Date: 2010-08-07
From: Nauman Tent sites

To: Mt. Washington
Miles today: 6.1

This is it...our last real day on the trail. The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and moderate winds. We started our day at 3800 feet and would climb to the summit of Mt. Washington which is 6288 ft. Between these 2 points we climbed Mt. Pierce (4312 ft) & Mt. Franklin (5004 ft). We skirted a couple of other mountains but our book doesn't list them because we didn't go over the summits. The hike to the Lake of the Clouds hut was enjoyable with just a few other hikers, great weather and fantastic views. The wind was a little gusty at times and I kept having to adjust the layers of clothing I was wearing for the changing temperatures (fleece on/off). Once we hit the hut however, everything changed.We had hoped to stop for a bowl of soup & warm up a little before taking on the last 1.6 miles to the summit of Washington. They had soup alright, but they also what seemed to be more than 100 people in the dinning room also getting soup for lunch. I stood in line for some not-so-good soup, we found a corner of a table to eat on and left as quickly as possible. Heading up the summit trail was a challenge with the majority of it being a rock hop. We stopped and looked back at the hut only to see a large heard of people coming towards us. All those soup-eaters were now joining us on the trail. Trail rules state that groups should be no larger than 8 people and I doubt that any of these groups were that large it was just that everyone left at the same time creating one large mass of humanity trying to climb the trail at once. So much for peace & tranquility in the mountains!We managed to make the summit only to find hundreds, if not THOUSNANDS of people swarming at the summit of Mt. Washington. People ride the cog railroad, drive up the auto road and climb other trails from Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. We couldn't even get to the summit sign to take a final picture!We made our way through the chaos to the snack bar for a lunch then managed to find half a bench to sit on to eat.We really didn't want to hike down the Tuckerman Revine trail down to the notch because it was really steep & rocky and my knees are tired. We had hoped to get a ride down in a car with some kind person but the people who own the "Auto Road" tell their customers not to pick anyone up at the top. The train was $45 one-way per person and the Auto Road shuttle was $29 per person for the 8 mile ride down the mountain. What a dilhema!!!We finally broke-down and bought the shuttle tickets. It was 4:15 and the lady that sold us the tickets told Hobo that the rate goes up to $45 at 4pm (probably because the train stops running then) but she would go ahead and give us the tickets for the $29 price. She did mention that the drivers do accept gratuity.We had to wait an hour for our shuttle to leave and once settled in our seats to head down the mountain, we discovered that our driver would be the same lady that sold us the tickets. It was a slow ride down as the car at the front was really riding its breaks. It is a 4000+ foot descent over the 8 miles and there are NO guard rails on any of the curves.Finally at the visitor center, Hobo quickly exited the van and headed for the building. I waited for the driver to get the step in place, got out, thanked her and started to follow Hobo up the sidewalk. The driver shouted to me, "remind your husband that I did give him the cheaper rate and saved you $30 on the ride down". The translation we took on this was, 'since I charged you the lower rate you should give me a good tip'. She was very rude about it. This had to have been our worst experience on the entire trip. What a way to end it.We each paid $2 for a 5 minute cold shower in the visitor center, repacked our bags and headed out on trail to find a stealth site where we could sleep for the night. Turned out that the campsite we had planned to go to was booked AND $14 per person. We had to be back before 8am to catch our bus.Our last night in paradise...Happy trails,ATeam