Date: 2011-08-02
From: Lakes of the Clouds Hut

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 7.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Gorgeous early hike up to Mt Washington, chatting with boomer after breakfast, part sun and clouds on the summit, the train comes up, not too difficult to get up there, passing some of the slow folks on the rocks, hot chocolate and a snack in the cafe, say goodbye to Boomer, group photo at the sign, then down to cross the railroad tracks, skipping on the rocks past the slower hikers, then clouds and rain set in, stopping to wait because not easy to follow the treadway, put on pack covers, not too much rain as yet, put on rain coat, pants getting wet, it rains, it blows, shoes wet, rocks slippery, a few slides but nothing serious, rumours of Julie with a broken finger, along she comes and it's indeed broken, she looks miserable, broken pole which she throws away in disgust, and starts crying from the pain. I retrieve and later adjust so it can still be used without the bottom part, which breaks when I try to straighten, she gets a codeine from Sarah to help with the pain, which seems really bad, she's crying from it, Sarah wraps it up using the next finger as a splint, the terrain is not easy with slippery rocks, I help her up a couple of difficult spots where ya gotta scramble and use your hands.We come down a steep but short descent, DH is waiting at the bottom in a small Col to see how everyone is doing, we sit and have a bite and wait for Julie, plus the other three we can see coming down the descent just behind. We get cold quickly, try to wait but decide to take off to stay warm, it starts to thunder and then the rain really comes down for a bit, luckily all rain gear is on so not too wet, except for shoes which are soaked. Haven't seen Julie in a while, we come to a junction which, if memory serves, was 2.2 miles out (the miles seem much longer in the whites!), it's totally confusing, the AT seems to go straight ahead, and the sign points to the hut, but as soon as you start there's another trail off the left marked also with rock cairns with white rocks on top, which one is the AT??I'm cursing AMC, why can't they put white blazes on the trail like everyone else does? Another hiker comes along and also thinks we are in the right direction, I'm worried about Julie getting lost here on her own, rightly so since this spot is apparently where she did get lost a bit later, and I feel really bad about not waiting, we were both tired and wet and getting cold however, and DH also shoulda waited.On we go to the next sign, only .9 left and we spot Nancy coming down the rocks to the hut as well, that's a releif to know we're on the right track. The hut is crowded and our boots and socks smell god awful when we take them off, there's nothing like the smell of wet boots and socks. The hut is nice inside, they've designed it so the bunks all fit and a lot are squeezed into a small space, it makes it very tight though. One nice feature is that the ladders to the upper bunks are at an angle and not right on the bunks themselves, instead attached to the walls so much easier to climb down.We hang around and drink some wine waiting for the rest of the group to arrive and dinner to start. The hut seems teeming with bodies, there's a group of youth who were headed to a shelter, they were convinced to stay by the hut crew because of the dangerous weather, there must be 15 of them spread out along the walls. It's too cold and miserable to be outside so we all gotta sit around inside the hut, packed in like sardines.Ed, Amanda and Debbie arrive, no Julie, now everyone is very worried, she was ahead of them and they saw her coming up a bit of a rise before disappearing, Ed was sure it was the .9 mile sign post but later knowledge revealed it was actually further out, which Elena had wisely insisted must be where she had gotten lost.DH tries to harangue to hut crew into sending out a search party, they seem reluctant though since no one knows where she is and there are a myriad of trails, she could be anywhere.We have dinner with an anxious out the window, towards the end I see 2 headlamps approaching outa the gloom and go running out to see, they don't seem to be coming from the right direction however, and turn out to be 2 thru-hikers heading off into the night, bummer.We stay up until about 9:30 and still no sign of Julie, the guys in the hut can't seem to reach the EMS guy who went out to bring Julie back either, they are masters of spin and explain how this is a good thing!