Mt. Washington Trek on July 4, 2006

Abhi and I were planning to go for a trek from nearly a month. It was Abhi's determination that we could finally fix a date and go for it. We decided to go to Mt. Washington peak in New Hampshire, USA on July 4 th. It is the highest peak in Northeast with a height of 6288 ft.

We started our journey to base camp Pinkham Notch from Boston around 5:15 AM. Here is the address of Pinkham Notch AMC Visitor center. It is kind of hard to find it on the internet.

AMC Pinkham Notch Visitor Center
Route 16 Pinkham Notch
Gorham, NH 03581 Phone 603-466-2721

On the way to Gorham, we took a heavy breakfast. A good breakfast is absolutely necessary before going for a day hike. The restaurant was a local authentic food place. Its name was Country Kitchen and it was somewhere near to LakeSides area. We reached to Pinkham Notch around 9:15 AM. Then, we decided to buy the map and ask some general questions about the trails. The weather forecasts was light thunderstorm during the afternoon so we were advised to come down asap if weather starts getting bad. Weather was sunny when we started our trek at 9:50 AM. We decided to take Tuckerman trail for the uphill and Lion Head while coming back.

There are lots of small bridges in the beginning of the trek. Here is one of the bridge. Obviously, Abhi took the snaps. Another pick looking at the route which becomes pretty steep just after few yards. Recall, that we gained nearly 4000 ft in 4 miles.


Here is Abhi, taking rest at our first stop. We decided to stop after 40 mins or so for 5 minutes break. The hike was pretty steep and with sunshine, we were sweating like anything. Although, it was hot then also we decide to wear paints which were very useful later bec. there were so many mosquitoes on the trail.

Please do take Anti-Mosquito spray. It is must in July season. We were so annoyed by these little creatures sucking our blood.




After a hike of nearly 2.1 miles and nearly 1 hr 45 mins we reached at the midpoint Hermit Lake Shelters. We took a small break here, again the mosquito problem. Abhi decided to consume a snack bar and some more snacks which helped us to reduce the pack weight :)


















Here are some of the pics looking Tuckerman Ravine from Hermit Lake Shelter and nearby mountains.




The hike after Hermit Lake Shelter becomes quite steep but very beautiful. Now we are almost about treeline and we can see nice overviews. First we decided to get some water from the well which was few yards from Lake Shelter.













After 40 mins or so we start facing wet route. It was little bit slippery. The water was coming from Tukerman ravine. We were able to see a big patch of snow which was melting. A beautiful overlook from a point near to the snow point of Tuckerman ravine. Abhi and I enjoyed marvelous views of the white mountain valley from here.















After a hike of nearly a mile we climbed the headwall. Now we were nearly 0.8 miles from the Mt. Washington. We could actually see many hikers on the route and we also saw the tower of Mt. Washington. This part of route is mainly big green boulders. You have to carefully hop from rock to rock. That's where you need shoes with good ankle support. On the way up, we met a 6 yrs girl who was climbing Mt. Washington. What a challenge, right in the age of 6 yrs. I wonder what miracles she will do when she will be of our age.






Finally, we reached summit after 4 hrs of hike. Towards, the end we were exhausted and we were looking fwd for a nice break with nice food. First, we were apprehensive whether the cafe at the peak will be open or closed bec. it was 4 th of July. But, one of the hiker who was getting down told us that the cafe is open. We were happy anyways we had enough food even if the cafe was closed.

On the peak, we went straight to the cafe and we had pizza and some small snacks. It was awesome, we got hot pizza right at the height of 6226 ft. We were very satisfied on our achievement of climbing the peak. After the snacks, it was time for pictures. So Abhi and I went to the Signpost of Mt. Washington. Here are our pics, enjoying our success.

You will be amazed that there is steamtrain service (Cog Railway) to the Mt. Washington every hour. There is an interesting history of rail and road access to Mt. Washington.



















After spending nearly 1 hr on the top, we decided to get down. We decided to take Lion's head trail till Hermit lake Shelter. We decided to take it bec. Tukerman was quite slippery and getting down will be risky and time consuming. First you have to take Tuckerman to get down from the Snowfilds (0.8 miles) which was on the big green boulders. Sometimes, we were using our hands also to get lower it was quite steep. We were quite fast on getting down. Abhi was leading me all the time during the descent from the peak. We were able to see a rock which looks like Lion's head (as named) from a long distance. This part of the route was quite easy but filled with mosquitoes. Finally, we reached at Lions peak. We snapped some wonderful views of the valley from here.





We really didn't enjoy the hike from Lion's head to Pinkham Notch Visitor Center bec. there were so many mosquitoes and it was getting dark. We were very fast while getting down from here. Some of the parts from Lion's head to Hermit Lake Shelter is quite steep so it was nearly downclimbing to get down. To our surprise, we ended up bypassing the lake shelter and we reached back on Tuckerman around 5 PM. We set a target to reach the visitor center by 6 PM.

We achieved our target and finally we were down from the peak in 3 hrs. After a brief break, we took showers and headed back to our home at 7 PM.

It was an exciting and adventurous day. We should have such days as much as possible in our life otherwise we will not know when the time slipped and we reached in an age where we cannot do these adventure activities anymore. :)