Date: 2006-07-29
From: Mt Washington(Gorham)

To: Gorham
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: 0

We just had time to finish up with breakfast when Jo Ann drove up at 7:30 and we left shortly after. We drove to Pinkham Notch Center where Jo Ann would leave her car and we would take the shuttle to Mt. Washington. Jo Ann¢s plans to stay at Madison Hut, and hike back to her car. It was clear till we got to the top, then it was only by luck that we were able to find the first blaze on the trail. The fog was thick and the winds were gusting up to 70mph. It was slow going and I didn¢t feel good about the time being 10 o¢clock. That is not a good sign, since we have 13 miles to go to Pinkham Notch. Poor Jo Ann had a hard time keeping up so she told us not to worry about waiting for her and for us to keep going. We felt confident that she would make it to Madison Hut since we got below the fog and it started to clear a little so we moved on. We did get a good laugh on Jo Ann because she was hard to see as she came down the mountain with her white Frog Togs on. We ascended to Mt. Adams in good time at an elevation of 5,500ft, and then down to Madison Hut for a very short break. The ascent to Mt. Madison at 5,363ft, was intimidating and looked like it would take longer than it did to ascend. It only took us 15 minutes, and as we approached the top, the winds were like hurricane force with gust at about 75 to 80mph. You could stand straight up without your trekking poles and be blown up the mountain. I tried it and almost got my face planted. It was after 2pm when we took a few pictures and started our descent down Madison and being chased by some awful looking black clouds so we picked up the pace a little. We weren¢t paying close attention to the blazes on the rocks as we descended down into a tree line, and then I was seeing some blue blazes which set off an alarm in my head. We were not on the right trail and had done at least a mile when we turned back and headed up again. At this point I was so irate I wanted to yell at Two Step for leading us down the wrong path but realized that I was as much to blame because I didn¢t say something earlier when I didn¢t see any white blazes. A volley of four letter words started spewing from my mouth when Two Step yelled to me to save my energy for the hike back up the mountain. I quickly realized he was right as we started back up the steep incline. We got back to a crossing where there were some hikers with a better map of the trails and figured we had to climb about 100ft from the summit of Madison before we could get back on track. Two Step was in front as we started the rock climb again and at this point I was so sore that I couldn¢t even think of being mad. As I was climbing, I also figured we would get into Pinkham Notch much later than anticipated. Lucky for us the weather cleared to give us some beautiful views. We had a great view of the road leading up to the summit of Mt, Washington. My feet were taking an awful pounding once again. We got to a sign that said, Osgood Tent sites which meant we still had 4.8 miles to Pinkham Notch and it is already 6:30. It was a good thing that the both of us remembered to pack our headlamps just in case we hike in the dark. At this point I was to tired to mad and it certainly would get us there any faster. It got and I was able to do without my headlamp because my night vision was pretty good and the terrain wasn¢t bad. I called out to Two Step a few times because I couldn¢t see the light to his lamp anymore. He was in a hurry to get this hike over with as bad as me. Finally, we saw some lights that meant we were very close to the end of this exhausting hike. We got in the center at 9:30 and Two Step wasted no time in calling Adam at Hikers Paradise for the ride back to our room. As we were resting, our young friend Mud Diver came in and asked if come to the hostel with us if there was still room. It was great to see Adam pull up to get us, it meant it was only a matter of time before we would be in the comfort of our room with a shower, food, and the Bed!!! We ate by 10, showered by 11, then, LIGHTS OUT!!!!!!!. It has been a very interesting 15 mile day, and not one I would care to repeat.