Mount Adams and Mount Madison

Date: 9/4/2022 & 9/5/2022

Madison Elevation: 5,367’

Adams Elevation: 5,799’

Miles: 10.4 miles

Time: two days with an overnight at Madison Springs Hut!

Trails: Valley Way, Star Lake Trail, Osgood Trail

Now THIS was the real reason I traveled for eight hours across the country back home to New Hampshire. If you missed the last blog, basically I had a credit for a night in one of the AMC huts that was going to expire if I didn’t use it this summer. Needless to say, I booked a night for Madison Springs Hut and headed east for Labor Day Weekend.

I started recruiting friends who I thought might be interested in joining and wound up in the Appalachia parking lot early on Sunday with Mary and Mia. At this point Mary’s a frequent character on this blog — we met when I was solo hiking Garfield in 2020 and then hit the Tripyramids and the Carters together last year. I can always count on her to hike in the Whites and she crushes national parks like no one else I know. This was my first hike with Mia and she absolutely sent it up from Hartford, Connecticut, at 4am to meet us at the trailhead on time. We love people who bring that kind of energy to hikes.

Our original plan had been a Northern Presi traverse, but we ended up scrapping that in the face of a rainy forecast (don’t worry, Mary and I will be back to smash a full traverse at some point). Our new plan was to start early to beat the rain and hike just Mt. Madison if the weather held out. We hit the trail and I was definitely feeling the effects of the Wildcats from the day before; I’ve never done back-to-back days hiking 4,000 footers because usually I spend the entire next day just vegging out on the couch. But here I was on the Valley Way trail with Mary and Mia getting after it.

This trail actually starts out pretty gentle, but when we still had at least a mile and a half left I remember being able to peak through the trees and see how much elevation we still had to gain and just groaning to Mia. My legs were feeling it for sure and it was humid as hell so we were just dripping in sweat. Just before 10am we made it to the hut and were treated to cloudy skies, pumpkin muffins, and some coffee for Mia.

The Madison Springs Hut sits in the col in between Mt. Madison and Mt. Adams with the peak of Madison just a 0.4 mile hike away and Adams a little further at 1 mile. Somehow the weather was working in our favor and we realized we’d be able to hit both of the peaks without any rainfall, so after dropping our packs and setting up our bunks we got back on trail. Mary’s already done her 48 (#slay), so she stayed at Star Lake while Mia and I went up to Adams. The trail up is rocky and bouldery just like Mt. Jefferson, so it’s a lot of fun rock scrambles. We made it to a totally-socked-in summit and were promptly attacked by hundreds of tiny little gnats. Immediate no.

We turned around and descended a few hundred feet before finding a new spot to enjoy our lunch. I pulled out my usual pb&j and Mia opened what is unfortunately her usual meal…Campbell’s soup. She would eat this ALL the time in our dorm in college and something about the idea of the texture of cold soup just icks me out and makes me wince. But she got out her can on the top of Mt. Adams and got her protein from the chicken gumbo. She did make sure to sit behind me out of my view because she knows how much I can’t stand it (thanks Mia<3).

While we were eating, the clouds actually began to part and we got some views!! I really thought we would only get gray skies this whole trip, so I was stoked.

We headed down Adams, picked up Mary, and went right back up Madison. This one was quick and easy and the clouds held back for us here too.

Even after all this hiking, it was only 2:30pm or so when we got back to the hut, so we had a lot of time to kill before 6pm dinner. We read random books from the hut, chatted, and ate some mysterious sugary cake.

The wonderful Madison Springs croo served up an amazing dinner that night of pasta, salad, and a lemon cake for dessert. The dinners at the huts are family style and you sit at long tables with the other guests for that night; you end up chatting with other hikers and meeting some great people. My family used to do a hut-hike every summer when I was little, so it was really special to get to spend the night in one again. After dinner Mary and I met some AT thru hikers outside and talked with them until well past dark; they told us stories about trail magic they’d received and the dreaded Mahoosuc Notch that they still had ahead of them in Maine. They were all great.

By 9pm it’s lights off and we all passed out. I slept in the third bunk up and Mia said she had the best sleep she’d had in months. Mary and I both dreamed about our exes so I don’t know what that was about, but no one snored in our bunk room so at least we got lucky with that.

We started the next day with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and oatmeal, before heading back down Valley Way. It started out relatively dry, but soon it started raining, which then gave way to an all-out downpour. In these situations, you can either choose to do two things: complain about the rain or laugh about the rain. Because you can’t change the rain. You have your 2.5 miles on the trail and it’s just going to rain, so it can either suck or it can be fun — you’re in control of that! We got absolutely soaked through, but I was so happy to find myself in a group that could find fun in a rainy day.

It’s not often that you find yourself as a functioning adult just completely drenched (especially for me in southern California), so being in that situation is very awakening for your inner child. It feels good to let the rain just fall on you without wishing that it wasn’t; it was a really different way of feeling connected to nature for me. With maybe two miles left we started hearing some whooping and yelling in the forest above us. Half an hour later or so, two teenage boys who had been at the hut with us came propelling down the mountain past us — literally running so fast that one of them wiped out on the mud as he went past us. He popped right back up and they continued galloping and hollering their way down the trail. They looked like goofs, like classic teenage boys, but they looked like they were having a blast. Pretty soon after, Mia and I were racing down the trail behind them, hopping from rock to rock, rain streaming down our faces, and cackling and yelling like crazy. I know I had just the biggest grin on my face the whole time. My inner child was free and dancing in the absurdity of hiking in the pouring rain.

Eventually we made it to our cars and dried off and said our goodbyes. Back in 2020 I had the luxury of time to choose only the most beautiful days to hike; now, in 2022, when I have to fly across the country just to hike in my favorite mountains, I’m glad that I don’t. Because where would I be without knowing that rainy days can be great ones too!