pace. I was already going at 100% to keep up and I was really worried that I wouldnt be able to keep it up either. I told myself that just getting to Crawford Notch (32 miles) is still a respectable day hike and Id keep up for as long as I can. Im getting pretty good at planning my food supplies for these long hikes: 1 Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie and 1 energy bar for every 2 hours, 1 tube of homemade energy gel for every 8 hours and as many pretzels as I can stuff in the remaining room in my bag. This was a perfect arrangement for the trip to Crawford Notch. We took a minute or two break on each peak through Franconia and Garfield Ridges, and barley had enough water to make it to Galehead Hut. By barely enough water, I mean we were discussing that if you get dehydrated under exertion, is it possible to recover, given enough water, while continuing to exert yuorself? At Galehead, I drank as much water as possible and filled my supplies as much as I could. No more running out of water now! Everybody Ive talked to is worried about the climb from Galehead Hut to South Twin Peak. Its 800 feet of elevation gain in 0.8 miles. Sure, its straight up, but this is consistantly the most overhyped piece of trail that Ive been on. Its not that far and its not that high. The whole thing takes 30-45 minutes and its over. There are so many trails in the Whites that are worse, but Ive received so many warnings about the Twinway trail that youd think itd be littered with dead bodies. South Twin to Crawford Notch South Twin (4900) to Crawford Notch (1500) is (mostly) a long, gradual downhill, crossing Mt. Guyot and Mt. Zealand along the way. We ran into all sorts of people on day hikes from Crawford Notch. We are easily the fastest hikers on the trails until this one point. Were hiking aloong about 6 miles from the nearest road, and 3 high-school aged guys, dressing in matching white polo shirts, khaki pants, bright white tennis shoes and carrying bookbags come charging up behind us and ask if they can pass. We looked at each other and couldnt figure out where they had come from (they were behind us), and let them go. At their pace (probably close to 12 minute miles) they wouldnt be able to keep it up for long, but they got far enough ahead of us and were never to be seen again. When we got near to Crawford Notch, you have to cross the railroad tracks. A little bit of figuring and a lot of hiking caused us to miscalculate where the midpoint car was and we hikied for 3 miles down the railroad tracks when we should have just crossed them. Lucky for me, I found a perfectly good EMS pullover fleece that I decided would be useful on top of the Presidentials in the iddle of the night, and even luckier for us, we managed to get a ride from Mike from the Willy Station House parking lot to the Willy House historical site. After hiking 32 miles for 14 hours straight, its tough to remeber where the car was parked. We got to the car at about 6PM. Snacks were Doritos, Fritos, Iced-tea, Mountain Dew and Chips Ahoy. Socks, shirts and underware were changed and supplies were restocked. I packed the same food as before, in the same quantities. We got a ride back to the Willy Station House site from Mike and found Catalin along the way. He was about 40 minutes behind us and made the same mistake about where we parked. He got back to the car thanks to Mike and we started off on the second-half. Nothing like at 32 miles hike and then deciding to add a reverse Presidential Traverse on top of it. Crawford Notch to Mitzpah Hut Of course, we didnt go directly to Mitzpah Hut. We hit Jackson and Webster first. Webster wasnt necessarily a president, but he was an elder statesman, and that was close enough to put it on the Presidential Traverse. After Jackson, we took a few minute break and got out the headlamps. It wasnt immediatly necessary, but a twisted ankle would be bad news. We slept for about 20 minutes at Mitzpah Hut. Dan decided not to continue at this point and we would meet him the next day at the Crawford Notch Hotel. Steve and I started out for the push to Lake of the Clouds. Mitzpah Hut to Lake of the Clouds At this point Im really regretting the food that I brought. Energy bars, brownies and power gel only gets you so far. Luckily, Steve was feeling the same way, and I could trade a couple Cosmic Brownies for a couple granola bars. Even still, all that sugar was beginning to mess with my stomach. I forced myself to eat a prezel every 10 minutes and that helped quite a bit. Lesson #1: you can subsist on sugar for the first 40 miles, but after that you need something else. I never did identify exactly what woudl have been good at that point, but I found that from then on, I really couldnt eat as much as I should. Steve and I flew over Pierce, Eisenhower, Franklin and Monroe. It was quite dark, but manageable, and the weather was just about perfect for this. It was around 60 degrees, with a slightly overcast 7/8 moon. We saw some lights going on the spur trail around Franklin but never actually met up with any other hikers (not surprising, being 11PM at night). We re-watered again at Lake of the Clouds, were trying to decide whether to rest for a while or not. Somewhere in the fogginess of a mind thats been awake and hiking for 20 hours, we though that the hikers cellar on Mt. Washington was open 24 hours, and that there were couches that would be much more comfortable than the benches at Lake of the Clouds. Mt. Washington Ah, the best and worst peak in the world. Its a beautiful place in the middle of the night with no one around, a relatively full moon, and a balmy 50 degrees. To bad it doesnt last. As soon as we summitted Washington a thick fog, moved in and covered the mountain. Of course, the hikers room isnt open 24 hours. Its about 2:30 in the morning now, and its really foggy and we cant really find the trail too well. In the endless stream of great ideas, lets bivy on the top of Mt. Washington! We sleep on the cement ground for a few minutes (Im glad I have that fleece that I found) and I wake up shivering. I do only have shorts and a dirty fleece, and its windy and chilly. Ive sobered up enough to realize that this may not be the best of circumstances, but Ive been in worse. I get up to walk around for a bit to warm up. Its still socked in, and I have vague idea where the trail starts, but it would be crappy to find it in the dark fog, especially with the trail network around the top of Washington. Its cold enough and foggy enough that the only thing I can think about is rule 3...dont get rescued...dont get rescued. I didnt use up all my angles yet though. There was a big diesel generator next to the summit building, with a heat vent that blows out the back of it. I pulled a wooden bench over and slept for another hour or so under the warm exhaust of the generator. No problem. I woke up to find Steve had done the same, and at a bright(er) and early 4AM, it was light enough to work our way through the fog. To the End At this point Im running on auto-pilot. The morning turns out to be spectacular, I can barely walk and I need to put a few more rocks in Steves backpack every time we rest to slow him down a bit. Its that I was in a daze, but it was time to put my head down and start moving. My main motivation was the next cairn, and then the one after that, etc. Wash, rinse and repeat. Steve offered to send me around the spur trails that didnt go over the summits, and maybe I should have, but Im pretty sure that I wouldnt be here again anytime soon, so I wasnt going to avoid the last 4 peaks. And those last 4 peaks are a doozy! Lots of rocks, lots of people, lots of sun. I had joked about being optimistic and left the sunscreen and sunglasses at the mid-point. Im getting tired now just remembering that part of the hike. Going up Madison was probably the most Ive ever had to push myself physically. For the last 100 feet, I put the trekking poles away and climbed up using my hands! A long 5 minute break on top and we headed for Valley Way. This is one nice trail. It descends down a gully next to a river, and the river tended to keep everything cooler than the surrounding area. Steve waited for me one last time in the parking lot where we had final elapsed time of 31 hours and 33 minutes. Epilogue OK, so when you hike 58 miles, its a good idea to leave that car at the end that is most likely to start. Steve and I had to push start his Volvo to get back. I tried to make sure that he was good to drive, but I couldnt stay awake for more than 3 or 4 minutes at a time. He did well, and we met Dan at the Crawford Notch Hotel, showered up, and promptly fell asleep on the couches in their main room while deciding where to go for food. We collected my car, went to Lincoln for pizza and I made it back to Newton by 6PM on Sunday. Bens statistics of the hike Time : 31 hours, 33 minutes Distance : 58 miles Elevation gain : 15,000 feet Peaks : 20 Power bars : 12 Homemade power gel tubes : 4 Cosmic Brownies : 10 Pounds of Pretzels : 1 Bags of Doritos : 0.5 Liters of Iced Tea : 1 Water : 4 gallons Calories expended : 8,500 Ibuprofins : 5 Vitamins : 2 |