Date: 2004-08-23
From: Pinkham Notch

To: Carter Notch Hut
Miles today: 5.9
Weather: scattered clouds

I am beginning my sixth month on the trail. I haven't metanyone who has started earlier than me in a longwhile. I tried to sleep late but the Barn was very cold.Outside the big hayloft window I could see thick fog.We are back to that, I thought. When I went downtown for breakfast, I bumped intoHotrock, Myst, and Bones. Hotrock stayed at theHiker's Paradise and was heading out today from Pinkham Notch. Myst and Bones were heading northon the Mahoosuc Trail. They were done with the Whites.It was good to see them again. I enjoyed the AYCE breakfast at The Grill with Myst andWarden. I'm sure Warden was bored listening to Mystand me exchange gossip about fellow hikers. Meanderthal, Warden, and I shared the hostel lastnight. We all hesitated to leave even when the suncame out and spiked the temps to the mid 70's.Meanderthal slipped out first. Then Warden took off.Guess I better go too. My knees were sore after the hike the day before. Iwas tempted to zero and rest but did not want to missout on the fine weather. I decided if I do theWildcats and Carters and still feel I need a zero day,I'd take one when I cross Gorham again in a couple ofdays. So around 1:30, I walked to the corner of the streetand thumbed for a ride. People don't pick up hikersaround here. Too many wary tourists I guess. For thefirst time, though, I managed to flag down an eighteenwheeler. Within minutes I was at Pinkham Notch. On the porch was Critter, Smack, Megabyte and Mouse.They all came from Osgood Campsite that morning. Icould see a storm brewing over Mt. Washington headingNortheast. So after weighing my pack on the hangingscale (35 lbs fully loaded with food) I headed for theWildcats. I was pretty tired and slow climbing up the WildcatRidge Trail. Some of the scrambling was a touch easierthan the Huntington Ravine Trail. At least it seemedthat way. Along the way I was overtaken by Smack andCritter. Then I overtook a mild mannered couple, Wifeand Beater. I also passed the Roman Noodles. Then weall saw Megabyte, Catepiller and Baby Blue. The bad weather has clumped everyonetogether. The problem is that there is only a hut anda small stealth camp in the next valley. And the stormwas working its way over the Wildcat Range. I had done the descent from Wildcat D in February(read ¢Warming Up¢ ¢ my second trail journals entry) and I found it significantly easierto negotiate when there is no snow. When I arrived at the hut, many hikers were alreadythere including Polar, Pilot and Hotrock. So I sought the caretaker, Neal, a young red head, and toldhim a mob was coming along with a storm. He alreadyknew this and said he could give us all a place to stay. We just had to come back to thekitchen building and we'll have a major WFS party. So here we are in the main building. There are atleast twelve thru-hikers here. We each took a 15minute shift cleaning the wood in the hut. Neal gave us kitchen privileges and the use of thepots. This is a much better experience than the Lakesof the Clouds Hut extravaganza. Due to the lack of solar power this year, lights wereout at 9:30. But I still managed to get some writingdone. I was very glad to be out of the storm for the night.