Wadda ya think of the Presidential traverse? I don't know what should I think of it? That's sort of how it all began. My son and I had been climbing rock for about a year and we had done a little backpacking also. It seemed like a good idea then, to take off up to New Hampshire and hike the presidential traverse. My friend Tim, came up with the idea and I was game. I only had one question for Tim, "It's only about 17 miles. What are we going to do the rest of the time?" If I only knew then what I didn't know now...

The planning started in January and I was raring to go. I kept pushing Tim for a starting date. "How about the 1st of May?" Tim wasn't sure. He thought there might still be a lot of snow. I contacted the folks up at Pinkham Notch and they thought it might be a little early also, unless we were prepared for snow. We finally settled on the 1st of June, or there abouts.

As we perused the maps, and gathered some information, we decided to do the traverse from the north to the south. We would have 2 vehicles, so we could park one around at the end and use this to shuttle us back our starting point. We also decided that Dolly Copp would be a good place to camp and begin our traverse up the Daniel Webster trail. Okay. That's it. What else is there?

Matt and I spent a couple of days driving up to New Hampshire, accompanied by my dog, Buster, who pretty much goes wherever I go hiking. We spent a night at a friend's in Jersey, then went on up the 2nd day. We lived in New Hampshire for about 7 years, and though I had been back once of twice since, this was different going back with Matt. He was 6 when he left and one hell of a little skier. Leaving the snow and mountains of New Hampshire for the rain and hills of Maryland didn't help his skiing, and he has always considered New Hampshire home in spite of the fact all his relatives are in Maryland. The drive up through New England was pleasant and it brought back a lot of good memories. We got to North Conway and I thought we were there! Unfortunately, we had a little further to go, but we eventually did get to Dolly Copp, where we registered, put up our tent and waited for Tim and Brandon.

Where's Tim? He and Brandon didn't show up the previous night. Brandon was flying in from Seattle and Tim from D.C. They were meeting in Boston and renting a car, so much for our traverse starting on time. Matt and I went into Conway where I left some messages for Tim and told him where we could be found. Somehow of other we eventually connected in Conway. We did a little shopping for "essentials", dropped their car at Crawford Notch, then scurried back up to Dolly Copp, packed the gear and headed out. It was around 2:00 when we finally got on the trail and the day was mostly sunny with temps in the low 60s in the valley. We were loaded with gear. I couldn't understand Tim and Brandon's bickering about who was carrying what. The hike up Daniel Webster was a good one. I had questioned about the availability of water along the trail and it wasn't an issue. There were small springs and rivulets everywhere. The trail was obvious, but tiring as it climbed steeply from Dolly Copp up towards the summit of Madison (8.2 miles, 4100 feet). We took a break once we got above treeline. The temperature was noticeably cooler and the ceiling was down on the tops of the peaks. I tend to enjoy unsettled weather, at least the advent of unsettled weather with the clouds swirling and the wind picking up. We had that now. During our break we encountered a pair of hikers carrying an electric guitar and a small amp. For an instant I thought I was in Key West for fright fest, the incongruity of the situation. When we started up again, Buster was pooped. He was having a hard time with the talus and he just couldn't make it up one spot. I took him off his lead so he could find his own way, but he wasn't interested. Buster lucked out and got a ride as we swapped him back and forth between each of us. Sure wish someone was there to carry me. My most vivid memory of the climb was the view looking up the talus and seeing it disappear into the clouds.

We got to the top of Madison in blowing rain with temps around 40, not the most hospitible of environments. After the perfunctory "summit photos" we started on our way and crossed over to the west side of the ridge. How the wind really hit us. My guess (and it is only that) is it was blowing in the 30s with gusts in the 50s, again, not particularly pleasant. It was time to regroup. We're not camping in this, so we decided to make our way down to the Madison hut. Finding our way wasn't the easiest of projects. The trail is marked with cairns above treeline, and just seeing from one to the next was nearly impossible in the fog. We did though, and we eventually got to the Madison hut only to be turned away. It wasn't open for the season yet. Boy, I didn't want to walk away from there, but I had no choice. We hiked back up onto the ridge and a couple of times Buster really balked. He didn't want to be there. Once he turned around and headed back and I thought, "oh shi_, what am I going to do? I can't go back for him." Fortunately, he came when I called and he got another ride. After all, we chose to be out there. He didn't. After some uncertainty and rumination we finally found the trail down to Crag Camp and everything improved dramatically once we were back in the trees. We got to the hut and the caretaker was happy to have us as company. He was alone. We arrived about 8:15 in the evening with not a lot of daylight left, glad to be inside instead of putting up a tent.

The next day, Matt and I aborted our traverse while Tim and Brandon continued on. We weren't sure if we would see them back in Dolly Copp or not that night. Matt and I headed down from Crag Camp on the Randolph trail, which was an absolute delight. During our hike down, Matt commented that perhaps he was better suited for backpacking rather than "mountain climbing." He has proved that wrong in later years. In due course we made it back to Dolly Copp and were happy to be there!

Post Script - Tim and Brandon made it back that afternoon, commenting the rest of the route was much easier than our journey up to Crag Camp. Matt and I, we went on two days later and finished what we had wanted to do, starting out from Pinkham notch.