After having gotten the big peaks a week earlier, we were back in the Presdientials again to finish off the range. The forecast was calling for a sunny day day with no wind, and warm spring-like temperatures. We started up the Webster Jackson trail first thing in the morning. It had been warm and rained the day before, so we weren't sure what to expect for trail conditions, but the trail was pretty solid without too many icy spots. That trial is pretty moderate, without any really steep sections. When we reached Jackson's summit, we were treated to a fog bow to the west. Other views were limited, but at least the clouds were interesting.
At tree-line on Mt Jackson
The view to the south from Mt Jackson
We hiked north off of Jackson, meandering through the woods until we reached the Mizpah Spring Hut, where we stopped for a quick break. By this point the sun was felt pretty intense, and I was wishing that I had a short sleeved shirt with me. I would have to make do with my long sleeve wool base layer for the rest of the hike.
The Mizpah Spring Hut boarded up for winter
We continued the half mile or so from the hut to the summit of Mt Pierce, where the clouds were still providing interesting views. We didn't stay long on the summit, and kept moving north.
On Mt Pierce looking north, with Mt Eisenhower on the left and Mt Washington is in the center
Between Pierce and Eisenhower, the trail is a little more exposed, but not fully open ridge-line - it reminds me of hiking between Algonquin and Iroquois. Through here we were in and out of the clouds, and watched as the top of Eisenhower was also in and out.
Somewhere between Pierce and Eisenhower, looking up at Mt Eisenhower
In the more exposed section, there was more ice on the trail, but with the sun and temperature, it was soft and wet. We had worn snowshoes the entire hike, and they were gripping the ice well, so we kept them on. I had read two trip reports from the previous days, one stating that the Eisenhower loop trail had too many exposed rocks for snowshoes and the other stating that the Eisenhower loop was too treacherous for anything but crampons.
We kept snowshoes on as we started up the loop trail. It was mostly packed snow at the bottom, but we encountered more ice as we climbed. We only crossed one short section of exposed rock, on the climb. Higher up, the ice sections were turning to slush, and I thing snowshoes were the better choice. We reached the summit, which was looking pretty bare. Between the lack of snow and ice, and the temperature it felt more like mid May, than early March. We were in the clouds on Eisenhower and didn't get much of any view.
Not much of a view on Mt Eisenhower
Not having a view on Eisenhower was a bit of a letdown, since we hit a few milestones. This was our winter NH48 finish. Gracepoints finished a few other lists on Eisenhower as well - NH48 all season and NE115 all season. We stayed on the summit for a bit waiting to see if the clouds would move out, but we gave up and started the hike out. We hadn't seen many people along the way to Eisenhower, but on the descent we passed several people, and more along the ridge towards Pierce. As we took the Crawford Path down to Crawford Notch, we passed the real crowds headed up. I kind of wish that I had kept count of how many people we saw.
Wrapping up the NH winter peaks is bittersweet - we are happy to have finished it this year, but we probably won't go back to NH for a while.