Date: 2008-09-08
To: Icy Madison Hut
Miles today: 0.0

      We decided to day hike up to Madison hut the next morning, by way of the Air Line trail (still with our full packs). I don¢t think we encountered another person the entire way up! Once in the alpine zone, the air got noticeably colder, so we layered on our warm clothing. We scrambled over the rocks and eventually saw the hut in the distance. We looked forward to a nice, warm bowl of soup and some rest.       The area around the hut was extremely rocky and not easy to walk on, and the thought crossed my mind that it was not a welcoming or inviting path to a home. We saw a girl and her mother reading books at one of the tables by the window, opened the door, and went inside. No one spoke a word to us! We took a look at the bunkrooms to see if anything had changed since we had last been there, and then headed to the dining room. A croo member told us we could have an apple. I saw a loaf of bread and teabags that we could help ourselves to for $2 each, but no one offered us any soup. The hut itself was freezing cold inside. I didn¢t take off any of my articles of clothing. Most of the croo members remained in the kitchen, and I noticed they were heating up soup for themselves. Erik tried to strike up conversation about the weather and the location of the tent sites we originally planned to stay at, but the answers returned to him were terse and snappy. We leafed through the recent trail registry and saw the clever cartoons drawn by Bus Driver and Butters, then decided it was time to take our leave. We debated whether or not we should climb the 1000 feet to the summit of Mt. Madison, but declined, feeling instead like throwing ourselves over the cliff after the encounters we had just experienced!      Heading down the mountain, we saw a couple who were headed to the Perch shelter for the night. The man wanted to know where we stayed the night before, and I told him that we were just doing a day hike. He seemed a bit perplexed and stared at us at we headed down, and then I realized that he had seen Erik¢s sleeping pad and our big packs, and was probably wondering why we were carrying all of this on a day hike!      A friendly kid in jeans soon overtook us and I asked him where he was coming from. He said he worked at Madison hut and was going home for his three day break. I was astounded. Did we see this kid at the hut while we were there? I didn¢t recognize him at all, and couldn¢t believe the disparity between his attitude and those of the people in the hut. Maybe he was so happy because he was free of that environment!      Towards the bottom of the Valley Way trail, we decided to take a side trail near the river and waterfalls. We stopped to soak our feet in the icy water. We had about a half an hour left and I was getting tired. Erik stopped to look at another waterfall and I told him, ¢I¢m sick of waterfalls!¢ The scenery was getting to be a bit too monotonous for me.         We walked on the road for a small section to get back to our car and were asked by a college-aged kid in a car if we had seen his friends. They had all headed up the mountain that morning with the goal of crossing all of the peaks in the Presidential Range, but this one had turned back because he was too cold and had not brought warmer clothing. Erik offered him some water and a power bar, but he said he was all set. It must have been an extremely long day in the car for him.      Erik was ready to head home. I was ambivalent. I felt that I should stay out here longer, but without a real plan, and without a shelter for Erik, I agreed to go. On our way home, we stopped at the Muddy Moose for dinner in North Conway. I was disappointed not to have reached a solid conclusion on whether or not to undertake this huge journey. I was easily influenced by the people I talked with. If they were enthusiastic, I felt myself wanting to take it on. If they were dissuasive, I thought it would be more sane to stick with shorter trips. When I was walking on Crawford Path, toward Lakes of the Clouds, I felt no impulse, no need or compulsion to hike this particular trail. I felt it was just a random path and that there were many other trails to enjoy. Why follow this one? I also thought that it was better to allow the body to heal after abusing it, instead of pounding it day after day, and not allowing it to recover. On the first day of this trip, both of my pinky toenails became bruised and I could see that my skin wasn¢t reacting well to the shoulder straps of my pack.         I decided to think about it some more at home.