Jackson 

Sunday morning came, and we were a go. We felt good. We grabbed breakfast at the Lodge at Jackson Village. Then we were on our way. We headed towards the Mt. Jackson trailhead, which is right on Rt. 302 near the Crawford Notch visitor center. You could even park there and walk down, but there is a little lot right across from the trail that we parked at.

To our surprise, there was snow on the ground on Rt. 302 as we got closer to the trailhead. There was no snow on Rt. 16 in Jackson. We parked and began prepping our stuff. We were both glad we brought spikes. Those were a must to put in the packs. Also needed layers because it was a pretty cold morning and we had heard the gusts at the peak were pretty strong.

We started hiking just before 9AM, just a little later than we had done the day prior. It was much different hiking in all daylight as opposed to hiking in all darkness. We definitely shed layers quickly again as we got moving and sweating. The trail was definitely steeper than Osceola, but it wasn’t too bad. It was a very nice hike.

There was a couple inches of snow on the ground at most, but the trail was mostly muddy and slush from people that had gone up before us. This made it very easy to follow the path.

On the way up, we had met a woman that was coming down and had just completed her 48 with this peak. We talked for a bit as it was exciting to come across someone finishing as we were just starting. She told us about the Pemi Loop and the Presidential Traverse, which are longer hikes that allow hikers to check off multiple summits in a weekend or less for each. The Pemi has 8 guaranteed peaks, but you can extend it up to 12. The presidential has 7 peaks. Tim and I immediately started thinking about planning these for 2022.

It was so cool to get some information from someone who was fresh off finishing them. We congratulated her, she said good luck to us, and we were on our way.

As we continued and passed more people making their way down, there was one common theme people were telling us. The peak was extremely windy, and the rocks to get to the peak were very icy. As we got closer to the top, we started seeing more snowfall on the ground. Probably 4-6 inches rather than 1-2 at the bottom. We found some rocks to sit on to put our spikes on once it started getting steeper and icy. And we definitely needed them. The top has some extremely large, steep rock climbing, which requires scrambling, and the rocks were all covered in ice.

It was both our first times using spikes, and it was tremendous. It was amazing the gripping power you get using them. We basically walked straight up the icy rocks without assistance from our poles or hands.

We go the top at about 11:45AM, so it took us about 3 hours. The views from the top are stunning. It’s not quite 360 because there is an area in the middle of the peak with some trees. But you can walk to the other side and see in every direction, just not from one spot.

It was quite windy, as we were told. But that did not stop us from cracking a beer, which we brought with us, to have a little celebratory toast up at the top. Once we finished those though, it was time to head back. It was too windy to hang around too long. Coming down with the spikes was even more fun. While it was still icy on the path, we made good time once we realized how good the spikes worked and had little to fear regarding slipping. Once we started our descent, it didn’t take long before we were able to shed some layers and the spikes.

We saw plenty more people heading up, and stopped to cat with several of them. I absolutely love how friendly most people are on the trails. Everyone is on their own journey and in different places with those journeys. Talking to people and hearing about all that is so awesome.

We were down to the parking lot at 2, so 3 hour up and 2 hours down approximately. Plenty of stops along the way. In the parking lot, we had another couple beers and hung out with a group of 3 ladies that finished both Webster and Jackson, and were also enjoying a celebratory parking lot cold one. They were from Boston and had just finished number 17. Again - it’s just so cool meeting people at different stages of the adventure.

While on the trail, we got to feed the Grey Jays. I read later on that we probably should not have done that. Some people say it’s sort of tradition to do it. Some people say we shouldn’t. I now tend to agree that we shouldn’t. We should just leave nature alone. So apologies to anyone who is bothered by us feeding them. We all make mistakes. Live and learn.

I do try to be conscious of conservation. I approach the wilderness and respect it. I want others to respect it as well.

What a weekend

After Jackson, Tim decided to try to see if he could change his flight home to Sunday, since we were done early. He originally had a flight home Monday morning. He found a flight, so I took him straight to Logan.

So he flies in Friday night (Saturday morning actually) around 12:30 and flies out Sunday night around 8PM. Not a bad 48 hours

We were so glad to be able to this together. With him in Chicago, and me in NH, it had been quite awhile since we had gotten to do something like that, especially with COVID the past 18ish months.

So this was a truly great weekend. We got to experience hiking in the dark, seeing sunrise at a peak, hiking in snow, hiking on ice with spikes, talked to many different people. It was perfect. And we will be doing it again.

Stay tuned.