September 7, 2026

Start/End: Great Gulf Trailhead, Rt. 16

Peaks: Madison (5,367')

Elevation Gain: 4,220 ft

RT Mileage: 11.26 mi

Duration: 9 hours, 20 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 2+

The Great Gulf charmed me on my last time out in the Whites, and for my last hike of the summer I decided to bag another of several Terrifying 25 routes rising out of its floor, this time Madison Gulf. The Osgood Ridge descent greatly excited me about this route too, featuring the best alpine scenery on Madison by a wide margin. A weather window presented itself conveniently while I was home for the Labor Day weekend.

Leaving home at 3:40 AM, we drove past an overrun Pinkham (sadly the norm these days) and arrived at the much quieter Great Gulf Wilderness TH at around 6:40, where there were only a handful of other cars. We set out onto the Great Gulf Trail just before 7:00, almost immediately crossed a suspension bridge over the West Branch of the Peabody River, which was running the lowest I've ever seen it (granted, this was my first time seeing it this late in the season), and continued deeper into the U-shaped glacial valley on primarily old logging roads along the left bank of the West Branch.

2.7 miles in, at around 2,200 ft, the hardwoods around us transitioned into a mixed forest and the trail surface changed to gravel as we reached The Bluff, the location of a backcountry tentsite as well as a large boulder with views of the surrounding summits from the top.

Just past The Bluff, we crossed Parapet Brook and ascended onto a hogback ridge between the right bank of Parapet Brook and the left bank of the West Branch, where we left the Great Gulf Trail behind and began following the Madison Gulf Trail up the hogback.

The hogback ridge soon becomes indiscernible and the Madison Gulf Trail continues upward along the Parapet Brook drainage. Beginning at around 2,800 ft, the trail crosses Parapet Brook several times en route to the base of the Madison Gulf headwall, but the trickiest crossing, located at 3,300 ft, is actually a tributary of the main brook. The trail here follows the steep, rocky streambed briefly. Fortunately, this tributary was running fairly dry too.

At 4,100 ft, the trail reaches the exposed slab at the base of the headwall that constitutes the crux of the route. This is a fun scramble, albeit brief, and features a nice view back out over the lower part of Madison Gulf from the top.

The remainder of the headwall scramble was thoroughly underwhelming. The trail re-enters the trees above the crux and follows a rock gully above an underground stream the rest of the way to the top of the headwall, with only Class 2 scrambling over loose rock. We only emerged above treeline for the final "pitch" of the scramble, soon topping out at the Parapet (4,900 ft).

From the Parapet, the col between Adams and Madison was only a short stroll away. Nestled in this col is Star Lake, one of my favorite spots in the Whites and still somewhat of a hidden gem despite its proximity to Madison Hut.

From Star Lake, we descended the remainder of the way to Madison Hut, located at treeline at the base of the Madison summit cone, and then ascended the Osgood Trail 0.4 miles to the summit. It was a breezy day, and we were fully exposed to the wind for this part of the ascent. We summited around 1:00 PM.

From the summit, we descended first to the east shoulder of Madison, below the summit cone, and then followed the Osgood (southeast) Ridge the rest of the way to treeline, totaling 1,000 vertical feet of elevation loss across 1.2 miles. This instantly became a new contender for my favorite ridge walk in the Whites, joining the likes of the Franconia Ridge (when uncrowded in winter) and the Bonds.

The Osgood Trail dips below treeline at 4,300 ft and begins descending through steep but not particularly rocky terrain towards Osgood Tentsite and the floor of the Great Gulf. Between 3,500 ft and 3,300 ft, we passed through a cool patch of old-growth forest which featured some of the biggest conifers I've ever seen in the Whites.

Below Osgood Tentsite, the trail begins to level out and, 0.8 miles later, joins back up with the Great Gulf Trail for the final 1.5 miles back out to the trailhead. We were back at the parking lot just before 5:00, and Terrifying 25 route #12 was in the books.