Mount Eisenhower Backpacking

日本語は英語の後にあります。

This is the first backpacking of 2019. 

We went backpacking in Mount Eisenhower. The route was via Crawford path, then Mizpah cutoff to tentsite, then out and back to Eisenhower summit, stay a night at tentsite, then back to the trailhead. Total 9 miles, 3300 feet elevation change.

Gibbs Falls

It was a very cloudy and wet weekend, so it was not an ideal condition, however, it was a good workout, and water amount and falls was impressive.

The most memorable view of this backpacking was Gibbs Falls. It is a half mile from trailhead. Until here, there is almost no snow and no need of microspikes.

To go to Gibbs Falls, there is 2 minute detour, but it is worth checking out. 

After here, gradually snow increased during next 0.5 mile. After that microspikes are necessary. There is a clear monorail until the tentsite. However, I did posthole due to yield the monorail to hikers coming down. Even if miss a monorail a little bit, you will posthole. 

Inside the hut

Campsite sign

Our tent

 Then we reached the Mizpah hut and tentsite. Although already the hut was open on the May 4th (one of the hikers who stayed there said it was the first weekend of hut open this year), we stayed in a tent. We are the tent people. Although we didn't stay overnight there, it was okay to hang out in a dining area. So we had lunch there. It was nice to sit on a dry area: otherwise snow would be the seat.

Tentsite is 0.1 mile from the hut. Once a caretaker comes in summer, it costs $10, but now in winter, it is free. In my opinion, $10 is a ripoff. It should be always free! There are platforms to set up a tent, but all of them were buried in the snow even in May. Because nobody goes to tentsite in winter, there are great chances to posthole. Actually Mr.N postholed until the level of chest!

We set up  a tent, and carried only necessary items and went up to Eisenhower. 

The trail from here was mostly clear, but some portions were faint. So sometimes we needed to take out GPS and searched the trail. During the searching we postholed A LOT. There was not clear monorail always.

Top of Mount Eisenhower

We took 2.5 hours to reach the summit, even though it was just 2 miles. Then the top was in the clouds.

Surprisingly, there were some hikers on the way to Eisenhower in a cloudy day. 

When we came back to the tentsite, cloud was a little bit clearing up. So I took some pictures. 

A little blue sky came out

At the hut probably 3 groups were staying that day. 10 people already in May. I guess it will be very crowded in summer. 

Then we came back to the campsite and ate dinner and went to bed. With winter sleeping pad, it was not cold at night. Indeed it seemed it was above freezing point, because I found my water bottle water in liquid form in the morning. 

In the morning we had coffee and breakfast, then hiked out. This year April was so rainy in New England and it is still rainy in May. I heard the idiom, "April showers bring May flowers". Mr.N found some Glacier lilies' leaves on the ground on lower elevation.  I hope the idiom become true soon! 

２０１９年初のバックパッキングはアイゼンハワー山。ニューハンプシャー州にあるプレジデンシャル山脈の一つだ。約１６キロ、＋ー１０００メートルの行程だ。

週末の天気は曇りで山日和の天気とは到底言い難かったが、良き運動になったし、川の水の量には圧倒されたので、よしとする。

雪解けの川の量はものすごく、その水の量からできたギブス滝（１枚目の写真）はなかなかの見応えだった。カリフォルニアに住んでいた頃は５年ほどずっと干ばつだったのでやはり滝を見るのに飢えていたのかもしれない。

５月に入ったにもかかわらずまだニューハンプシャーの山は雪に埋もれたまま。それでも雪解けのため雪が柔らかくなっており、モノレール（真ん中の踏み固められたところ）を外して着地してしまうとポストホールと言って膝や腰まで雪の中に沈んでしまうことになる。１０回以上ポストホールしたため予想以上に時間がかかった。MrNはなんと1回は胸までポストホールした（もちろん両足！）。ぎゃー。

途中にある山小屋は今週から開いている。我々はもちろんテント泊、だが食堂エリアには入ることは可能（写真）。そこで持参したサンドイッチを食べた。雪の上に座らなくていいのは楽。

そして山小屋の近くにあるテントサイトへテントを張り（写真、もちろん雪の上）、アイゼンハワー山頂を目指す。ここからはトレイルを時々見失ったりし、GPSを見ながら山頂を目指した。トレイルを探すとやはりポストホールする。７−８回は膝までズボッと雪にはまった。山頂までは山小屋からたった４キロ程度だったが２時間半もかかった。山頂や雲の中だった（写真）。そしてテントサイトへ戻り夕飯の焼きそばを食べて就寝。やはり温度は冬ほど低くなくダウンの寝袋の中は寒くなかった。

アメリカのイディオムに”４月の雨が５月の花をもたらす”というのがあるのだが、近いうちにそうなってほしいものだ。