Autumn is one of my favorite times to hike in the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire. The foliage colors the landscape, the summer tourist crowds have thinned out, and the vistas are clearer than during the humid, hazy days of summer.

Every fall, my daughter Corinna – now age 11 – and I head to the mountains for an overnight hike. I have been captivated by the beauty of the mountains since I started hiking in the White Mountains as a teenager. Since taking my daughter on her first hike a few years ago, she also has been drawn to the majestic world above the treeline.

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This year, we decided to hike to Madison Spring Hut in the northern Presidential Range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The hut, operated by the Appalachian Mountain Club, is the oldest of its eight high-mountain huts and sits above the treeline at 4,800 feet. We would stay overnight in the hut and hike up two nearby peaks – Mount Madison and Mount Adams.

We took the Airline Trail from the Appalachia parking area on Route 2 in Randolph and hiked 3.7 miles to the hut. The foliage was not that brilliant yet – we hiked in mid-September before foliage hit its peak. We were able to fit a quick hike up to the summit of Mount Madison before dinner at the hut.

We were treated to a gorgeous sunset during dinner, which more than made up for the lack of color in the leaves. It started with muted hues in distant ridges at dusk and ended with fire-red clouds stretching from the peak of nearby Mount Adams.

The morning was cold enough that we donned our down jackets to stay warm while eating a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, pancakes and bacon. We climbed up to Mount Adams via the Star Lake Trail and had occasional glimpses of Mount Washington and the Great Gulf Wilderness. Mostly, we were enveloped in fast-moving clouds and a steady, strong wind. After two hours, we reached the rocky peak of Adams, which at 5,793 feet is the second highest peak in the Northeast. It was fully clouded-in, and we ate our snacks behind rocks that provided shelter from the buffeting wind.

As we started our descent, the skies began to clear and we could see all the neighboring peaks of the northern Presidential Range and the route we would take back down to the Appalachia parking area. As we navigated over rocks down the slope of Mount Adams, we talked about the highlights of the hike – the sunset, sleeping overnight in the hut and the mix of weather conditions we hiked though.

The remarkable world above the treeline had captivated us again.

Gregory Rec can be contacted at 791-6432 or at:

grec@pressherald.com

Twitter: gregoryrec

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