The plan was to hike up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail (the “Ammo”), hit Mt Monroe, then head down. With the forecast leaning heavily toward rain in the afternoon, though, Redline Guide Eric Hansen and our guest decided to head up Mt Jackson as a mostly wooded alternative. It appears it was a good plan. Below is Eric’s summary of the tour.
We hiked the Webster-Jackson Trail up to Jackson summit, starting early to beat the forecast weather. The trail was in good shape, drainages low and we enjoyed some social time with other hikers we came across, including late season AT hikers getting back up to the trail. The summit had 360 views below the cloud base which looked to be about 5000′, as anything above that was socked in. We took a nice break, in the warm air and low wind. On the descent we made the short detour to visit Bugle Cliff and get a nice view into Crawford Notch. But we knew the rain would come eventually, and our timing ended up being perfect, as we stayed dry and finished shortly before the precipitation. This was a great hike for our guest who hadn’t been on a trail in the Whites for many years. A fitting reintroduction, he did great. —Eric
