Date: 2009-09-12
From: Nauman Tentsite

To: Osgood Tentsite
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: fog

Was it my tightly spaced running stitches? Or was it just an unseasonably mild night? I didn't care. It had been warm. That was all that mattered. Warm enough to sleep in t-shirt and shorts until I decided my fleece could no harm at 4:40.I loved the walk to Mount Washington: cloud, mist, clear, chilly, breezy, moody, in other words, mountain weather, well, maybe mild mountain weather. I was surprised to find Chef on Mt Pierce. Pleasantly surprised. I thought that the high hills must have called out to him, that the elements had beckoned, that the raw power, if not the obvious beauty of such a morning, had drawn him inexplicably onwards. But no, it had been the promise of phone reception. He would go back to the hut to do his chores and get his breakfast but at least he had had this moment of solitude. I hoped that it would be a memory that stuck.I headed on following the ridge as it snaked and climbed before me. The silence was comforting and I was sorry when it was fractured (as opposed to shattered) at around 9am by the idle conversation of some hikers heading south from Lakes of the Clouds Hut. They were not being ignorant but boy does noise carry out here, getting louder and louder despite the people still seeming so distant. The voices draw the eye, perhaps to a bright red jacket and then to the rhythmic clicking of hiking poles. As I said nothing ridiculous but it seems to fill the previous vacuum, to overpower it in a strangely unsympathetic manner.The left over corn bread at the hut was scrumptious and with a full belly and a pocketful of Hershey bars I set of into the cloud for Mt Washington. The top had been in and out of cloud but it had definately started to lean more towards the 'in cloud' end of the spectrum as the morning had worn on. The buildings and towers materialised magically from the mist before just as suddenly receding behind a thick veil of cloud. Mountain weather. In some ways a little disappointing, in others, exactly what these mountain are all about. The top of Mt Washington is meant to be cloudy. Then again its also meant to be windy, and although I can't say I tarried long (its a fairly boring place in the cloud) the wind only maxed out at a disappointingly mundane 3.6 mph during my brief stay. Maybe not completely typical after all.Onwards, ever onwards. This time to Madison Hut, a long boulder strewn plod through the mist. It wasn't unpleasant though. It was mild and it was peaceful. Once again it was the lack of noise that struck me most. A peace, that coupled with something like 80 yards of visibility, left me looking inwards rather than out. Life was good. Maybe I wouldn't be saying that if 5 gorgeous days hadn't preceded this but they had, so I did.Up over Madison, following the cairns as the trail continued to undulate over what I could not say. I just followed the blazes, taking my time, ensuring I could see both the trail ahead and the trail behind. It wasn't ideal conditions to be out on the hills alone - well that's not true, it wouldn't be ideal conditions if something happened (say if you took a tumble) but providing nothing untoward happens then there really isn't that much to beat it.Eventually the trail headed downhill, steeply downhill and I'd guess that I came out of the clouds at about 3,000ft. It had no doubt been a murky dull day down in the valley for most but a lonely, misty, journey through the inhospitable and barren beauty of another world for me.