Sam Adams (TW72) and Adams 5 (TW72). October 14, 2014

The girls have been swamped with schoolwork and extracurricular activities ever since we got back from the John Muir Trail.  Today, however, we could hike!!

Alex visited both the peaks she needed to finish the Trailwrights 72 list, since the two peaks were only a few tenths of a mile apart.  Of course, she can only count one of them for today's hike, since the TW72 requires you only count one peak per hike.  She's choosing to count Samuel Adams for today.  We'll finish on Adams 5 before the end of the month (weather and schoolwork permitting!).

We went up The Link, Amphibrach, and Spur Trail, then we "rockwhacked" up to Sam Adams.  We rock-hopped from there to Gulfside Trail, then we went over and got Adams 5 (and its neighboring bump).  We descended via Israel Ridge Path, Gray Knob Path, Hincks Trail, Amphibrach, and Link.  All of this put together was about 11.5 miles with around 4200 feet of elevation gain.

Appalachia, around 7:15am.

Starting on The Link...

Hmmm...a set-up for sap collecting..?

Memorial Bridge...

I have no photos of Amphibrach...it was a mellow walk in the woods, with easy to moderate grades.

Reaching Spur Trail...

Chandler Fall...

Heading toward Crag Camp...

Viewpoint by Lower Crag...

Up, nearing Crag Camp...

View from Crag Camp...

I took this photo with my cell phone.

Continuing on Spur Trail, past Crag Camp and toward treeline.

Stopping by Knight's Castle...

On Knight's Castle, looking down at Crag Camp

Sage on Knight's Castle

The girls on Knight's Castle

Onward and upward...

Mt Madison in the distance, with JQ Adams peaking up to the right of it

Mt. Madison on the left, JQ Adams in the center

We stopped at the intersection with Lowe's Path and admired the views.

The summit of Sam Adams from the intersection
of Spur Trail and Lowe's Path

Looking down toward Mt. Abigail Adams

From the intersection, we rock-hopped to the summit of Sam Adams.

Mt. Washington can be seen as you near the top of Sam Adams.

Turning back to look northeast

Reaching the summit of Sam Adams, looking at
Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson

Summit!

Alex and Sage on the summit of Sam Adams

Looking north, toward Mt. Abigail Adams

Summit pin

Alex taking a photo of the steel pin

Mt. Washington from the summit of Sam Adams

Alex and I have one more Trailwrights peak to hike -- Adams 5.  Though we can only count one peak per hike, we wanted to go stand on Adams 5 today anyway.  This way, when we come back and officially do it for the finish, we'll know exactly where it is (it's not marked on the maps).

We're pretty sure one of those two bumps in the photo below is the summit of Adams 5.  We rock-hopped along the southwest parts of Sam Adams until we reached the Israel Ridge Path/Gulfside Trail intersection (we were careful not to step on the fragile alpine vegetation).  We then made our way up both bumps.

The day was gorgeous and we had plenty of time, so we sat for a while and examined the map. One of the many good things about hiking the northern Presidentials is that there are plenty of trail options.  We had a few possibilities for descent -- the trails intersect each other on the north side of the range, so we could descend from where we were and still make it back to Appalachia.  We therefore decided to go down the new-to-us Israel Ridge Trail, then take the Gray Knob Trail and Hincks Trail to put us back on the Spur Trail.

We had a nice view of Jefferson's Castles as we descended the upper portion of Israel Ridge Trail.

Gray Knob Trail...

We made it down in good time.  What a gorgeous day -- and congrats to Alex, who has only one more Trailwrights peak to go!