For much of the time that I have been on the trail, the White Mountains have been a continued topic of fearmongering and rumors. Hikers continually talked about how slow you had to go through the Whites and how they could totally throw off a hiker’s pace. Before I got to New Hampshire, I totally fell victim to these rumors, but after walking in those mountains, my mind has been changed.
Moosilauke and the Kinsman’s
My journey through the White Mountains started out with Mt. Moosilauke and the Kinsman mountains. I submitted Moosilauke in the pouring rain and had a very perilous descent down the backside of it as I traversed slippery rock slabs and sketchy steps. I was somewhat disappointed that my first above-treeline experience was totally covered in clouds.
On the bright side, after going over Moosilauke, I stopped at the Notch Hostel to resupply and slackpack. After hiking many of the previous sections solo, I was so excited to be reunited with so many friends at the hostel. When I arrived, it was full of familiar faces who I finally got to see again.
The following day, I slackpacked over the Kinsman Mountains. Again, the climbing and scrambling was fun, but the summit was totally covered in clouds. So without a view from the top of my first four thousand-foot mountains, I was a little disappointed about what the Whites truly held.
Franconia
After two days of clouds and inclement weather, the day I left The Notch was gorgeous. Again, I was reunited with tons of old friends as soon as I got back on the trail. These friends quickly convinced me to shorten my plans for taking on the Whites (from a total of 6 days to 5) in order to get a better weather day on top of Mt. Washington. I was in, and the climb began.
After tons and tons of climbing, we finally made it to Franconia Ridge. This was the first truly above-treeline sections that I had seen on the trail. It was a stretch of a few miles of totally exposed trail. It was so beautiful to be able to look ahead and see exactly where I would be walking in just a few miles. And being able to see out in any direction for miles was just incredible. In short, my mentality was changed. The Whites were incredible!
Getting to the Presidentials
After doing Franconia the day prior, this day had the purpose of getting me to the Presidential Range. While there were some great views on it, the excitement of what was to come outweighed them.
At the end of this day, I did get to do a work-for-stay at the Mizpah hut. Where I cleaned tables and swept the floors in exchange for leftovers from dinner and getting to sleep on the floor in the hut. Leftovers and a floor to sleep on had never seemed so great after the two long days of hiking that I had done before (17 and 20 miles, respectively). And getting to hang out with the croo was a great time as they shared their stories of work in the huts.
The presidentials
The Presidential Mountains are the cream of the crop of the Whites, a 12-mile above-treeline traverse with amazing views. But as I started my traverse, many of the views were unfortunately taken away by clouds. And the clouds continued to come on thicker as I climbed up Mt. Washington. I worried that I wouldn’t get any good views from the famous range. So I quickly took my picture with the famous sign and continued hiking.
As soon as I had descended a mile or two off of Mt. Washington, all of the views suddenly returned. I looked back and saw that just Washington was stuck inside a thick cloud, and I saw that the rest of the day was going to return to the endless views that I had gotten two days prior. The walk down the rest of the Presidential Range was absolutely stunning.
I had originally planned to stay at a designated tent site at the bottom of the Presidential Range, but another hiker convinced me that there would be some dispersed sites that were better further down the trail. Unfortunately, those sites never appeared, and I ended up doing a 22-mile day with over 7,000 feet of ascending and descending (a massive day for the Whites). We also ended up showing up at the Carter Notch Hut at 8 p.m. to beg for a work-for-stay just so we would have a safe place to sleep for the night (which we were fortunately given).
Ending the Whites
My last day in the mountains was a 15-mile stretch to get to Goram, NH. These miles went over the Carter mountain range. Which I conveniently timed going over in a thunderstorm. While the storm was a scare, I survived and made it to the hostel in Goram for a shower and felt much better after.
All in all, I was able to make it through the White Mountains much faster than I had anticipated (finishing all of New Hampshire in only 9 days). The views were also way better than I expected. I have never been so truly wowed by mountains like that before, and I want to get back to hiking like that as soon as I can!
