Over the weekend, I had the great experience of being able to hike up to Mount Washington for the second time in my life. My friend Emma, her dad, and I left early Friday morning for the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I was incredibly excited for this trip because I knew that we would be taking different trails than we had previously taken before to get to the top of Mount Washington.
I feel as though I was much better prepared for this hike because I had hiked Mount Washington before. I packed less, which made a lot of difference in my overall less tiredness. My bag was about three pounds lighter than it was when I first hiked the mountain. Three pounds may seem like a small amount, but when you're hiking up to 5-6 hours a day it can make all the difference in comfort.
This time I packed less food for the trail, and if I ever have another chance to hike the mountain again I will probably pack even less because I did not even eat all of my granola that I packed. I also packed fewer pairs of clothes because I did not wear everything that I packed for less time, which I learned from. Lastly, I utilized space for water much better. Meaning, instead of packing four water bottles to refill on the trail, I packed a three-liter water pouch that attached to the back of my backpack.
The first day, we hiked up the Webster-Jackson trail and got to climb to the peaks of a few of the mountains unlike we had on the last hike we did on the Presidential Mountain Range. It was a beautiful day overall, perfect sunny hiking weather. The trail that we took was quite steep for the first third of it, and it was mostly climbing uphill at steep angles. I was eventually glad that the trail leveled out more.
Ridge-Line
What should also be taken into consideration though, is that the first hour or so of a hike is usually more difficult because your muscles are just warming up to new conditions. My feet were also not used to wearing hiking boots because I had not worn them in a couple years so that definitely took some getting used to.
On the trail, we hiked through beautiful scenery and even got to see some wildlife that we had not seen before. We spotted a spruce grouse on the trail, which is essentially a mountain chicken. After a long day of hiking, we arrived at our first destination and our sleeping place for the first night, Mizpah Hut. "Mizpah," is a Hebrew word meaning "watchtower," the hut is located at an elevation of 3,800 feet. The hut was in a very cozy spot and we were able to have a great view of the moon and a few planets
Moon
That night we ate a hearty dinner of black bean soup, Italian rolls, lemon rosemary chicken, broccoli, and rice. This was perfect because it was full of carbs and after a day of hiking 8.3 miles, carbs were exactly what we needed.
The second day we were awake by 6:30 A.M. and on the trail by 8:30 hiking Crawford Path, which is the oldest trail on the mountain. This day we hiked a total of 12.8 miles. The first part of the trail was quite steep again, which was good because it allowed us to have quick elevation gain. Eventually, though, the trail evened out and we were above tree line so we had a great view of the white mountains. This hiking day was also perfect weather, with temperatures in the upper 50s and a visibility of 100 miles.
Emma and I also learned our lesson from hiking Mount Washington before and applied a lot of sunscreen so that we would not be dangerously sunburned like we were the last time we hiked together. After a lot of SPF 50 was applied, we successfully made it to our second destination, Lakes of the Clouds hut which we had stayed at before. We made it there at around 12 in the afternoon and dropped off some of the stuff in our backpack so it would be lighter as we hiked to the top of Mt. Washington in the afternoon.
Lakes of the Clouds
We got to the top of Mt. Washington at around 1:30 pm and went to grab lunch at the summit. For lunch, I had a brownie, almond milk, and a bowl of minestrone soup. It tasted so good after the amount of hiking we had done that morning. We then took a picture at the summit, which is at 6,288 feet.
Hiking To The Summit Of Mount WashingtonMariano
After hiking back to where we were staying that night, Emma and I played a few card games to pass some time until dinner. For dinner that night I had peas, turkey, cranberry sauce, Italian bread. At night we hiked, to the top of Mount Monroe, which is a little over 5,000 feet to watch the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous.
Sunset From Mount Monroe Mariano
This was a smart decision because we ended up hiking 3.4 miles in around an hour and a half. Just as we were walking out of the trail it started to rain as well, so we really lucked out. The drive back to Rhode Island was one in rain, but I was able to get some napping in.
I'm definitely going to hike Mt. Washington again because the views of atop the mountain are absolutely incredible. Overall, hiking makes you appreciate the world much more and make you realize how insignificant you are as compared to other things in the world. It's also a great way to just disconnect for a few days, which I find is very helpful.
