Hiked by: Tim and Valerie on September 30, 2006 - Crawford Connector to Crawford Path, then returning via Webster Cliff Trail and Mizpah Cutoff to Crawford Path.
Conditions: Conditions were perfect! The drive up from Ashland took us through miles of pure peak foliage. The sky was bright blue and the autumn colors were radiant. Arrived at the parking lot about 8:45am. There were 20 cars there already, and it was about 38 degrees.
Started off at a brisk pace to try to warm up. Started meeting up with people going both up and down almost immediately. The trail was very busy this morning. Overall, the hike up was really very nice. Not too steep anywhere, and the ground was just frozen enough that it wasn't wet - despite the rains that fell overnight. As we got higher, it was obvious that this part of the mountain had recently been in the clouds. First, at the lower elevations, the trees were just FULL of water and it was coming down like a rainstorm, despite the blue skies. Then as we got higher, it was a gorgeous white frost on all the evergreens. Then, we got temporarily distracted by the wonderful boreal chickadees. Soon, Tim had his camera out and was running up and down the trail as they fluttered around us. They are very friendly little birds and would sit on the branches right next to us.
Eventually, we left them alone and headed for the top. To be honest, this must have been one of the easiest 4000 footers. I think that opinion is highly influenced by the wonderful temperatures and lack of bugs/humidity. We could have walked all day comfortably. Views from the intersection with Webster Cliff Trail were wonderful. Mt Washington was shrouded in clouds at that time, but we could see forever in many directions. Then, up to the summit where we chatted with a nice couple who we met back up with at the hut about an hour later. They headed off, and we followed at our normal (slower) pace.
Stopped at the Mizpah Spring hut for a snack (chocolate chip, oatmeal and coconut all together in one cookie!!). The hut volunteer told us that were at capacity for the night - 65 guests! Wow. Judging by the families that we met coming up the Mizpah Cutoff as we went down, the ratio of "children under 10" to everyone else that night must have been 3-to-1. We thought that the Mizpah Cutoff and the Webster Cliff trail were both steeper and more difficult than the Crawford Path itself. The trails were also starting to "defrost" and so they were a lot muddier on the way down than they were when we had headed up. Back at the car by 2:15PM.