Boot Spur is a subpeak on Mt Washington’s south face in the White Mountains and the Bigelow Lawn is the grassy tableland between them. It’s not an area frequented by most White Mountain hikers because it isn’t on the official 4000-footer list, even though Boot Spur Mountain has an elevation of 5492′. The people who make up peak lists don’t “count” mountains that are too close to one another which explains what Mt Washington got on the 4000-footer list and Boot Spur didn’t. In fact, many mountains in the Whites are higher than 4000′ but are not on the Appalachian Mountain Club 4000 footer list.
The most direct way to climb Boot Spur is up the Boot Spur Trail which starts in Pinkham Notch. Both it and the Tuckerman Ravine Trail run parallel to each other, climbing up opposite sides of Tuckerman Ravine, a huge glacial valley on the southeast side of Mt Washington.
The bottom half of the Boot Spur Trail climbs through the forest before breaking above the treeline at 4000′. It’s a very steep trail, climbing 3200′ in 2.9 miles before ending when it reaches the Davis Path, the second oldest continuously maintained trail in the United States. Once above the treeline, the trail is completely exposed to wind and weather and not a place you want to be in a thunderstorm when lightning is a significant danger.
The last 1500′ feet of the Boot Spur Trail climbs up a path marked by rock cairns before traversing a boulder field to the summit area which is actually rather anticlimactic, given the surrounding scenery. Instead of being a well-defined peak like its neighbors, Mt Washington or Mtr Monroe, the summit of Boot Spur is a small bump at the south end of the Bigelow Lawn, not even meriting a summit sign. Instead, you’re treated to a web of cairn-topped trails extending to the horizon, beckoning you to explore the grassland before you.
I proceeded to do just that, hiking down the Camel Trail on the east side of the Bigelow Lawn to the Lake of the Clouds Hut below Mt Monroe. I’d lost a bottle of water while climbing the Boot Spur Trail, probably when I stopped for a sandwich and needed to fill my remaining empty bottle, and an extra soft bottle I carry when I need to hike for extended dry stretches without a water source. I knew I’d need at least 2 more liters for the route I’d planned, but that I could resupply below treeline if I needed more. There are several natural water sources along the upper section of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail where you can filter/treat drinking water.
The Camel Trail weaves its way across the lawn before descending past the small alpine tarns adjacent to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The hut has a potable water spigot on the outside where hikers can refill their bottles. There are also benches outside where you can sit to rest and chat with other hikers passing by.
My goal for this trip was to hike all the trails on the Bigelow Lawn including the Camel, the Southside Trail, the Davis Path, Tuckerman Crossover, and the Lawn Cutoff, before heading back down below treeline on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail back to the Pinkham Notch Visitors Center.
Why would you want to do that? I’ve decided to hike all the trails in the White Mountain Guide again, all 650+ trails (1475 miles of trails), something I’ve done twice before this (called White Mountain Guide Redlining). The trails are located all over, from southern New Hampshire to the Canadian Border and from Hanover, NH all the way into western Maine. The last time it took me four years to finish them, but this time it will probably take longer because they’re not my sole focus…more like a casual hobby that I pursue a little bit at a time.
But why? The simple answer is that I’ve really enjoyed all of the adventures I’ve had in the past hiking these trails, and I want to do it again. I’ve found that I forget trails after about 6 years and honestly, there’s no place I’d rather hike, with the possible exception of Scotland, than in the White Mountains. It’s that good and it is right outside my front door. But I have some ideas about how to do things a little differently this round.
From the hut, I hiked up the Tuckerman Crossover trail to the Davis Path Junction and then followed the Davis Path to its northern end at the junction with the Crawford Path. I then backtracked along the Davis Path to the Southside Trail which travels through the bottom of Washington’s summit cone, which is a boulder field. When I reached the end of that trail, I hiked up the east side of the Tuckerman Crossover Trail to the Davis Path again and headed south to finish the section I’d missed, before turning onto the Lawn Cutoff, which I followed to the big cairn at the top of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. In other words, a typical Redliner route to hike every section of all the trails with as little duplicate effort as possible.
Having completed my goals, I headed down the steep Tuckerman Ravine Trail to the snow ranger’s hut at the base of the ravine and had a snack while chatting with some climbers who’d climbed Pinnacle Gulley that day in Huntington Ravine. I favor the Boot Spur Trail for hiking up to the Bigelow Lawn over the Tuckerman Ravine Trail because it’s much more scenic and there are far fewer people on it. Tuckerman Ravine makes for a quick departure down the flanks of Washington back to Pinkham Notch though, but after the ravine, the trail down makes for a far less inspiring exit.
Still, the awe I felt walking across the grassy open Bigelow Lawn is what stands out about this hike. I have a feeling I may be visiting the Jefferson lawn in the not-to-distant future, to experience more of the same in another sublime place in the Presidential Range.
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