The route: Caps Ridge Trail out and back
Total hike time: LONG, mainly due to ~1 hour on the summit, a long break on the way down, and just generally taking our time
Summit beer: Red Hook Long Hammer IPA
By far the most important thing to say about this hike is that on our way down the mountain, Andrew and I got engaged!! Admittedly this had been planned for awhile so it didn't exactly come as a *total* surprise, but nothing could have been more special or wonderful than having the man I love propose to me in our favorite place ever.
Even aside from that, this was just a wonderful, fun hike. I knew my fear of heights was going to be put to the test on the Caps, but I feel like I've become so much stronger and more confident with scrambling and exposure in the past year that I felt ready to take on the challenge. (The, uh, knowledge that there were some additional rocks waiting for me besides the ones on the mountain may have helped. ;)) We had spent the night at the Moose Brook Motel on Sunday after a day of some casual hiking on the Basin Cascade Trail and up to Square Ledge, a really nice, short little hike with a fun scramble at the end and some nice views! Open up the AMC guidebook to a random page and have at - I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong. I had woken up at 2:30 in the morning pretty much too excited to sleep, and had no problem being up and at 'em when the real alarm went off at 5:30. We drove to the trailhead and I was a little surprised to find only one other car in the parking lot - as it would turn out, everyone was getting a late start to try to watch the eclipse on the mountain. We did make small talk with a lovely Canadian gentleman, who was hiking in the Whites for the first time. He also had a really sweet dog - we would see them several times more as the day went on! Final preparations made, we were off up the mountain!
Pre hike shot!
The trail begins fairly uneventfully, with some pretty walking at very mild grades through the forest. The forecast had called for a clear day but there was some significant fog going on - it made for a lovely "fairy forest" feel in the early going. The trail was super green with lots of moss, and in the quiet with no other hikers around it really felt magical. A mile into the hike, we reached the rock that I've seen photographed a bunch with potholes left naturally by glacier activity. This was the last glimpse of any views we'd have for quite some time - it was a lovely overlook and we stopped to snack on some blueberries and take in the view.
From the pothole rock you can see the caps in the distance, and let me tell you, they look intimidating! I said to Andrew "see those rocks over there? That's the trail". To which he responded, "AWESOME!" This mountain goat I'm going to marry...hahaha. Caps Ridge is pretty short as trails in the Whites go, but once you pass the 1 mile mark you're basically out in the open from there on. Despite the fog and complete lack of views, it was AWESOME. I've been trying to decide this summer if I secretly really love scrambling, because everything we've done that's involved scrambles (the Chimney on Osceola, the Blueberry Ledges), I've found to be the most fun thing ever. Caps Ridge pretty much sealed the deal: I LOVE scrambling. I'm not sure if it was because it was so foggy that you couldn't see how high you were, or because I've just gotten over that particular fear, but I never had even a second of apprehension on this hike. It was pure adrenaline, where am I going to put my foot next, god this is amazing, fun, fun, fun.
Andrew climbing the first or maybe second cap - guy in the top left is our Canadian friend, who had to do some serious coaxing to convince his pup to find a way up. He made it eventually!
Slightly deceiving photo of me on a cap - but for real, use of all 4 extremities was definitely necessary
"Maybe if I just LOOK at it hard enough, this fog will go away"
The whole time heading up I would stop intermittently and kind of mournfully ask Andrew where on earth the "clear" forecast that I had been seeing all week from the Mount Washington Observatory was. Honestly it was pretty cool and a little eerie ascending into such heavy fog, but I had heard that the views from this trail were quite spectacular so I was a little disappointed to not be able to see them! Still, we were having a great time and really enjoying the trail - I think from a challenge and fun perspective, this is one of my favorite trails I've done in the Whites. After the Caps, you continue to climb with some flatter areas, and then finally a steeper section up to the summit. We discovered on the way down that we may have gotten a little "creative" on our ascent to the summit - by this point the fog was so thick that we were basically going cairn to cairn, and at some point we must have missed one or followed a rogue cairn or something, because the ascent to the summit was MUCH steeper and more slippery than the descent. Whoops! Oh well, no harm, no foul. We made it to what we assumed, and eventually confirmed was the summit in one piece.
I took a picture here because I was surprised to see those plants, but in hindsight I'm glad I did because Andrew proposed on those rocks right over there. :)
A demonstration of how we managed to go off trail on the way to the summit...very, VERY foggy
We made it to the summit, where it felt like the temperature dropped about 15 degrees and the wind kicked up significantly - luckily, we were able to find a sheltered spot and hunker down for a bit. We were still holding out some hope that maybe the clouds would magically part and were comfortable enough with our gear that we felt like we could handle hanging out for a bit. We chatted with some other hikers coming through; my personal favorite was the guy coming over from Adams who did a "superman" to touch the summit marker post, and then remarked "yeah, did you guys see when the sun came out for like 5 seconds earlier? I literally shouted with excitement to no one, I probably looked crazy!" He said that he had never seen fog like this and had been worried about getting lost over by Adams - this definitely cemented our decision to go down the way we came, as opposed to trying to make a loop. We also talked for a bit with our Canadian friend, who I think was enjoying his first trip to the Whites. It was interesting to hear about his travels in the Canadian Rockies, where many mountains apparently don't have official trails, but there are trail "registers" at the top of many summits for people to mark when they've been there. He said one summit he climbed the next most recent name to his on the register was 10 years earlier! He also seemed mildly disappointed at our lack of thrilling wildlife - most notably the cute animals called pika that apparently exist in the Rockies and make adorable squeaking noises.
Andrew found a natural recliner!
Official summit shot: NH48 #13 for me and #11 for Andrew!
This was actually slightly better visibility compared to the majority of our time at the summit - junction with Gulfiside Trail and Castle Trail just below the summit
After consuming our lunch (leftover pizza from last night's dinner, an AMAZING choice) and gradually adding on layers as it got chillier and chillier, we finally gave up on any summit views and decided to begin the trek back down the trail. Andrew told me later that he of course wanted to do a summit proposal, but it was so windy and foggy that he was worried he would drop the ring, so he decided to wait! We once again went cairn to cairn coming down off the summit cone. The lower we got the more the wind subsided and things started to clear a bit. Finally, Andrew told me to come and stand on top of some rocks just off the trail, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him!
Winter hats in August and absolute happiness
Rocks and a ROCK! ;) I adore my ring - it's a padparascha sapphire and it's absolutely beautiful
Caps Ridge Trail: Probably my new favorite/most memorable trail ever!
The rest of the descent, I was maybe just a LITTLE distracted by the new shiny gem on my finger and the fact that after almost 10 years together, I was finally engaged to my best friend in the world. In a delightful coincidence, just about as soon as Andrew proposed the clouds gradually started to part, and we were treated to some stunning views as we descended. We also encountered TONS of hikers heading up the mountain to watch the eclipse and were able to give some advice to a couple that looked a little concerned about the caps. It feels good to be enough of a veteran that I feel like I can give a bit of support to others! We also stopped for awhile on one of the caps to enjoy our summit beer - I joked that we really should have bought a mini bottle of champagne - and take in the views. I also somehow resisted the urge to tell every single person we encountered on the way down that we had just got engaged.
Clouds starting to clear
Feels like you can see forever, even in the clouds
Cloud 9 :)
Looking down at a cap
Pretty cool that we climbed up AND down that
Looking back up at Jefferson and the caps on the left from pothole rock
Once past pothole rock, we headed back into the trees and made quick work of the easy rest of the descent, and soon were back at the parking lot, where we reunited with our Canadian friend and a couple of other guys we'd run into on the way down.
Eeeep we are fiancees!
Our Canadian friend's dog, who did not want to jump up into his owner's pickup truck and instead hopped into the backseat of our Zipcar hahaha
After the hike, we had a delightful rest of the day in store - first we headed to the AMC center in Crawford Notch to see the eclipse (we literally timed it perfectly to get there at maximum coverage) and call our family members to tell them the exciting news. Then we headed to the Mount Washington Hotel, where we had the most delightfully swanky night that included myriad cocktails, champagne while planning our next hike, slow dancing in the ballroom esque restaurant, and being utterly ridiculous in the Cave bar. It was, in a word, perfect. I absolutely can't wait to spend the rest of my life having adventures with Andrew, to the summits of the NH48 and beyond. We still have 3 more mountains to bag to achieve our goal of 10 4000 footers this summer, so stay tuned!
