Mansfield: Halfway House->Cliff

Mt Mansfield with a variation I had not done before. Went along the CC road from the park and then went up Halfway House to the ridge. Followed the ridge to the top of the auto road. From the parking lot you go down the road a little and take a left to get to Cliff. Cliff is an interesting trail. It works its way along the ski area side of the mountain. It goes through a number of caves and weaves its way along the steep terrain over near the gondola. One cave is so narrow that I had to take my pack off and push it along in front of me to get through. It then heads back up to near the trail that leads to the top of Mansfield. It was an interesting day with clear moments and some interesting cloud formations coming through. Ended up going down Sunset Ridge from the top. A nice loop.

Looking at top of Gondola from Cliff trail

Looking out from a cave (Cliff trail)

New zip line near top of Gondola

Jefferson, Clay, Washington NH

Took Friday off and went to the Presidential range in NH. Warmest in the AM at the base with the temperature about 60. At the top of Mt Washington, and most of the ridge walking it was 45-50 degrees with 40-60 mph winds. I had my winter hat on most of the time on the ridge.
Went up Washington on the Tuckerman ravine trail. There was a chunk of snow maybe 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep at the base of the head wall (July 31). The wind picked up at the base of the ravine and the temperatures dropped so it made for a quick trip up to the top of Washington. From Washington I took the gulf side trail to Jefferson. Very windy and in the clouds for some of the walk to Jefferson. The top of Jefferson and Clay kept appearing and disappearing. Sometimes you could see the whole ridge and other times you could only see the next cairn. After Jefferson I went back on the Gulf side trail and took the loop up Mt Clay. Mt Clay has great views of Mt Washington and most of the rest of the Presidential's. No one on Clay. Compare that to the 500 people that were on the top of Washington when I got back up to the top! Went by the cog RR chugging up on the way back to Washington. From Washington I went over to the boot spur trail and down. Boot spur has great views of tuckermans ravine and huntington ravine. A 16 mile trip taking 10 hours (8AM - 6PM). Interesting day to spend so may hours above tree line with the view constantly changing.

Looking up at Tuckermans

Snow 7/31

Looking down the headwall

Going up Jefferson

Clay

Picture of picture in museum at top of Washington. Shows most of the range in winter.

Coming off top of Washington

Looking down boot spur

Washington and tuckermans ravine

Early AM Camels Hump

Quick trip before work: Forrest City->Burrows

Mid summer 7/11/15

It has been summer hot the last few days. Went to the usual mountains (Camels Hump, Mansfield) early in the AM the last few days to get ahead of the heat. Lucky to have both these mountains close by. The Mansfield trip was a little longer than usual. Went up the Stevensville road side and got up on the ridge by 9AM while it was still about 60 degrees. Went over the ridge to the top and then went a little beyond the top to look out toward Smugglers notch. I had been down that side last year which is a nice area. Headed back over the ridge and followed the long trail to Nebraska Notch and then down to the parking area. About 12 miles and I spent some time checking out the caves on the Subway trail and also on the Gondola trail.

Camels Hump:

Mansfield:

Summer day in the Adirondack's - 7/3/15

Link: Adirondack Hike