Date: 2016-07-21
From: Madison Hut

To: Lake of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: fog

Today was going to be an easy day since I had only 8 miles and no big climbs for the day outside of the final 1500' ascent to the Mt Washington summit. The cru got us up just after 5 am to prepare for the guests. At that point, work for stays wait until breakfast is over to eat and complete our morning task. Breakfast was coffee, pancakes, eggs, oatmeal and 1 piece of bacon. Thru hikers have high appetites and normally devour any food that they are offered, which we did. After breakfast I cleaned the oatmeal pot and was free to go. The AT in the Presidentials doesn't go up and over every peak (which was the case in Maine, if there was a summit to climb, we went over it) and skirted along the side of Mt Adams, Jefferson and Clay until it turns to go up and over Mt Washington. Yesterday, Washington was in a cloud, today was clear and glorious. The entire section of trail I was on was in the alpine zone above tree line with no growth but a few bushes and krummholz here and there along with some ground cover eeking out an existence here and there. With the ground cover were clusters of tiny white, yellow and green flowers no more than 1/2 inch from the ground. I had been seeing them since sometime in Maine and they always filled my heart with joy. In the breeze, they would quiver as if to say hello as I walked past. They grew everywhere in the crevices in the rocks and I made a point not to step on the as I walked. The trail meets up with the cog railway, a train that goes up and down to the summit with tourists, and turns up along the side of the rail to the Washington summit. It's confusing though because the cairns that we were following continue under the cog rail and around to the Westside Trail. At the summit I stopped first in the gift shop to buy a green pen with Mt Washington State Park etched into it, and for lunch of bean chili, potato chips and a coke followed by a Hersey almond bar. I lingered there for a while and then headed down towards the Lake of the Clouds hut. Approaching the trail junction of the Westside Trail and the AT that I was on was Mickey and Minnie. Mickey was animated and steaming, and barking at Minnie. He stormed away, up the trail I had just come down. I stopped next to Minnie and asked her if she was ok. She nodded yes, but I could see she was close to tears. They had mistakenly hiked the Westside Trail and had missed a segment of the AT. Mickey was off to complete that segment. I left her and headed down to the hut. Got there around 3:30 and asked for another work for stay. Again, I was first to ask and got it. My job this time would be to do dishes after dinner, which worked out great. Hiking over the rocks during the past days I had twisted my right ankle and it had been acting up all day. I don't trust it now since a wrong step omit will buckle my right leg. Dinner was bean burrito with no burrito, salad, fresh rolls, and a few bowls of beef barley soup. Sometime before dinner, Mickey and Minnie showed up looking more like there smiling happy selves. Waiting for dinner I sat next to a retired army Sobo with an extremely small and light pack. We talked gear and about his approach to the hike. He had no stove but very calorie dense food. He allocated food by 25 mile segments alloying some number of calories per 25-30 mile segment. He had previously hiked the PCT and use a Katabatic Helious 40 on that trip. He recommended it to me. It was also one of the packs that I had bee looking at and was made out of cuben fiber. The not popular packs from what I could see on the AT, were ULAs, Zpacks, and Osprey, with the envy of the trail the Hyperlite cuben fiber pack. I decided to buy one of the Katabatic packs which looked like the Hyperlite except that it has a breathable back panel that rests against your back and replace my 20 year old Gregory Palasades pack. Lights out at 9:30 and slept well again until 4 am.