I am really not a trail runner. But I enjoy a challenge, and I hike a lot. So it was that I found myself sitting at the White Mountain Café drinking far too much coffee one morning last week when barista-extraordinaire Carly mentioned the Mount Adams Challenge and suggested I might want to try it. Easy for her to say. Actually, it was a good suggestion. Two hours and ten minutes? I quickly calculated my pace and figured a simple fast 4.5 mile hike or so up the Valley Way with a stint over the Scar and up the Air Line would be no problem in that time. But alas, I quickly found out the route was not quite so short. So, after bragging, albeit sarcastically, that I would easily “shred” the threshold time by at least 4 minutes, I was not feeling so cocky all of a sudden. Some more calculations in my head and I was realizing that I was either going to have to actually run some of this route or be forced to eat my words. Trail running was clearly in my future because I've never really found eating my words too appetizing.
I fueled up with a Wildcat sandwich and three cups of coffee from the café on Thursday morning. I packed a handful of Hammer Gels from Porky Gulch and 3 liters of water in my smallest pack. I bought a watch at Walmart, the cheapest one I could find. I don't have one because I don't care what time it is. Sometime late that morning, around 11:30 or so, I hit the Valley Way after taking a picture at Appalachia and starting the stop watch, which incidentally felt weird and unfamiliar on my wrist. I walked; I jogged; I ran. I hacked; I sweated; I swore. I was soon on the Brookside lumbering toward the Watson Path. At one point, I stopped for my only break of the day to verify the location of the junction. I did not have the luxury of being able to make a wrong turn so wanted to be sure I did not miss the Watson Path turnoff. It helped that I was familiar with the trails at least and had hiked all of them in the past at some point. I kept moving along the route, happy for the nice treadway along these sections of trail and enjoyed the hike up the Scar Trail to Air Line. I always enjoy the Scar Trail. I knew the stretch on the Air Line would be hard so I had hoped to make it to Durand Ridge (about 3.1 miles) in an hour. I was about 10 minutes behind that. I moved fast up the Air Line, but did not run. I was beginning to think I was going to be very close to 2:10 but would miss the cut-off by 5-10 minutes. I'm not sure if it was the thought of doing the hike again just to shave 5 minutes or the thought of eating my words that gave my legs the jolt of energy, but whatever it was, when I hit the Gulfside Trail with about 30 minutes left, I knew I just had to not get hurt at that point. At Thunderstorm Junction, I had twelve minutes to get to the top. I would have been happy with nine and still in the game with six. Two young, athletic guys right on my heels on a Presie Traverse pushed me up the summit cone where I tagged the sign and stopped my watch at 2:05:22 with a really big grin on my face.
I made it, but I'm not going to claim it was easy, and I can honestly say of the seventeen times I've been fortunate enough to grace the summit cone of my favorite mountain, I only “ran” it once. I'm not sure if there will be a second time, but this one was well worth it.
Scott Gordon Dover, NH and part time Randolph NH resident