July 3, 2026

Start/End: Lowe's Store, Rt. 2

Peaks: N/A

Elevation Gain: 4,305 ft

RT Mileage: 11.66 mi

Duration: 12 hours, 37 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 2

Last year, one day shy of the 250th anniversary of Lexington & Concord, I flew the American flag on Adams. 63 weeks later, one day shy of the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, I did the same one mountain over on the only remaining snowfield in the 13 original colonies.

The Jefferson snowfield is located on the eastern side of Jefferson high above Jefferson's Knee, significantly higher than any of the glacial cirques where most of the other snowfields in the Whites are located. As a result, after the heatwave this week, whereas, for example, the snowfields in Tucks completely melted out for the season, the Jefferson snowfield survived, making it now the only remaining snowfield in the 13 original colonies. My original plan was to use the Class 3 Six Husbands Trail to ascend straight over Jefferson's Knee to the snowfield and then loop over Boott Spur back to Pinkham for a fun day above treeline, but after rain last night and with high winds forecasted for today I aborted this plan and instead decided to use Lowes Path and Randolph Path to access the snowfield via Edmands Col from the other side of the range.

We started out from Lowe's Store a little before 6:30 AM to beat the heat forecasted for later in the morning in the lower elevations. Adams and Jefferson were socked in higher up but skies were clear above us. Lowes Path ascended gently for 2.5 miles before entering the coniferous forest at 3,000 ft and abruptly steepening for the last 200 vertical feet to Log Cabin. By this point, we were under the shade of the low clouds surrounding the range, and the temperature had cooled nicely.

Above Log Cabin, we followed Lowes Path for another 0.2 miles/300 vertical feet before turning onto the Randolph Path as it began to skirt the eastern wall of Cascade Ravine while gently gaining elevation. Besides a couple of rockier sections on either side of the Cascade Brook crossing within The Perch FPA, Randolph Path is one of the best-designed trails in the northern Presis. Unfortunately, it is also one of the least-used, and unkempt algae and moss made the few rocks that were strewn on the trail a little slippery, slowing our progress.

At around 4,300 ft, we broke above the cloud base into the fog, At 4,700 ft, the trail crested the Israel Ridge and broke treeline. As we continued towards Edmands Col, violent westerly gusts would occasionally lift the cloud base and break us out of the fog giving us glimpses into Castle Ravine below before quickly flipping back northwesterly and filling summit fog back in. Edmands Col itself acts as a wind funnel, and gusts were well above 35 mph as we hiked through it.

From Edmands Col, the Edmands Col Cutoff was the last leg of our route, and it would deposit us on the eastern side of Jefferson where it meets the Six Husbands Trail just below the snowfield. The trail appears flat on a topographical map but is unmaintained and traverses some of the worst terrain in the northern Presidentials as it skirts Jefferson Ravine for its 0.5-mile length, sort of the antithesis to Randolph Path. Immediately, the Cutoff crosses a region of dense krummholz where the trail is narrower and harder to follow than many herd paths and bushwhacks.

This section of the trail does not last long and it soon breaks back above treeline and begins traversing across a series of scree fields. Whereas the rock had been wet and slippery below treeline for most of our ascent, it was fortunately dry above treeline, so this was still an improvement over the krummholz. We were now on the eastern side of the range largely shielded from the worst of the wind, but with cloud bases lifting above us we could guess that winds had flipped westerly and calmed on the other side of the range. After one grueling hour, we emerged into one last region of krummholz and soon onto the only slightly better maintained Six Husbands Trail, and the snowfield came into view above us through the trees.

After 0.1 miles on the Six Husbands Trail, we emerged back out of the krummholz onto a large boulder field. The snowfield, still over 100 feet across, takes up only a fraction of the boulder field this late in the season, but a few weeks earlier the entire boulder field would have been covered in snow. The snow, unsurprisingly, was plenty soft enough to plant the flag in, but the bigger issue ended up being the lack of wind. Of course, the snowfield survives so late into the season precisely because of that lack of wind, so this should not have been a surprise either. We spent about an hour at the snowfield as low clouds continued to clear from the summits around us.

Edmands Col Cutoff on the way over to the snowfield had been brutal, and, not wanting to repeat that experience, we decided to instead climb out of the Great Gulf Wilderness on the Six Husbands Trail and take the much better maintained Gulfside Trail back to Edmands Col before retracing our route back to Lowe's Store. I was expecting Gulfside to be quite busy for the holiday weekend and it was certainly busier than any of the trails we'd hiked so far, but still not as crowded as I had feared. Weather played a role in that, I imagine.

From Edmands Col, Randolph Path's smooth grades made for quick progress until we hit treeline but we were forced to again hike slowly and cautiously below that as the rocks were still wet and mossy. Lowes Path was not nearly as slippery and made again for faster progress, but our hour-long break at the snowfield and slow progress earlier in the day had already done the damage. We were back at Lowe's Store just before 7:00 PM, over 12 hours after we started our 11-mile hike. Still, we were able to watch the drama of Argentina-Cape Verde unfold in the car ride back home. And anyway, the long day was worth it to see snow in July. Happy 4th!