Mt. Madison overnight: Success! 3 day traverse of the presidential range: super fail

Ani and Johns Presidential Tra-worst

We set out for a three day adventure in the White Mountains to test out our gear on one of the more challenging parts of the AT. The result however was a single overnight and successful summit of Mount Madison. For context the presidential range contains two of the most difficult single day assents on the AT, Mount Madison gains 2800 feet over roughly two and a half miles, and the weather on Mount Washington is notoriously capricious. Our packs were full, we were generously supplied, and prepared for any weather we may encounter on our first test run. We were not prepared for Ani’s foot to swell to twice its size due to a bee sting, thus turning our three day excursion into a single night and two day double summit of Mt. Madison.

We set out after a terrific breakfast at the Tilt’n Diner in Tilton, NH with our friend Rob who would accompany us for the weekend. As we had planned to complete the full 25 mile range over the course of the weekend, we spotted one of our cars and proceeded to the base of Mount Madison. We were chipper and excited to be on the trail, the smell of pine surrounded us as we clambered over rocks and roots, making our way to the tree line where we would begin the scramble to the summit. The scenery slowly turned alpine. The trees, first small and craggled, yielded to larger granite rocks stippled with multi-color lichen and small berry patches. On the summit we took our victorious pictures with Reggie and Annette, our hedgehog companions. Then we started down the trail to Madison Hut, and our tent site. Rainstorms could be seen to the north passing by, we were thankful that the curtains of rain had missed us.

After we made camp, Ani checked on her bee stung foot. While she seemed fine that morning, she was certainly not fine now, her foot had a bit of swelling and the edges of the sting could be clearly seen. We marked the boundaries of the inflammation and she popped a few Benadryl, we would check on her the following morning and make a decision on how to proceed. After a fitful and stormy night, her foot had fully swollen and we needed to descend. After coffee and oatmeal, we made our way back up to Madison hut for advice on how best to descend the now rainy and overcast mountain. We had three options, a flooded trail, a poorly marked and seldom traveled trail, or to return the way we had come; back over the summit and 2 mile exposed ridge to the safety of the tree-line. The volunteers at the hut advised us that the later would be our best bet.

So we returned to the summit of Madison in 50mph sustained winds, rain blowing sideways, and 20 ft visibility only allowing us to see each other and the next cairn. The clouds, forced over the summits by wind, dropped all of their moisture in violent outbursts as we crawled over the rocks clinging to hand holds while the wind pushed us and the clouds up and over the mountain. Finally we crossed a threshold where the wind cut to dainty wisps, the sky was strikingly blue and we were wide eyed and harrowed. We nearly ran down the mountain, at certain points hitting 3 miles per hour on our decent. We slowed when we reached the soft pine trail at the base of the mountain, enjoying our walk in the woods, the light rain was dispersed by the trees and the wind, no longer a gale force mammoth pushing our bodies, only reached our ears as a pleasant sound. While summiting in the worst weather on particularly difficult terrain is “exciting” we really rather enjoy walking in the quiet woods with nice pine needles and mud trail to follow. Long Trail, bugs and Vermont mud, we are on our way!