New England Highpointing Road Trip – Featuring: the Presidential Traverse (Including a Summit of Mount Washington)

OVERVIEW

Good summer’s day, fellow outdoorsy hoos. I am here to announce the latest and greatest in summer adventures: New England Highpointing, including the Presidential Traverse.

Highpointing: noun; the sport of ascending to the point at the highest elevation for a given area.

As the title suggests, we will be hitting several New England highpoints including:
– Ebright Azimuth, Deleware
– High Point, New Jersey
– Mount Frissell, Connecticut
– Mount Greylock, Massachusetts
– Mount Mansfield, Vermont
– Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island

Some of these are drive-up road signs, some are cute (< 8 mile) day hikes. All allow you to check a highpoint off your bucket list. However, those highpoints are just warm-up day hikes to stretch our legs from the long car ride to Mount Washington, New Hampshire. We won't be doing just any summit of Mount Washington - we'll be doing the Presidential Traverse, a 25 mile backpack that takes you over the 8 presidential mountains plus some bonus peaks over 9000 feet of elevation gain. Don't let the short milage fool you: this hike is known for its tough terrain, and the region is known for its unpredictable weather patterns (think hot summer at the base and whiteout snowstorms at the top in July). Fun fact: the visitor center building at the top of Mount Washington is chained to the ground so that it doesn't blow away in high wind events. Fun fact #2: the highest ever recorded wind speed on the surface of the earth was 231 mph atop Mount Washington. We will be attempting the Presidential Traverse as a one-way 3 day/2 night backpacking trip. Note: we will have safety as the primary driving force behind all decisions and will carefully evaluate the circumstances before attempting a summit. Gear List (details to come in an e-mail once you're officially on the trip): - Day pack - Backpacking backpack - At least 3L water capacity (combo of bottles, bladders, etc.) - Trail food for backpacking - Trail food for day hike snacks - Backpacking gear including sleeping bag, sleeping pad, shelter system, etc. (details to come) - Change of clothes (x4 at least please) - Dry shampoo if you're into the "being clean" thing I will bring a water filtration system and cooking system for the group to share. Trip Fee: There is a $250 trip fee to cover expenses that the club does not cover. This includes gas in excess of ODC's limit, a regularly priced oil change for each car, and camping in excess of ODC's limit. If you sign up for this trip, you will receive an e-mail from me requesting payment when you get off the waitlist. I will not remove you from the waitlist until you have paid the fee. Previous Experience: You should be comfortable hiking and should be willing to tackle tough terrain. We will be camping in between day hikes. It would be good if you know how to backpack. If you don't want to do the backpacking bit and really really really want to come, shoot me an e-mail. If you want to come for the day hikes and sit the backpacking trip out, we might be able to arrange that: contact me. If you really want to come, but dates are an issue, let me know and we'll see what we can work out. Cars: Ideally, we will take 2 cars to allow for the transportation of gear. I will be updating this trip description as necessary. You will receive more details about mechanics and logistics of the trip when you sign up. If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to contact me.