Eisenhower

Mount Eisenhower, is about 4,760 feet and is part of the presidential range in the white mountains in New Hampshire. It was a 10.23 mile out and back hike and we gained 3,417 feet of elevation and took about 5h and 52 minutes to complete.

We began on the Crawford path to the Mizpah Hut and took the cut off junction on to the Webster Cliff trailhead which lead us to Mount Pierce. It was a sunny clear afternoon and you could see Eisenhower off in the distance, it looked so close you could skip to it. Obviously that was not the case, as it never is hiking in the white mountains. It was mid May but there were still deep trenches of snow that was lingering in the shade, which proved to be tricky traversing through. We figured it would take about 30-45 minutes to get to Eisenhower from Pierce but it wound up taking about 2 hours.

The view was spectacular and could see the pathway leading to Washington. The sun felt so warm and there was a cool spring breeze. Off in the distance there was a large cloud, that looked like a stream coming from the ground. We later started to realize this cloud was smoke. As we started making our way back the smoke started to get larger and larger, and was in the direction of our camp.

Naturally panic started to settle in and we wanted to descend off the mountain as fast as we could but with the snow filled trenches it made it nearly impossible to move any faster than a walk. As we made our back to Mount Pierce, everyone seemed quite calm and no one seemed to have noticed the wildfire spreading. So we warned the incoming hikers and told them to spread the word.

We took the Dry River Trail Climb and made our way to the Mizpah hut, and wow. Mizpah hut may have the most stunning view, and I will definitely go back to stay the night. There was fresh homemade garlic bread that was amazing and so we ate and made our way back onto the trail.

Finally we descended down the Mizpah cutoff and made our way off the mountain. As we started driving to our camp, sure enough the mountain side was completely covered in a thick heavy smoke. It was pretty scary seeing the wildfire happen right next to where we were camping so thankfully it did not spread to our camp and we were able to safely watch from a distance. We stayed for a bit to watch and then we packed up and made our way home. This was a trip I wont be forgetting!