Date: 2005-09-01
From: "A Close Call" As Updated By Touk

To: Over the Madison Ridge in the middle of Katrina
Miles today: 0.0

Well.. Touk here to give account of the day we thru hikers all have... most regret... and none forget..most really don't want to, just for story swapping moments.. Those "survival by the slimmest chance Ican'tbelieveI'maliveohboythatwasdumb" days..Actually in reality everybody and their brother has these days without any selection whatsoever in race, creed, breed, tweed, or choices of extreme exercise...   This update is of... "Team group squads hike (or whatever they called that) over the Madison ridge in the middle of Katrina".Or more simply and fondly..katrina. The day started early with a jump to pack things up and be out of Madison huts dining room before breakfast happened.. The peek out the window only told us that the fog was fairly heavy thus...low visability and the rocks were going to be wet and annoying.......other news: the world is round.Mt. Washington sends weather reports to each hut every morning to ensure hiking safety along the ridge. Washington has very heavy tourism.. Thru hikers are in huge minority and stick out in a "tourist attraction" sort of way...like seeing a moose.. "That is called a thru hiker kids".. wow..ooh ahh..The weather report included something along the lines of... sustained 20mph winds, gusts of 45-50mph. scattered showers..(all this as of 6:30am) Hurricanes make for some fun hiking. OK, have a nice hike! That was the read aloud translation.....No big whup... We were thinking 8 miles till Pinkham Notch and food..only a mile and change till we hit below treeline. Bummer we didn't get more sleep...Well I hiked out after Captain Bacardi, Kokomo, Quicksilver, Thrifty and Mouth..quickly passing all but Mouth and Thrifty on the steep clamper out of Madison Notch.. Every footstep planned in the jagged mess of boulders was risky even with poles on the slick black lichen covered granite..visually just being able to make out the next cairn I quickly realized the wind and wet rocks were exponentially more hazardous on the ridge then the climb up. No fear.. I've hiked from Georgia! ..."Come wind or high water, the trail tough and terrifying, Touk won't be conquored".. P.S..Once any sort of trail ego creeps up I am immediately greatly trail humbled..Two hours later.. still on the ridge above tree line and I was crawling from cairn to cairn inch by slow adrenaline pumped inch, completely drenched from inside out in cold sweat and the bitter wet wind... The wind was picking my hands and feet up and slamming them into rocks and visibility was getting even worse..everything was getting worse EXCEPT my mood.. Yeehaw! Its FUN to crawl through a class 3 tropical storm coming down off the ridge from MT.WASHINGTON. HOME of the wOrSt weather on earth.Its good to try to look on the bright side of things when your up to your neck after making a dumb decision.. AKA..Why had I gone that far?..why hike in the first place when cars were invented? I hoped Mouth and Thrifty made it to treeline, and.. hoped others turned around and headed back already.. After yelling this all out at top lung capacity into the wind during a small break between gusts.. still quite a freight train strength wind at that, so I was yelling into a rock face actually... Two heads popped up from behind a boulder 15 ft. ahead. Thrifty and Mouth heard me ranting and raving and invited me in.. Apparently.. The ridgeline had funneled MOST of the wind over the next decent and where it had been hard to go anywhere before.. it was impossible to crawl ten feet now.. We sat shivering violently talking about stupid music, pizza, death, dying and the DNA pool...and what to do before hypothermia set in... which would be soon. Quicksilver inched up and taking one look at us gave a double thumbs up with a grin and crawled past. 2 ft later all I saw were boots and pack go flying out of sight and we looked at each other in shock and then saw and arm stick up above a rock and give a thumbs up.. Since we figured treeline was less then .2 away.. our saving grace.Ten minutes later all three of us were crab crawling over the ridge one rock at a time.. 1 hour later we were in alpine zone.. yesss.. safe at last.Taking off running/stumbling we quickly found out that the streams and flows off the mountain were downright angry rushing waterfalls and once again Katrina had us focusing on making it out alive during each crossing. At around 3pm we made it to the visitor center and melted all over the floor... I've rarely ever been that exhausted after a days hike or had that many near death adrenaline rushes ever..The term "Dumber then a bag of hammers" applies well... Stay in bed if its a hurricane out! Its a great excuse. The day ended wonderfully as Gypsy, Tink, CuppaJoe and Snowman arrived in safely several hours later and Tink (who weighs less then me and had been run through the mill) reunited with a schoolmate and friend who worked there. Kat ended up being a trail angel who let us stay at her house to rest and put ourselves back together with food, bath, tv, and laundry.... ahh... Its days like these I think "Katahdin had BETTER have a good view!"   Still going strong ~Touk