Date: 2008-07-23
From: Lake of the Clouds Hut NH

To: Osgood Tent Site NH
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: fog

Day 157 Wednesday July 23 ¢ Osgood Tent Site NH - Miles Today: 10.0 Total Miles: 1852.4We woke up before 5:00, looked out the dining room windows and realized we could see the lights of the town in the valley and decided to bolt for Mt. Washington. No rain. No fog. Wow.   It was amazing how quickly we got out the door. I think we were hiking a little bit after 5:00. It was not long after starting our hike that we had to stop to put on our hat, gloves and rain gear for warmth. We figured as we climbed higher, it would only get colder and sure enough, it did. The clear skies that we saw from the dining room windows had turned to fog by the time we hit the trail. But the fog lifted a bit as we continued our hike towards the summit of Mt. Washington and could see some of the towers on it¢s peak along with the pink hues of the sun trying to get through the fog and clouds. Very pretty. We heard the cog train whistle, as we did yesterday, and could see the white steam and black smoke coming from the train as it made its way up the mountain.There is a tradition amongst AT thru-hikers ¢ they moon the cog train. Only in recent years have officials buckled down and started fining the offenders. Rest assured we did not follow tradition. Why? Was it because we are star citizens or was it because we did not pass the path of the cog train? Hmmm, the mystery remains. When we got to the summit at 6:15, we were engulfed in fog and had no views. We huddled alongside the building for breakfast and waited to see if the fog would lift. We soon realized that it was most likely not going to lift and since we still had 8 more miles above tree line today, we decided to head on and just enjoy whatever views were given to us today. At the summit, we swapped picture taking responsibilities with our fellow hikers, Rethinker and Hometown. Unfortunately, this is probably the last time we will see Rethinker and Hometown, as they push on faster than us. We really enjoyed Rethinker's company and Hometown's humor. Hometown has a mythical girlfriend hiking with him called Big Agnes. Big Agnes is actually the name brand of his seeping pad, but he always has some story about Big Agnes and how things were during the night. He says he¢s going to get some lingerie for Big Agnes in Gorham. At first we weren't sure what the heck he was talking about, but once we figured it out, it was quite funny. As we headed towards Madison Springs Hut, we had a little stretch of rocks laid out flat - almost like a little paved walkway with yellowish-green lichen on it. We chuckled that it was the yellow brick road and we surely must be Dorothy and Toto. If only all of the Whites were this easy! Not really sure why the trail crew went to this degree of trail maintenance, but it was sweet. We stopped at the hut for the all you can eat leftovers for $2 each. A big thanks to Rethinker who paid for all of us, including Segue and Floyd who had not even arrived yet! We helped ourselves to cold scrambled eggs, pineapple, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, apple juice and coffee. We passed on the cold oatmeal and bread. Grasshopper had 2 platefuls and Brakeman had 3 platefuls. We didn't eat too much for the remainder of the day until dinner as a result of our gorging. We have this feeling that we might be the only hikers who actually gain weight in the Whites despite the technical difficulty and required exertion.Speaking of the difficulty of the Whites, we're not finding the miles all that difficult.   The inclines and declines are not horrible. They are definitely steeper and slow going, but they are doable. However we're feeling the impact of the mountains on our knees. They have taken a beating for sure. They ache at the end of the day and they hurt going downhill. Everybody's talking about their knees - the young kids as well as the old folks. We also remember reading about knee issues in journals of hikers in previous years.   It's just a fact of life in the Whites. The trail today was basically 99% rocks. It was very slow going. At times we averaged 1 mile per hour and sometimes even slower, as one particular mile took us 1.25 hours. There were just tons and tons of boulders, that required a lot of slow boulder scrambling and hopping. After leaving Madison Springs Hut, things got more challenging as the weather turned bad. To hamper our efforts of crossing over the mountains, we had rain, which of course brought wet slippery rocks, and 20 mph winds with gusts up to 60+ mph. The gusts were strong enough to knock us off balance at times. The additional challenge was the mixture of fog and rain that took away our depth perception and severely limited our visibility ¢ not a good thing when you are rock scrambling. Eyeglasses were not the best item to be wearing in these conditions. It was interesting to note that the right lens of our glasses were useless as the bad weather was coming from that direction, leaving just the left lens to give us a little visibility. Grasshopper hiked for about a mile or so without her glasses as she could actually see more clearly with better depth perception without them. Unbelievable, as her vision is really bad. Due to the rain and fog we struggled at times to see where the trail headed. We hollered to each other over the howling wind to ask if the next cairn had been spotted. The wind would carry away our voices and we would have to holler again with the directions to head left or head right. It was quite challenging, but comical, fun and exhilarating. We now understand how some hikers get lost on mountains in whiteout conditions. We were never in any serious danger but we definitely had to pay attention to where we were going. After Madison Springs Hut, we stopped using our hiking poles due to the miles of rock scrambling. The gaps in the wet rocks and the scrambles made it hard to use them. It was easier to tuck them away in our pack and use our hands to give us extra support and leverage.Although today¢s total elevation gain, per Upload & Stitches¢ 2006 AT journal, was only 3,670 feet, the miles came much slower than yesterday. We worked for every step today.Brakeman fell today! I think the score may now be 8-12. Perhaps there will be a race to the end! The fall was a nasty fall. He fell on his right side, hurting his arm a bit. He had a horrible time standing back up with his pack pushing him down into the rocks, but he eventually managed to get up and start hiking again. He said the only thing that got hurt really bad was his pride. We have had rain every day in the Whites.   Today the rain arrived while we were on Mt. Madison. It rained or sprinkled on and off all afternoon. It's 5:30. We're in our tent, settled in for the night, and it's starting to rain again. Our feet have been wet now for 4 days. We've not been able to take our little sponge baths and freshen up because either the weather's bad or we're in a hut. We've been living in our hiking shirts, day and night, for a few days because of the huts. I think by the time we hit Gorham we'll be smellier and more physically beat up than we have been on this entire trip. Our rain jackets stink from being constantly wet. Our backpacks smell a bit; as of course do our socks, shoes and shirts. I guess that doesn't leave anything that doesn't smell. It would have been easier to say that everything smells.   Although it is only 5:35, it's about time for bed. We're exhausted from not sleeping well in the huts. We have another 9 hour hike tomorrow, although it's only about 10 miles. We know we're going to take a beating. Goodnight at 5:35 from the Whites, which are beating us up, but will not prevail overall.