Birthday Celebrations on Mt. Adams

Alex turned 31 on May 28th and we celebrated by spending the weekend in the Whites and hiking Mt. Adams. Let me start by saying it was refreshing to have an adventure go pretty much according to plan. In April I posted about our failed summit of Mt. Tecumseh and more recently (which I didn't post about) was a the NYC 5 Boro Bike Tour, 40 miles total- which turnd into a one boro bike tour and only completing 9 miles. It was raining and cold.

I planned the hike for Mt. Adams since last summer we had our sites set on it during our hike of Mt. Madison, but at that time it proved to be too many miles for one day. When looking at the map and planning a route I noticed a shelter on the map called "Crag Camp" and took to the Internet to find out what it was all about.

That would be our plan! Hike in to Crag Camp, hope to get beds as they don't take reservations, shed some gear and continue up the the summit. All of that went according to plan, even better than expected as the weather cooperated beautifully. The only part that didn't happen like it was planned is Bob and Kristen were supposed to join but had to back out at the last minute. We still had a fun dinner in the north end together and loosely participated in Cotopaxis Questival.

Saturday Morning we started off at the trailhead at 9:30- only a half hour behind schedule. It was hot and humid. We were thankful to be hiking in the shade of the trees. We were pleasantly surprised with how easy the grade of the trail was for the first 2.5 miles. The last section up to crag camp did get more steep and rocky. We traversed over some cool bridges and too a detour to a waterfall.

It was a relief to get to Crag Camp and have there be plenty of space still available. It sleeps 20, so far only a family of 3 had checked in. The cabin is clean and basic with a large communal dining and kitchen area, and three bedrooms. One with 4 individual beds (2 bunks) and the other two have a large upper platform with 4 mattresses and a lower platform with 4 mattresses. The rooms are not big- so it was interesting sharing tight quarters - and sleeping areas (the cabin did end up having 16 individuals that night)

 

 

We refueled with lunch and a beverage and continued our hike up to the peak. It's 1.5 miles to the summit from crag camp, not too technical. For being the 2nd highest mountain in the Presidentials, it seemed easier than it should-have!

Back at camp later we indulged on wine, peperoni and cheese for apps, caught the sunset and had a delicious meal of backpackers pantry Chana Masala. 

The next morning was by far my favorite part of the weekend. We woke up to a beautiful 75 degree sunny day in the mountains with an amazing showcase of cloud cover below. We sat on a rock ledge out front of the cabin for about two hours, watching the clouds, soaking up the sun, drinking fresh pour over coffee (made with our new gadget we had just purchased, we were skeptical but it was a great success) and eating oatmeal. 

A perfect birthday celebration & I think Al agrees.