We arrived at the junction with the link trail down into Tuckerman, and debated briefly about which way would be the fastest way down to Pinkham Notch. In the end, we elected to stay on the Boott Spur trail.
Despite the roughness of the trail, it was a very scenic and enjoyable hike down Boott Spur's ridge. And, just before we descended for good into the trees, we got a very nice atmospheric clouds-and-shafts-of-light view back up into Tuckerman Ravine.
Treeline on Boott Spur Trail
Not far down into the trees, the trail starts to traverse soiled ground, and the roughness and boulderiness faded away. It was early evening now, and we were on track for a 7pm ish arrival at Pinkham Notch. I had originally hoped to be at this point two hours' earlier, but the slow trail conditions on the Davis Path before and after Isolation had slowed us quite a bit - and also, the distance was turning out to be longer than the 25km estimate I had made.
The Boott Spur trail ends at the Tuckerman Ravine trail, and from this point, we followed its well-beaten path (well, more like a full-width gravel road, really) back down to Pinkham Notch, finishing at about 7:15pm -- A total hike time of about twelve and a half hours. And, as it turned out, not far shy of 30 kilometers (18 miles)! That was a tough one!
So, that's NH 4000-footer number 47 completed. One more to go!
Interactive Trackmap - Mount Isolation via Montalban Ridge
Hike Data - Mount Isolation
Start Time:
6:42a.m.
End Time:
7:13p.m.
Duration:
12h31m
Distance:
29.75 km
(18.49 mi)
Average Speed:
2.4 km/hr
(1.5 mph)
Start Elevation:
795ft
(242m)
*
Max Elevation:
5506ft
(1678m)
*
Min Elevation:
795ft
(242m)
*
End Elevation:
2085ft
(636m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
6462ft
(1970m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
5177ft
(1578m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
One minor note with regards to the distance data above: there were a few short side trips I made (Stairs mountain summit, Stairs col, and various other short spurs). Therefore, the actual distance of this hike without those is probably about 1 kilometer less (3/4 of a mile).
