A guest came to us from a city in Illinois. She reached out hoping to have a guide for a one-day Presidential Traverse. She did great with the difficult northern half of it but was taken aback by one thing: Rocks. Lots of rocks. Too many rocks. Rocks everywhere. Nothing but rocks. Here, living in New Hampshire, of course, all we can say is: “talus about it.” (Yes, that was a dad joke and I will grief about it later.) Leading this long day was Redline Guide Debra McCown. Her summary follows along with some photos.
Four Presidential Peaks
She wasn’t the first — and she won’t be the last — to be surprised by the sheet number of rocks on the Presidential Traverse.
This guest came from Illinois for the classic single-day endurance hike. She successfully bagged the four big Northern Presi peaks in 13.5 hours — a common time frame to traverse all 8 peaks in the Presidential Range — and left with a new respect for the technical nature of New Hampshire’s rocky terrain: ‘I thought it was gorgeous,’ she said. ‘It was just a lot of rocks.’
She marveled at the comfort of local hikers and trail runners that bounded over the rocks, to which, for her, represented a new skill requiring concentration. They definitely don’t have rocks like this in Chicago! But hearing about winter gave her hope. In winter, she asked, are the rocks buried under ths snowpack? [Yes, they are!] Because then you wouldn’t have to walk on them. —Debra
