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view South from Mt Washington

Presidential Range, September 2006

A South-to-North one-day traverse of the Presidential Range, starting with the Webster Cliff Trail. Plus, a visit to Madison Boulder the next day. Once again I benefitted from amazingly good weather - don't imagine it's always like this. It snowed a few days later.
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you should see an image here A "coral hedgehog" fungus, Hericium Coralloides, on the side of a fir.
you should see an image here An Eastern Chipmunk, Tamias Striatus, dimly lit by my flash (I brightened this one digitally).
you should see an image here Nearing the top of Webster Cliffs, a view west over Crawford Notch toward Mt Willard's southern cliff face.
you should see an image here A view south over Crawford Notch to Mt Willey. The Willey Slide is visible at lower right.
you should see an image here A thick bed of "deer moss" (which is really lichen, not moss).
you should see an image here The trail got easier along the top of Webster Cliff. At this point the skies were cloudy.
you should see an image here A dead evergreen, possibly killed by wind exposure. Notice the "flag" shape of some of the trees in the background.
you should see an image here Same spot, view to South Twin in the distance.
you should see an image here A view southeast.
you should see an image here As the trail turned north away from the cliffs, it crossed several small bogs like this one. Mt Washington starts to emerge from the clouds in the distance.
you should see an image here Jelly Babies, Leotia Lubrica.
you should see an image here A large, unidentified fungus.
you should see an image here I think this is an "Angel Wing", Pleurotus Porrigens. It could also be Lentinellus Ursinus.
you should see an image here A dwarf spruce on the summit of Mt Jackson.
you should see an image here The clouds are lifting very slowly. The summit of Mt Eisenhower is still covered.
you should see an image here This is taken just past the top of Mt Eisenhower: still cloudy.
you should see an image here A view of the intersection of Edmands Path, Crawford Path, and Eisenhower Summit Loop from up on Eisenhower.
you should see an image here Some krummholz on the north side of Eisenhower.
you should see an image here A view ahead to Mts Jefferson and Clay, from near Mt Franklin.
you should see an image here Another view northward along the trail, with Mt Washington in the distance.
you should see an image here Just below Little Monroe and Monroe, a view to Washington as the clouds are essentially gone.
you should see an image here Some alpine grasses (sedge?) on the edge of Oakes Gulf.
you should see an image here Mt Franklin seen from above.
you should see an image here The huge summit cone of Mt Washington as seen from the Lakes of the Clouds.
you should see an image here A view back to the Lakes of the Clouds hut and Mt Monroe as I start up the Mt Washington summit cone.
you should see an image here Similar shot, zoomed in further on the hut
you should see an image here I couldn't resist taking several shots as the thin clouds scurried by.
you should see an image here You can chart my progress by counting cairns.
you should see an image here As I climb higher, the views get more expansive.
you should see an image here One last view back toward the Lakes of the Clouds and the Southern Presidentials.
you should see an image here Close to the summit now, I can look ahead to Jefferson and Adams.
you should see an image here I liked the way this hiker was framed by Adams and the cairns.
you should see an image here Right at the summit, the very very last view to Lakes of the Clouds.
you should see an image here A view over the Great Gulf to Mt Adams.
you should see an image here Mt Jefferson.
you should see an image here Mts Adams and Madison.
you should see an image here Approaching the summit of Mt Clay.
you should see an image here Approaching the summit of Mt Jefferson.
you should see an image here This little fellow was a bit out of place - in a tiny pocket of firs but otherwise above treeline.
you should see an image here A view back to Mt Washington.
you should see an image here A view south, showing some returning clouds.
you should see an image here One more view of Mt Washington.
you should see an image here More clouds to the west - these aren't too close.
you should see an image here Mt Madison peeks above the wide alpine tundra near Mt Jefferson.
you should see an image here Felsenmeer, krummholz, cairns, and clouds: the Northern Presidentials in a nutshell.
you should see an image here Clouds forming on the shoulder of Mt Adams.
you should see an image here The horizon starts to turn faintly pink as it gets late.
you should see an image here Mountains in the sunset mist: I think this shows the Little River mountains and the northern Twin Range.
you should see an image here The sun is still fairly high, but it's about to "set" into the clouds.
you should see an image here Setting sun, distorted by refractive cloud layers.
you should see an image here My camera's flash stands in for a headlamp to illustrate the usefulness of quartz blocks on cairns.
you should see an image here Gorham, New Hampshire at night, as seen from Mt Adams.

Day Two: Madison boulder

The Madison Boulder is supposed to be one of the larger glacial erratics in the world. We paid it a quick visit the next day.
you should see an image here This is the northern end of the boulder.
you should see an image here The western side.
you should see an image here The southern end, from the east.
you should see an image here These mushrooms were growing nearby.

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