Mount Eisenhower and Mount Pierce

Date: 7/3/2020

Mount Eisenhower Elevation: 4,780’

Mount Pierce Elevation: 4,311’

Miles: around 9 miles

Time: 6 hours, 26 minutes

Trails: Edmands Path to Crawford Connector and Crawford Path

Calories: 2,277

Average HR: 118

Peak HR: 172

Sooo this was my first hike with less-than-perfect weather, but hey, Emma Malenka doesn’t get a three-day weekend just any time. With Emmer ready to make the most out of her break from that all-day every-day grind (can’t relate…yet), we picked out a loop with two peaks. My first real “peak bagging” trip!

We had been eyeing the weather for Friday all week since we knew this was probably Emma’s only week-day chance, but the forecast kept switching from cloudy to rainy. Since maybe Wednesday it was telling us rain, but you know the forecast these days…can’t trust it until the night before really. So the night before rolled around and I was about to enjoy a margarita at Molly’s for Sarah Bibeau’s last hurrah (goodbye to a great hiking buddy and her cookies ☹︎) when I decided to check the weather one last time. Gone was the forecasted rain and instead we had clouds! I immediately texted Emma and we set our plans in stone.

We left Hanover at 7:30am, which now seems like a late start to me and that itself is concerning, but we didn’t get on the trail until just after 10am. This isn’t a true loop hike unless you choose to walk 2.3 miles on the road between the two trailheads; I knew that those two miles might push me over the edge, so Emma and I carspotted our cars—one at Edmands Path trailhead and one at Crawford Connector trailhead (Crawford Connector has a $5 parking fee, so just remember to bring cash if any of my friends are using this blog to plan future hikes!). So at 10am we got started up Edmands Path, which is a super well-maintained trail with pretty sure-footing the whole way. It begins relatively flat (maybe for the first mile or so), but once it started gaining elevation I was just coated with sweat with how humid it was.

Thennn I became completely SOAKED as we rose to treeline and entered a giant cloud. For a bit there were some views through the trees to the side of the trail, but those soon disappeared as we got even higher. We learned that fog like that creates tons of false summits, since you can’t see the path that far in front of you and you can’t tell if there’s yet an even higher point you have to reach. So we hiked for far too long with the thought in our mind that we were almost there, when really, we were not. I could tell how it would be really gorgeous hiking if not for the giant cloud, since the trail becomes exposed on the final ascent and I’m sure there are views all around.

After wondering for a long time if we had somehow hiked straight through the summit or if we still had a long ways to go, we came upon the biggest cairn I’ve ever seen—to be fair, my cairn encounters are relatively limited, but this was a big cairn and big enough that you know that this is the summit even when you’re in a giant cloud and can’t actually see anything. I did read online that this cairn is home to a lot of angry hornets that have recently been stinging many unsuspecting hikers, but luckily the giant cloud kept them away for us.

We summitted around 12:30pm and enjoyed our pb&js and took some lovely pictures of…fog! I just got a hiking daypack designed specifically to safely carry a bigger camera (gotta hype up the fact that I got it $65 off on Poshmark with it only being used once before), so I was able to bring my mom’s Canon and take some higher-quality fog pictures lol. Idk I think they’re kind of cool still and I’m excited to get better with the camera and better in Lightroom too. Let me know what you think!! I’d love any feedback.

Anyways, after looking at the giant cloud for a bit we got back to it and started on Crawford Path towards Mount Pierce. Parts of this trail would have been a beautiful ridge view, so I would definitely do this hike again to get the full experience. This bit was relatively flat and we reached Mount Pierce around 2pm. As usual, it wasn’t super well marked so hang a left when you get to a sign that tells you about Mizpah Spring Hut and Crawford Path. You’ll soon get to the summit that we could only tell was a summit because there were other people there; maybe it’s more obvious in clear conditions. We spent less time here, just long enough to take some more fog pictures and eat some pretzel crisps.

We headed down the mountain, which was pretty uneventful. I wish you could stay in the AMC huts right now, because it would have been so fun to stay at Mizpah, but I understand of course. I have heard that they’re now open for water and bathrooms, and may even be selling quesadillas and burritos at lunch, so maybe I’ll check that out at some point.

We got to the bottom around 4:30 and I had NO BLISTERS! Can you believe it?! I can’t. My toes were still sore, but I had put these ENGO blister patches into my boots and they actually worked!! With a good nights sleep that night, this was the best I’ve felt after a hike even though it was one of my longer ones so far. Maybe that means my body is getting more accustomed to this?? I hope so.

Eisenhower and Pierce were a great way to start off the holiday weekend and hopefully Emma can come out for another hike on a day with some better views!