New Hampshire’s 4000 Footers…Mount Jefferson And Mount Clay.

Goal driven folks we are why not bite off the New Hampshire 4000 foot peaks over the next number of years? We have already hike many of them over the years but we are finding that there are soooooo many ways to hike up the same mountain that no repeat hike is boring.

Caps Ridge Trailhead nice and early in the morning. Anyone seeing premature Fall colors in the pic?

The first view of “almost the summit of Mount Jefferson in the early morning clouds. Hopefully view will open up by the time I reach treeline.

Not the smoothest of trails to walk over but so much fun!

There is the first of the “above treeline” cairns to show me the right path to follow. Without them these summits are simply piles of granite boulders.

This is the summit stone for Mount Jefferson at 5,712 feet above sea level. Fairly non-descript I would say. Pretty sure nature did not place that triangular stone there. Does that mean it does not count when the USGS folks come up to measure the height of the mountain?

The happy peak bagger. Off to find Mount Clay.

This area is called “Monticello Lawn” as it is in Jefferson’s front yard!

The Gulfside Trail is also the Appalachian Trail at this point.

4000 footer number 2 is conquered. View of the summit of Mount Washington from the summit of Mount Clay at 5,533 feet above sea level.

A quick bit of history: Mount Clay is not named after a president but after a prominent US Secretary of State in the early 1800s. In 2003 the state of New Hampshire officially changed its name to Mount Reagan to honor the former president. As the White Mountains are actually part of a National Forest the Federal Government does not, as of yet, recognize this change of name.

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