Date: 2016-08-20
From: Lake of the Clouds Hut

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: few clouds

I went to settle down for bed in the bunk room last night right after dinner. My initial plan was to wake up at 5 am so that I could get an early start on a big day and perhaps see a bit of the sunrise from the top of Mt Washington. I went to set the alarm on my phone but realized that in the small bunk room I'd likely wake up the other hikers so I decided to try and wake up without the alarm. The AT etiquette for campsites, shelters, and hostels is to be quiet when other hikers are laying down or sleeping and to be cautious when using your headlamp to not shine your light directly at another hiker. Most decent headlamps have a red light feature that allows you to see ok in the dark with a much less obtrusive amount of light. Unfortunately most of the hikers who stay at the huts in the White Mountains have never seen or heard of this AT etiquette. You'd think that anyone with a tiny bit of common sense could figure out that waving a spotlight around at night in a small dark room might disturb the other occupants, however my bunkmates last night including the geezers were absolutely clueless. I had already settled in, read a few pages of a book on my iPhone, and closed my eyes when 4 or 5 of these brain dead morons came in with headlamps blazing moving around and making more noise than a cabin full of rowdy 10 year olds at summer camp. On top of this the person directly across the aisle from me pulls out a flashlight that was big enough to be used as a billy club, and flips it on full blast before laying it down on the bed pointing in my direction. I contemplated whether or not I should say something but elected to use the best chunk of optimism that I could mentally mix up by thinking "Surely they are going to turn off their searchlights very soon."The next thing I remember (not counting the snoring episode that lasted several hours) was when the person above me climbs down without using the ladder and steps on my leg which of course woke me up. I pushed the button on my watch to see that it was 11:30 pm. Next, (and I'm definitely NOT making this up) this person turns his headlamp he's holding on and moves within 8 inches of my face with the light pointing directly at me!I really should have said something but I wasn't sure if this crazy moment was the result of complete stupidity or if perhaps this was a retaliatory move from the geezer who had tried to move in and take over my bottom bunk spot earlier in the day. "Is he threatening me... oh, I can see now that he's looking for the bunny slippers that he put under my bunk in the spot where MY stuff was before he shoved my stuff over into the corner."So, I hope you can see, that by this point I'd had it. In hindsight I would have been better off moving from the bunk room to go sleep on the floor of the dining room with the work for stay thru hikers. But instead I did something that I"m, uh, not so proud of, but I did it and you're here to read about my adventure so here goes... I decided, the heck with it, I AM going to set my alarm for 5 am. And then, (This is the part that's hard to write) I turned the volume ALL THE WAY UP. Ug.. What comes next wasn't my best self. When my alarm went off at 5 am I took my time, I mean REALLY took my time turning it off. Everyone else, all of the noisy light shiners and especially the jerk that shined his light right in my face were nice and awake... And I'll admit that this gave me somewhat of a thrill. I moved quickly to get outside and heading up Mt Washington before one of my roommates decided to joust with me. The early morning light creeping over the summit above me painted pastel colors on the lakes, the mountains, and the sky. The top of Mt Washington was fun. There was a small museum, gift shop, a place to get a breakfast sandwich, and a crowd gathering for the Mt Washington Summit bicycle race. I noticed that some thru hikers had stealth camped underneath the cog railway platform for the night. I hung around to see the first wave of finishers in the race come across the line and went over to get a photo with the race winner, Eneas Freyre. I took some photos with the summit sign and made a video for my youtube channel to help share the excitement of making it to the top of Mt Washington.Heading North, down the mountain, I was rewarded with a view of the steam powered cog railway making it¢s way up the mountain. My parents rode the cog railway up Mt Washington in 1944 on their honeymoon. I found out later that the steam powered train only makes one trip a day with all the other trains powered by diesel. I haven¢t verified this but another hiker told me that the diesel trains use 18 gallons of gas while the steam powered version uses an entire ton of coal to make it up to the top. The day was clear with a medium breeze as I made my way above treeline down Mt Washington, skirted around Mt Clay, another trail around the top of Mt Jefferson, over Adams Five and Mt Sam Adams, and finally past Mt Quincy Adams to arrive at Madison Springs Hut. They agreed to let me do ¢work for stay¢ and right now I¢m hanging out with Slope Turtle and Mr Tuxedo who are my work mates for the evening.