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  1. #1
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    Pemi Loop & Presidential Traverse

    I'll make this a multi-post series, for organization. Planning details come first; scroll down for pictures.

    Planned Route

    I planned a route that mostly followed the Appalachian Trail through the White Mountains. This included most of the Pemi Loop, and most of a Presidential Traverse. I chose this route through the Whites because planning it was easier:
    1. Following the Appalachian Trail meant I knew I wouldn’t be trying to go the “wrong direction” on a “one way” trail. Philip Werner says that many trails in the Whites can be dangerous to hike in the “wrong direction”: https://sectionhiker.com/white-mount...ite-mountains/
    2. Finding water sources and suitable campsites would be easy using Appalachian Trail guides, such as the AWOL AT Guide.
    3. Both the Pemi Loop and Presidential Traverse are famous, popular hikes with many descriptions online.
    4. Parking at Lincoln Woods Trailhead made hitchhiking back to the car easy.

    Here is my planned route, on AllTrails:
    https://www.alltrails.com/explore/ma...e-nh-2-72b32a1
    PemiLoop_and_Presidentials.png
    I did this hike with my buddy Dave from Sun 9/19/2021 to Thurs 9/23/2021.

    Alternative start locations & transportation

    Other options, for a similar hike, could have involved parking somewhere in Franconia Notch, which might not have had the $5/day parking fee like Lincoln Woods Trailhead Parking Lot. But then a hitchhike might have required 3 legs: one from Pinkham Notch to Conway, a second leg to Lincoln, and a 3rd leg up I-93 or Rt 3 to our car. This seemed like pushing our luck.

    There is alternatively an AMC hiker shuttle for $20/person, which could have taken us from our endpoint at Pinkham Notch to e.g. Lafayette Campground in Franconia Notch (if we’d started our hike there). But the schedule looked like it would take a long time, and would not be robust to time delays in our hiking: the shuttle trip would have two legs, with a stopover in Highland Center, and we’d have to catch the Pinkham Notch shuttle at 10:40am to make the last connection that goes through to Lafayette Campground to arrive at 2:45pm. I hoped that hitchhiking to Lincoln Woods Trailhead would be faster and more flexible – and it definitely was!

  2. #2
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    Availability of hammock campsites

    TLDR: With a little effort, I was able to find a workable spot for a hammock on every night of our trip.

    Details:

    Unofficial camping options are limited in the Whites – for both tents and hammocks – as the trees are often very dense or the ground is mush or not flat. So it’s best to try to get to official sites, if possible.

    At official AMC tentsites it is easier to get a spot for a tent than a hammock, as the elevated tent pads were set up with tents in mind, but I can say that hammocking was possible at Naumann tentsite (which is the only one we stayed at).

    Despite planning to stay at official sites, we often fell short on our mileage for the day, and we just lucked out to find places to camp as it was getting dark. Here’s where we stayed:

    Day 0: Hancock campground, less than a mile down the road from the Lincoln Woods Trailhead. We camped the night before setting out on our backpacking trip. We found a campsite with trees for a hammock as well as space for a tent.

    Day 1: Near Garfield Pond, there’s an unofficial, but legal (>200ft off the trail), area to camp. It’s down a path on the opposite side of the AT from Garfield Pond. There were at least 2 other tents already there. Dave may have grabbed the last flat spot for a tent. I went further back, to get away from a huge collection of dead trees, and found a few spots suitable for hammocks (and unsuitable for tents).

    Day 2: We didn’t quite make it to the Ethan Pond shelter. About a mile short of it, as it was getting dark, we discovered a spot off the south side of the trail. It wasn’t exactly a full 200ft off trail, but we couldn’t find any other options nearby as much of the area has very soggy ground. There was a spot big enough for a 1p tent, and at least one nice spot for a hammock.

    Day 3: We made it to Naumann tentsite. Site #2 (almost all the way in the back) worked well for me for hammocking. It was a little hard to reach high enough on the trees to get the hammock over the elevated platform, but I managed by dragging over a log to stand on. (I put the hammock over the platform because I think I recall reading a post from cmoulder that a tentsite caretaker once insisted he do this. There was no caretaker present when we arrived, but I wanted to be safe in case one showed up.)

    Day 4: Valley Way campsite. I set up on an official numbered spot that was clearly unsuitable for tents, given its slope. This slope made it challenging to reach high enough on the downslope tree to get my hammock nearly level, but I managed by standing on a rock and hanging onto the tree for balance. Unfortunately, hammockers had pretty well destroyed the two obvious trees to hang from on this site: all the bark was stripped off at any conceivably workable strap height. I tried to see whether they had leaves higher up to check that they were still alive, and I checked they didn’t budge when I shoved on them. They seemed solid, so I hung from them. Dave pointed out to me in the morning that one of them was actually dead; the leaves I saw were actually from surrounding trees. Oops. There may have been other sites appropriate for hammocks; I didn’t check.

    Day 5: We stopped for lunch at Osgood tent site, where we’d planned to actually sleep on Night 4. With a quick look around, I found a numbered site suitable only for hammocks, due to the ground being sloped and covered in roots. There may have been other suitable sites.

    Upshot:

    Ultimately, our combination of a 1p tarptent and a hammock worked well.

    For unofficial sites, once we found a clearing there was generally an area suitable for a tent and an area suitable for a hammock. Two tents, or two hammocks, might have been more difficult, as we generally didn’t see a single clearing with two good tent spots or two good hammock spots. (OTOH, it’s not surprising that we found what we were looking for and not what we weren’t looking for.)

    For official spots, I don’t know how reliable hammock options are at AMC / caretaker tentsites that have elevated tent platforms; but it’s clear that Valley Way tentsite and Osgood tentsite have some spots designed with hammocks in mind.

  3. #3
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    Gear

    Here’s my gear list for this trip: https://lighterpack.com/r/m9d7y9

    I’d used my Dutchware Chameleon hammock on two prior overnight trips, and my Warbonnet Thunderfly on one prior overnight trip. This was my first time using the JacksRBetter Mt Washington 3. Because this trip was 5 days long, instead of my usual overnights, I couldn’t fit all my food & gear in my usual backpack (Osprey Kestrel 48). As a result, this was my first outing with a Granite Gear Crown2 V60. I’m lucky that everything worked out pretty well! We’ll call it “lots of study and preparation” even though I didn’t have lots of practice.

  4. #4
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    Trip report

    I knew this would be the most difficult backpacking trip I’ve done, but wow – it was intense. The frequent steepness of the terrain, the short steep rock scrambles (almost like rock climbing), the miles of walking on rock jumbles, the high winds on the summits – these are all things I hadn’t experienced before on a backpacking trip. What an adventure! And with such rewarding views!

  5. #5
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    Day 0

    We drove the 10+ hours from Maryland to New Hampshire in a single shot, stopping only for gas, as we snacked in the car. (The trip could have been shorter, but we took a westerly route through Scranton and the Green Mountains to avoid about $40 in one-way tolls and NYC-area traffic.) We got to Hancock Campground less than an hour before sunset and set up camp there. Hancock Campground is less than a mile down the road from Lincoln Woods Trailhead, where we would start our hike the next day, so it was a convenient staging point. It also allowed me to test out my JacksRBetter Mount Washington 3 underquilt, which I’d never used before, before truly being out in the woods.

    Aside: I’m a very new hammock camper, and had only used an underquilt on ONE night prior to this trip. I used the JRB Shenandoah as an UQ on a trip to Shenandoah. It was hot enough out that I didn’t cinch the foot end at all, and was perfectly comfortable. So prior to this trip to the Whites, I had no experience properly adjusting an UQ for warmth.

    Second aside: I have a great aesthetic appreciation for the fact that my first use of the JRB Shenandoah was in Shenandoah, and my first use of the JRB MW3 was on a trip to Mount Washington.
    At Hancock Campground, I didn’t get the JRB MW3 cinched up perfectly, so I had some cold spots, but it worked well enough that I decided I’d just work out the kinks over the course of the trip.

    Whites-17.jpg
    Our site at Hancock Campground. My buddy Dave has his TarpTent Protrail Li in the foreground, and in the background that’s my Dutchware Chameleon in Hexon 1.2 (Burnt Orange) covered by my Warbonnet Thunderfly in Dark Foliage Green. I may not have had the JRB MW3 on it yet; it’s hard to tell from the picture.
    Last edited by schwad; 09-29-2021 at 21:35.

  6. #6
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    Day 1

    We started from Lincoln Woods Parking Lot ($5/day parking fee) and climbed up eventually to Franconia Ridge. The approach trails we took gave a nice, gradual warmup. Lincoln Woods Trail was a gravel walking trail, slightly uphill. Osseo Trail began to be a little more rugged, and turned uphill for real; at first gradually, then so steep that it occasionally involved ladders. Nonetheless, we were told by locals that this was the “easy” way up Mt. Flume; the Flume trail is one of the most difficult trails in the White Mountains, and someone who climbed it that day said that it was “a bit scary” and definitely lived up to its reputation.

    Whites-39.jpg
    Climbing to Franconia Ridge. We ascended the trail that’s behind me (steep enough to be out of sight).


    The views from Franconia Ridge made this day my favorite of the whole trip.

    Whites-46.jpg
    Franconia Ridge, approaching Mt Lincoln


    Whites-51_downsampled.jpg
    A roughly 270-degree panorama from Mt Lafayette. At the right of the picture is Franconia Ridge, which we just traversed.

    Whites-56.jpeg
    At the top of Mt Lafayette

    Maybe we dawdled a bit on Franconia Ridge, or maybe I’d just planned for more miles than I was capable of out of the gate, but we didn’t make it to Garfield Shelter before dark as intended. Luckily, we were able to find a (legal) stealth campsite near Garfield Pond. Based on our experience the next day, I strongly advise against doing the section between Garfield Pond and Garfield Shelter in the dark. It involved some steep rock scrambling.

  7. #7
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    Day 2

    Climbing up from Garfield Pond to the top of Mt Garfield, we had our first rock scramble where we had to stow our hiking poles. Not recommended for hiking in the dark (IMHO).

    Whites-63_downsampled.jpg
    Panorama from the top of Mt Garfield. In the middle of the picture is Franconia Ridge, which we traversed the previous day (from left to right).

    Sometime slightly later in the day (possibly still before we hit Garfield shelter; I forget) the trail decided to go straight down what I would have termed a low-flow waterfall – or a small creek in the middle of the trail that turned into a -50% grade. Based on the wear on trees on the sides of the trail/waterfall, we weren’t the first to decide that hanging onto them was the best way to descend.

    Nearing lunchtime, we found the ascent up South Twin to be steep and rocky, but not outrageous. We did fill up water from the convenient tap at Galehead Hut, before the ascent.

    The beginning half of the day was slow going due to steepness, and had us concerned about reaching our intended destination by dark. The first 4 miles took 4 hours. But the difficulty eased up after South Twin, and shortly afterwards we felt we were on a “highway” of wooden planks and other smoother sections of trail. We made up a huge amount of time in the second half of the day, even though there were still a few rugged parts. Before it got dark, we managed to get to about 1 mile short of our intended campsite of Ethan Pond.

    Whites-080.jpg
    Wooden plank "highway" on the Twinway trail after Mount Guyot


    IMG_20210920_173415364_HDR.jpg
    Ethan Pond Trail, near Whitewall Mount (uphill to left)

  8. #8
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    Day 3

    This was our “easy day” planned to be only 8.3 miles. I planned it to be shorter for two reasons:

    1. The descent into Crawford Notch, and the climb out of it to Mount Webster, looked quite steep and time consuming: 2317 ft of descent followed by 3287 ft of ascent.
    2. We absolutely had to start Day 4 from Naumann tentsite, to have the best chance of successfully crossing the alpine zone around Mt. Washington in a single day. Day 4 was planned to be 13.4 miles, with about 4485 ft of ascent and 5729 ft of descent. Any shortcomings from Days 1 & 2 needed to be made up on Day 3.

    The descent to Crawford Notch was relatively tame trail, and so was an easy downhill. But the climb up to Mount Webster involved a bit of rock scrambling.

    Whites-137-screenshot.jpg
    A rock scramble up Mt Webster

    Whites-139.jpeg
    Mt Washington, from the top of Mt Webster

    We were told by locals that during the first 3 days of our hike we experienced the best 3 days of weather in the Whites all year. I believe it. It was perfect. Look at that view of Mt Washington!

    We made it to Naumann tentsite as planned, even though we added a little extra distance to the day due to falling short on Day 2. The wind started to pick up in the evening, so I used the (custom-added) side pullouts on my Warbonnet Thunderfly tarp.

    Whites-145-screenshot.png
    A great hammock setup (in process) over a tent pad at Naumann tentsite

  9. #9
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    Day 4

    Day 4 was wet and windy, especially on the summits, with extremely limited visibility. If Day 4 had delivered weather as perfect as that on Day 1, then Day 4 over Mt. Washington and around the Great Gulf Wilderness probably would have been my favorite, outcompeting Franconia Ridge. But I have no regrets.

    Whites-162-screenshot.png
    Between Mt Monroe and Mt Washington, hiking in blowing mist

    Instead, the weather we got on Mt. Washington was more representative of its usual. In our case, during our climb we had a temperature of about 50F with what I estimate (as a sailor) were 25-35mph winds, gusting to 40+mph, and <200 yard visibility through the wind-driven rain/mist. I am very thankful that we had the wind at our backs (or sides), and never in our faces. It actually helped push us uphill!

    Whites-167-screenshot.png
    Climbing Mt Washington. It’s getting windy!

    Near the summit, about 0.2 miles away, conditions got even worse. I could hear the howling of the wind over the rocks above us, and decided in our relatively sheltered position to zip on the bottoms of my convertible pants (making them long pants). It was a good choice, as otherwise I definitely would have gotten cold(er). At the summit winds were 40mph, with gusts to 50mph, according to the Mt Washington Observatory.

    Whites-172.jpeg
    Dave: "AHHHHH!!!!" Me: "I'm gonna blow away!!"

    The weather calmed down and cleared up a bit on the other side of Mt Washington, later in the day.

    Whites-180-downsampled.jpg
    View from Gulfside Trail

    Whites-187-downsampled.jpg
    View from Gulfside Trail

    Whites-189.jpg
    View from Gulfside Trail

    Even with the view mostly blocked by the clouds, we could tell we were hiking through a magnificent expanse. I would love to return someday to see it in its full majesty.

    As the day went on, it became clear that we did not have time to make it to Osgood tentsite before dark. A southbound AT hiker told us about a campsite down the hill to the north of Madison Spring Hut which was just “15 minutes down”. We got to Madison Spring Hut about an hour before sunset, and decided to head to that closer campsite, which turned out to be the Valley Way Tentsite. In no way was it a mere 15 minutes, though! It took us about 40 minutes to get down there, the steep slope giving my poor knees a final beating for the day.

    Another item of note: Day 4 was rough on our hiking poles. One of mine snapped multiple times (losing 2-3 inches each time), before finally completely coming apart. (The first piece may have broken off on Day 3; I don’t remember for certain.) One of Dave’s poles also had its tip break off, causing the bottom segment to detach from the internal cable and rendering the pole unusable for hiking. Luckily, he could still use it to set up his shelter (which required 2 trekking poles).

  10. #10
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    Day 5

    Since we didn’t get to Osgood Tentsite on Day 4, and instead went about 0.6 miles in the opposite direction, we had to do about 3+ (tough) miles more than intended on our last day. Also, I woke up and found it difficult to get to a standing position due to knee pain. I took an ibuprofen, borrowed Dave’s remaining hiking pole in order to have two to use, and started uphill. Luckily, some combination of hiking and pain meds loosened up my knees, and I was fine for the rest of the day.

    One benefit of passing Madison Spring Hut in the morning (a little after 9am, because I was dragging), and looking like thru-hikers while pausing to fill our water bottles there, was that we were offered some free leftover breakfast! The sausage and eggs were cold, but by that point MY GOODNESS were they delicious.

    IMG_20210923_094423001.jpg
    View down behind us to Madison Spring Hut, as we begin climbing Mt Madison

    Hiking over Mt Madison was no joke, and we were glad we hadn’t pushed over it on the evening / night of Day 4. The uneven rocks ascending the North side made it slow, deliberate hiking/climbing. We again had some drizzle and general blustery wetness. It was almost as windy as it had been on Mt Washington the day before: about 25-35mph, probably gusting to 40mph. (We were told by other hikers that Mt Washington had gusts forecast to 70mph for Day 5; we were glad to be past it already.) The rocks as we descended the South side of Mt Madison were even more treacherous, as they were wet and slippery (we think from the wet lichen). Dave thought this was the “sketchiest” part of our whole trip. But we made it below treeline and got to Osgood tentsite for lunch.

    The remainder of the hike gradually brought us down in elevation and reintroduced us to “normal” non-alpine backpacking conditions. Some hikers coming the other direction warned us to be careful at a river crossing ahead; when we got there, we rock-hopped across without a care, as it was nothing compared to the adventure we’d had for the last 5 days!

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