Mount Monroe, White
Mountains, New Hampshire
Monday, August 6, 2001
Trails: Edmands Path,
Crawford Path, Mt. Monroe Loop
Distance: 10 miles
Difficulty: Easy to
Moderate
Conditions: Dry, Sunny & Hot; Calm winds
Special Required Equipment: Sunglasses, sunscreen, and of course,
plenty of water.
Trip Report: David and I left Sugarloaf II campground in the Zealand
Recreation Area at 7:20 AM. It looked to be a clear and warm summer day. Our
original plan was to take a short up and back hike up Mount Jefferson via
the Caps Ridge Trail. We made our way up Base Road towards the Mount
Washington Cog Base Area to where Jefferson Notch Road and Mount Clinton Road
intersects Base Road. At the intersection we noticed a road crew grading the
entrance to Jefferson Notch Road. One of the workers indicated that the road
wouldn't be open for another 20 minutes. We decided to head up Mount Clinton Road
to Edmands Path instead. We had talked about summiting Eisenhower the next day
anyway, so we decided to do it this day.
Edmunds Path was my first White
Mountain hike at the age of 13. My brother David and I base camped in the
Mount Pleasant Brook Ravine off Edmands Path and hiked all the way to
Washington and back during a day hike the second day. The trailhead looked a
bit different with a nice graded parking area. We were the first car in the
lot and started our way up Edmands Path at 7:45.
The first mile and half went
pretty quick and I realized I should slow the pace a bit as I felt unusually
tired for how far we had hiked. Edmands Path continues steadily
up and the first view of Jefferson
is achieved at a little over the two mile mark. After a short distance another
view of
Jefferson, as well as Clay and Washington is reached. As we approached
treeline we came across an Alpine
Zone and Stop
sign. We soon broke out of the trees and merged with the Crawford
Path at the 2.9 mile mark. It was about
9:40 and we took a short break to take in the views and decide where to go next.
It was surly going to be a beautiful day with fine views. We decided to skip
summiting Eisenhower and to continue towards Franklin.
Franklin is not much of a
summit. it's more like a 5001' bump in the ridge. It affords great views
though and makes for relatively easy hiking. We decided to push on towards Monroe
and at some point decided to hike until 11:00 and then turnaround. We quickly
found ourselves approaching
Lakes of the Clouds Hut. We reached the hut
at about 11:10.
After a short break at the hut
to get more (cold) water, we decided to head back over Monroe via the Mount
Monroe Loop. We quickly reached the summit
and decided to break again and take in the views of Washington
and the Northern
and Southern
Peaks.
We descended Monroe and headed
back on the Crawford
Path. We made excellent time back to Edmands Path, but had to slow our
pace down Edmands as our knees were starting to feel this 10 mile hike. We
reached the trailhead at 2:15 PM.
View all the images
from this hike.
View a topo of this hike.
Submitted by Greg
Blasko
Thomaston, CT
Fri, 10 Aug 2001
