This was an organized AMC Boston Chapter Hiking and Backpacking trip run by a friend of mine, Jen. It was a nice route, up the Castle trail to the top of Jefferson, then through Edmands Col to Adams and back down via Lowe's Path. It was a perfect day, a little clearer and cooler than the previous day when I'd hiked up Carter Dome with my brother. He dropped me off at the Bowman trailhead on Rt 2 where I met up with Jen and the other members of the group. Everyone was in better shape than me, nothing unusual there, but I was most familiar with the route so at least they waited at the trail junctions for me.
We climbed fairly quickly and after a relatively short stint arrived at the first views from the Castles. Onward and upward, higher and higher. Eventually the summit of Jefferson came into sight as we reached treeline. Then lots of rock hopping and eventually we were there. We took a big break at the top, Molly, our co-leader, brought some killer brownies. We hung out at the summit for a while, the major climbing of the day was done. The views were excellent in all directions, this was a great day to be above treeline.
From there we dropped down to Edmands Col. I had been telling folks about the snowfield along the trail just before we entered the Col, but it was pretty small this year. Oh well, we at least got a snowball out of it. From there it's just a short drop to the Col where we took another nice rest and visited the spring for some well earned cold water. Then we started climbing again, the trip to Adams from Edmands Col is one of my favorite sections of the Gulfside trail. Eventually we made the summit where we celebrated the fine day we all had together.
The only thing remaining was a short downhill called Lowe's Path. We headed back down to Thunderstorm Junction then spread out a little until we regrouped at Adams IV. That would be pattern for a bit, spreading out on the downhills until the lead group found a nice place to rest among the wildflowers, then the rest of us would catch up and touch base. We stopped at the Quay and did a brief visit to Gray Knob before continuing below treeline and on. And on and on, it's a long way down after a full day like that. Eventually we hit the path from the old RR tracks just before the road and walked back to our cars. It was hot and we were all pretty parched. A fine long day above treeline, can't ask for much more.
