Date: 2013-09-12
From: Mt Webster Tenting

To: Lake of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today's miles for Miles: 7.9Total miles for Miles: 1075.2------------------------------Today's miles for Side: 0Total miles for Side: 705.2----------------------------- It stormed until after midnight. Had to keep checking to make sure things were staying dry because it was quite gusty also. My tent site wasn't very level so I kept sliding to one side.        Woke about 5:30 this morning. It had been somewhat windy for the rest of the night so I wanted to get going early while the tent was mostly dry. I got almost packed up and the rumbling started. Got on the trail and it wasn't long until the rain started. I was wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt so I got good and wet. Finally I put on my windbreaker to at least keep me from getting too cold. Had a lot of climbing to do. Maybe I didn't make it as far as I thought last night. The rain added tremendously to the difficulty. There were streams running down the rocks. Dangerous. I did take one butt slide on a rock outcropping. Lucky to not have gotten hurt.Finally got to a sign that said another 2.9 miles to the hut I was trying to get to last night. Anyone who hikes knows 2.9 miles isn't all that far but here in the Whites, it can seem never ending. And it did. Finally saw a backpacker ahead of me and realized it was High Tide and Blockade Runner. I was sure they would have made the shelter last night but they got stuck out in the storm too. Hiked in their general vicinity to the hut. I was drenched. My boots had so much water in them and my socks were more than drenched. Now I've got some advice here. Lesson One: Listen to your husband. Lesson Two: Listen to your husband. Lesson Three: Listen to your husband. When I resupplied yesterday I had too much food and I carried it all with me. Big mistake. I couldn't get up the hills yesterday afternoon. There were huge rock climbs and the extra weight was throwing me off balance. I was really talking to myself. So when I got to the hut, I laid out all my extra food and then some. High Tide, Blockade Runner and Enoch helped to take some off my hands. Then I went and reserved to stay at the next hut. I needed to get myself dry and eat a lot without carrying it. Side's message to me had been just that. Stay at some huts so you can carry less food and instead I carried more food. Dumb. But lesson learned. The hike over to the next hut was only 4.7 miles but it was rocky and took a very long time. The sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the hike. We were concerned about the weather turning bad because it was clouding up and the weather can change in no time up here. I was thrilled when we got to the hut around 3:00. At 4:30, the skies opened up and it poured like crazy. Hikers were coming in soaked and dripping. Dinner was at 6:00. Soup, salad, homemade bread, steak, mashed potatoes, peas and chocolate cake. I ate so much trying to take in calories. I'll sleep well tonite. Tomorrow at breakfast we'll get the forecast and find out if we can hike to the top of Mt Washington, a very unpredictable weather area. It's an eight mile hike up and back down the other side. Stay tuned. Already have reservations to stay at the next hut. The area from Mitzpah Hut past Lake of the Clouds Hut to Madison Spring Hut is all above treeline so you can't camp out there. Today hiked Mt Jackson, Mt Pierce, Mt Eisenhower, Mt Franklin and Mt Monroe.