Here's an article published by Hank Folsom in 1971, which I've copied from the Appalachian Mountain Club's magazine, "Appalachia".  It's an impressive bit of hiking.  His route is shown on trail maps here and here; these are large picture files, so if you're using a slow connection, be patient.  An unsung hero was Aunt Peeko, who usually drove Uncle Hank to the start of each day's hike, and picked him up at the end, all dirty and sweaty, many hours and miles away.

The Four Thousand Footers, "Diretissima"

After finally finishing all the Four Thousand Footers of New Hampshire in the summer of 1969, I wondered what was left. Of course, I could always have carried on with the remaining Four Thousand Footers of New England or tackled the Hundred Highest, but because of the great distances involve in automobile travel, I decided to hold off on these at least for the time being. However, I knew I must not waste my four weeks of vacation in New Hampshire, and I had my heart set on some sort of ambitious climbing program for 1970. I have spent my summers in Randolph since before I can remember and have come to know the Presidentials almost as well as my back yard. So it was not going to be easy coming up with something a bit novel and original.

An idea finally occurred to me: Why not start at one end of the New Hampshire Four Thousand Footers and walk all the way to the other end in the fewest possible miles while passing over each of the forty-six summits? In a way, this meant climbing them "diretissima" - in the most direct manner. Naturally, I had no intention of climbing each one of them diretissima - that would necessitate some terrible bushwhacking. It meant merely that I would cover all of them, walking the whole distance by the shortest route possible. I laid down three rule for myself: First, I would have to reach each of the forty-six summits by foot. Second, I would walk the whole route - between mountains as well as over them. Third, I would do no bushwhacking, but would lay out the entire route over trails and/or roads. The reason for this last rule was because I realized that other people might want to do the same thing in a spirit of competition in which they would attempt to find a shorter route. If bushwhacking were allowed. it would be almost impossible to measure the mileage accurately, it would be pure chaos, and, worst of all, some people might get into genuine trouble in the more remote reaches of such places as the Pemi. So if anyone wishes to take up the gauntlet, he or she might do so only over the trails and roads. Obviously, it does not have to be non-stop. I took nineteen climbing days and was back home for all but five nights. However, I always resumed my trek at the precise spot I left off; so in truth I did walk the whole way.

In general the trails were in very good condition, and all the various groups which have taken it upon themselves to maintain them are to be complimented. Actually, there are only two places where I found them to be quite bad, and both of these are on rails maintained by the AMC. I honestly do not think that the section of the Hancock Loop between the two summits has been cleared since it was first cut. I have done a good deal of climbing, both of the roped and hiking varieties, and I have done a lot of wilderness travelling, but even on a clear, sunny day I had an awful time finding my way across. At points it is virtually impossible to see the trail at all, so I hope the trail crew will do something about it this year. That is a pretty remote area up there, and in a fog it would be very easy for climbers to get badly twisted and into real trouble - especially toward Carrigain.

I found another confusing spot on the Kinsman Ridge Trail south of South Kinsman. After passing Harrington Pond on our way toward Kinsman Notch, Tom Saunders and I somehow missed a turn. The trail wanders on to some old lumber roads at this point, but then somewhere turns across the river to the southwest and passes by the shelter on to the swampy area north of Bog Pond. We both missed the right hand turn and stayed on the lumber roads roughly parallel to the power line. Eventually, of course, we realized what we had done and simply worked our way back up the meadows until we picked up the trail where it crosses over them on its way toward Wolf Mountain. This area, too, is very remote, and people might get into trouble there. I suspect that nothing has to be done, except perhaps to replace or relocate a sign. Incidentally, this is the one time when I broke my own rule against bushwhacking. However, it was done inadvertently, and it lengthened, rather than shortened, my mileage. From a careful examination of the map, I estimate that it added about 1.15 miles to my day's jaunt.

I mention these two incidents as a comment rather than complaint, but I do have one serious complaint: Someone (I guess we all know who!) has pulled down two fire towers - one near the summit of Cabot and the other on the top of Hale - and has simply left the twisted girders there. "Carry In - Carry Out" should apply as much to these people as it does to hikers, and in this case I suspect it would be considerably easier to carry it all out than it was to carry it in. One day with an acetylene torch and a helicopter would probably take care of both of them. In the unhappy event that some youngster injures himself climbing on rusty girders, I hope his family sues the daylights out of whoever is responsible! In my opinion this is a culpable disregard both of people's safety and of the natural beauty of the environment.

In respect to my total mileage, there are two ways I know it might be shortened. The first is at one spot where I miscalculated and took a slightly longer route than I had to. However, I will leave it up to some keen observer to locate it in my itinerary. The other was a deliberate choice on my part when I climbed the last peak - Moosilauke. According to the Guide Book the shortest route up and down from Kinsman Notch is to ascend the Beaver Brook Trail to the now-abandoned Ravine Lodge. However, according to the newest Guide Book map, this would necessitate a very short bushwhack. The map seems to indicate that a road leaves Route 118 and goes almost - but not quite - to the Ravine Lodge. This means I would have had to bushwhack perhaps 1/10 of a mile to my car, and such would have been against my self-imposed rules, which I was not about to break then after wearing down a pair of Limmer Boots and hiking over 240 miles. Consequently, I took what I considered to be the slightly longer, but legitimate, route of going up and down the Beaver Brook Trail and finishing the summer's hike at Kinsman Notch, rather than Ravine Lodge.

In summary my total route covered 244.05 miles. However, I think the figure to beat is 242.9, which is what it would have been, had I not got twisted on the Kinsman Ridge Trail. As I say, there is definitely at least one other place where it can be shortened. I also covered an additional 14.15 miles on various occasions when I walked off the route to get home for the night, but I am not counting these, because they are not part of the route itself. Incidentally, 22.8 miles were done on roads, of which over 14 were covered on the first two days. Although time is not a factor, for the record it took me nineteen climbing days, which can easily be reduced to 18 by climbing Tecumseh and the two Oceolas in one day - not a difficult feat. The whole climb consumed 126 hours and 48 minutes on the route itself, and this averages out to just under 2 miles an hour. My daily itinerary is as follows:

Daily Itinerary

#1   6/18/70  Cabot.  York Pond, Bunnel Notch, and Cabot Trails up and down from White's Farm.  Then by road (as described in the Guide Book) to the start of the Waumbek Trail.  14.14 miles, of which 6.3 were on roads.

#2   6/19 Waumbek.  Starr King Trail and the unofficial trail to Waumbek.  Down the same way and over to the start of the Castle Ridge Trail via Rte. 2.  15.6 miles, of which 8.0 were on roads.

#3   7/9 Jefferson, Adams, and Madison.  Castle Ridge Trail, Jefferson Loop, Gulfside, Israel Ridge Trail, Airline, and Gulfside to the Madison Huts.  Osgood and Daniel Webster (Scout) Trails to Dolly Copp.  (Avoid the temptation here to bushwhack and to ford the river to Rte. 16!)  Via roads to the start of the north end of the Imp Trail.  14.72 miles, of which 2.15 were on the roads.

#4   7/27  Moriah.  North end of Imp Trail, North Carter, and Carter-Moriah Trails to Moriah.  Back to Imp Shelter for the night. 9.7 miles.

#5   7/28  Mid-Carter, South Carter, Carter Dome, Wildcat, and Wildcat E.  (This day was terribly hot and one of the two toughest days I had the whole summer).  Carter-Moriah and Wildcat Ridge Trails to Glen Ellis.  12.9 miles.

#6   7/31  Isolation and Washington.  Davis Path via Glen Boulder and down to Isolation.  Back to Washington via the obviously shortest route over Tuckerman.  11.0 miles.  At this point I walked out to Pinkham, but this is not counted in the mileage).

#7   8/3  Monroe, Pleasant, Clinton, and Jackson.  Back to the summit of Washington and then to Mt. Jackson via the obviously shortest route.  To Crawford Notch via the Tisdale Spring and a short walk on the road.  11.0 miles of which .4 were on the road.

#8   8/6  Tom, Field, and Wiley (with my son, Henry).  Avalon, A-Z Trails, and Mt. Tom cut-off.  Wiley Range and Ethan Pond Trails to Shoal Pond and Desolation Trails to Desolation Shelter for the night.  14.27 miles.

#9   8/7  Carrigain.  Desolation and Signal Ridge Trails to Sawyer River Road.  On it to Sawyer Pond Trail and south to Kancamagus Highway and Oliverian Brook Trail.  14.85 miles of which 2.25 were on roads.

#10   8/13  Passaconaway, Whiteface, Mid-Tripyramid, and North Tripyramid.  (With my nephew, Thomas Saunders).  This was probably the toughest day of the whole summer.  Took the Oliverian Brook Trail and the obviously shortest route to the top of Passaconaway.  Over to Whiteface via the Rollins Trail and then over it and Sleeper Trail to the Tripyramids and out to Waterville Valley via North Slide and Livermore "Road", following it to Tripoli Road.  18.2 miles of which .1 was on the road.

#11   8/17  Tecumseh.  (With my wife, Phyllis, and sister, Charlotte Saunders).  From Tripoli Road via road to the parking lot at the ski center.  It would appear shorter (and much more pleasant) to follow the old Tecumseh Trail from Tecumseh Brook and the Tripoli Road, but the signs were gone, and this has apparently been abandoned, so after some soul searching I took the longer - and boring - road.  From the parking lot via Tecumseh Trail to the summit and down other side to Tripoli Road.  East on it to the start of the Osceola Trail.  8.2 miles of which 2.8 were on roads.

#12   8/20  Osceola and East Peak.  Osceola and Greeley Pond Trails to Kancamagus Highway.  East on it to the start of the Hancock Notch Trail.  7.9 miles of which .8 were on the road.

#13   8/24  South Hancock and Hancock (with my son, Randy).  Hancock Notch Trail and the obvious route to the Hancocks (south to north).  Back to Cedar Brook Trail, to Wilderness Trail, and then west to Camp 16 for the night.  12.20 miles.

#14   8/25  Bond, West Bond, Zealand, and Hale.  Bondcliff Trail and West Bond cut-off over summits to Twinway.  Followed it (with side trip to Zealand) to Lend-a-Hand Trail and over to Hale.  13.55 miles  (At this point we walked out, but it is not counted in the mileage).

#15   8/28  South Twin and North Twin with my son, Henry).  Back to Hale and then retraced steps (very boring) to Twinway and then to South Twin.  Over to North Twin and back to Galehead Hut for the night.  12.0 miles.

#16   8/29  Owl's Head and Garfield.  Twin Brooks and Lincoln Brook Trails to Owl's Head Slide.  Up to summit and then back same way to 13 Falls.  Franconia Brook and Garfield Ridge Trails to Garfield and Garfield Pond Shelter for the night.  15.22 miles.

#17   8/30  Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty, and Flume.  Garfield and Franconia Ridge Trails to Flume and back to Falling Waters Trail.  Down to the Notch.  13.95 miles.

#18   9/1  Cannon, North Kinsman, and South Kinsman (with nephew, Thomas Saunders).  Starting off in a snow storm, took Lonesome Lake and Hi-Cannon Trails to Cannon.  Kinsman Ridge Trail to Kinsman Notch (with the slight unintended detour noted in the text).  18.25 miles (this would be 17.1 miles if one did not get off the trail).

#19   9/3  Moosilauke (with my sister, Charlotte Saunders).  Up and down via the Beaver Brook Trail.  6.4 miles for a grand total of 244.05 miles (242.9 without bushwhacking).