Date: 2017-08-26
From: Mizpah Hut Tentsite

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: few clouds

Today is the the day I've been waiting for - the climb over Mount Washington.  It started as a fun and magnificent day and ended as a very frustrating day. We set off a little earlier than usual hoping for a fair weather day. Over the last week or so we've heard stories from the south bounders about crossing in foggy mists and enduring gale force winds - something that's pretty common on Washington, even in the middle of summer.  The forecast for us was clear skies and winds in the 25 to 30 mile per hour range.As we approached Mount Eisenhower Foggy's children (adult children) met us on the trail and continued the hike up to Washington.  Their energy helped power us up the mountain and we made it right on schedule.  Thanks to both Emma and Tyler for helping us summit the big one!It's very difficult to manage your schedule on the trail - you take things one day at a time and try to keep moving forward.  As it turned out we hit the top of Washington a little after noon on a Saturday. suffice to say it was crowded.  We waited in a line of about 30-40 people for our pictures at the summit sign and laughed about how we walked all the way up for our picture while most people rode the cog railway to the top or drove up in their cars.  To each his own - I guess if you get there then you deserve a picture at the summit sign, regardless.We had lunch and visited awhile and then Foggy had to say goodbye to Emma and Tyler. The hike down was just as steep and rocky as they way up and it turned into a grueling day for.  Our goal was to get down to Madison Spring Hut with the hope that we could sleep on the floor that night.  Tenting sites are a little sparse and we weren't sure what other options we had.When we finally arrived at the Hut, much later than we hoped due to the tough terrain, the work for stay options were taken.  We asked about sleeping on the floor and the hut manager was quick to say no. She said we would have to go down to the tent site.  The tent site was 0.6 miles down a steep rock scramble to a site with pretty poor conditions for setting up a tent and earlier in the day other hikers had warned us off of making the climb down. The site was off trail so it meant we would have to make the climb back up the next morning just to get back to the hut - an investment of 1.2 miles of steep and tough rock climbs.We tried a second time with the hut manager but apparently she was a finalist for employee of the month and took a hard line with us - the rules are what they are and it would be best for us to move on.  By then it was almost dark so we resigned ourselves to the 1.2 mile misery of a long steep round trip climb.  On the way down we met two other hikers climbing back up saying they too had been sent away but found nothing at the tent site.  We continued down but eventually we were passed by three young people in military camouflage uniforms who said they had climbed back up to catch the sunset and affirmed that there wasn't much room at the bottom. We had seen a bunch of uniformed soldiers at the top of Washington and the best guess was that the reservists were out for a weekend of training and they were scattered across several tent sites in the area.  Foggy and I looked at each for a while and decided to go back up for a final try.  We weren't sure what we'd do if we got turned down again, but the third time was a charm and the hut manager finally agreed to let us sleep on the hut floor.  We were grateful for that but frustrated with a very tiring end to a magnificent day crossing one of the highlights of the Trail. We still have several climbs ahead but the last big climb, until Mount Katahdin at the end, is behind us. Hooray for that!