Hiked by Heather, Debi, Tim and Valerie on Saturday, July 25, 2009 via Tuckerman Ravine Trail and Lion's Head Trail
We arrived at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center around 7am. After a quick stop for pictures, we got out onto the trail. It was an extremely humid morning and the camera lens had a film of moisture on it for portions of the trip. We set out up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail with lots of other people. Despite the crowds, Tim was picking out birds for us in the canopy.
Quickly, we reached the intersection with the Lion's Head trail. Here, like usual, we lost most of the crowds. The Lion's Head trail is steep, even before reaching tree line.
When we hit tree line, the clouds started rolling over the edge of Lion's Head. Visibility decreased, temperatures decreased, and winds picked up significantly. We took a quick stop to put on hats, gloves and coats. Here, we also met up with some friends - Mark, Natalie and Jamie Truman. We "leapfrogged" with them for the rest of the trip to the summit.
After we got off the top of Lion's Head, and started to head across the Alpine Garden, the winds diminished, but the dampness of walking inside a cloud stayed with us.
As we approached the summit, we got in line with all the other Seek-the-Peak hikers to get our picture taken. It was about 11:30AM. We were sweaty from the climb and chilled from the clouds. We were happy to get off the summit and go inside! In the summit building, we changed into dry clothes, ate some lunch (and cookies from the Observatory), and generally warmed up/dried off.
Soon, it was time to start back down. We left the summit around 12:30PM. At that point, it appeared that we would be walking in the clouds again until we reached tree line.
Amazingly, within the first mile, it started to clear! The hike down the Tuckerman Ravine headwall was beautiful and clear and sunny! The waterfalls were running strong and there was still some snow in the bowl. We had a nice walk down to Hermit Lake.
Then, the last 2.4 miles to the car were tougher - mainly because we were back in the trees, on trails we'd already done today. And to be quite honest, after coming down off the headwall, it's hard to believe how much more "down" there still is.
At the awards dinner, we met some new friends and caught up with some old ones.