This trip which was another great outing put together by Mike P a regular poster on both the AMC and Views From The Top message forums, had been planned for a while but you never know what type of weather you'll actually have when the big day comes. As it turns out the mountains had already had snow several times but the last couple of days before the hike were quite warm and hike day was spectacular! Before I get into the trip report though, I want to give credit where credit is due, so, all of the pictures in this trip report were not taken by me, they were taken by Dave M the maintainer of the White Mountains Info Server the best web site available on the Whites!

      We all met at the Applachia parking lot and car pooled to Lowe's Store. It's incredible to think that the store and the land around it have been in the Lowe family for over a century. The trail that we will be using to ascend Mount Adams was built by Charles Lowe and William Nowell in 1875 - 1876. Today Charles' descendants charge a dollar per car to park at the store.

      As is usual with most any group of this size we quickly split into the fast group, Garry, Dave, and John, and the slower group Mike, Bob and yours truly. As has been the case in other hikes Tim started later than we did and caught up to us on the trail. We continued up until our first break which we took at the Log Cabin, a shelter maintained by the Randolph Mountain Club.

      After the break we were all together until we reached the Quay, a rocky outlook with a fantastic panoramic view! It was here that Tim & bear caught up to us. Ahhh the speed and stamina of youth! As the rest of us snacked and relaxed, Dave & Tim took the short walk over to Gray Knob another hut maintained by the RMC. As we headed higher I was really surprised by the lack of snow. There were occasional patches but really nothing to speak of. That's not what most of us expect to find in late November at this elevation. I suppose that's why some of the group were wishing they had worn lighter boots rather than their heavy plastics!

      When we hit treeline Dave had to get the essential shot of Mike and the treeline warning sign. After that the quality of the weather and the view became more and more apparent. A bit further along we came over the top of Adams 4, one of the sub peaks of Adams, and Bob & I actually had to negotiate some snow. The view continued to become more impressive, especially over towards the cone of Madison. The higher we got though, even mighty Madison began to fall below us! At last we began to see our objective looming up in the distance. Once we passed the massive cairn at Thunderstorm Junction we were ready to press for the summit!

      Once again I was amazed that we were seeing some snow, but certainly much less than normal for late November. We were almost there but there were still plenty of rocks to pick our way over. I must say that as I neared the top of the summit cone I was wishing there was a bit more snow to fill in the gaps between the rocks! But at last, there it was, the summit. It was great to be here, to see the flag flying and the glorious panorama stretched out around us!

      By this point the temps were pretty chilly and the wind had picked up enough that Tim, Garry and the rest of sought some shelter amongst the rocks. Dave took a spectacular shot of Bob with Mount Washington towering behind him to go with one last shot of ol' George standing guard on the horizon.