Date: 2018-08-06
From: Lake of the clouds

To: Osgood campground
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Mon Day 144 8/6 Mt. WashingtonI wake up at 4 but fall back asleep until 5, very unlike me. I must be tired. Like a big alarm went off, all six people are up at 5 a.m. getting ready to roll on. Everybody takes care of their business, packing up without any problems or conflicts in a very tight space, literally 8 feet by 8 feet. Due to the dank smell, we had to prop the door open to let the room air while we were sleeping during the night. We do see a mouse scuring around our area but nobody's food bag was bothered. We go upstairs to eat breakfast in the grand room. This is a very nice, large dining area. They can probably sleep 60 people comfortably in bunks, maybe even 80. The views are great from the dining hall. There are 10 or 12 through hikers, who came in after us, who chose work for stay so that they could sleep on the floor in the dining hall. With six of us dungon dwellers moving around the dining hall everybody starts getting up. Thru-hikers are an early bunch in general. We eat and head out. Thumper is hiking with us now. She's a bartender from Hawaii, who I later learned traveled to France for the Tour de France as well as is planning to go to France after she summits Katahdin. You never know who you're really talking to cuz everybody's on a level playing field here on the trail. She's been living in Hawaii for 12 years but seems to get around the globe pretty comfortably. She's a steady hiker and is a welcome addition to our group. We get up to the Mount Washington Summit around 7 a.m. It's clear as a bell for about 10 minutes and then the clouds roll in and it's cold and damp on the summit. We take some great summit photos, check out the Cog Rail train station and Stone House with stone walls maybe 6 or 8 feet thick. Once the clouds come in so strong there's not much to do on Mount Washington so we head out on the Gulfside Trail. We quickly walk below the cloud cover. There are great views in every direction. So the trail goes along the Cog rail. We really would like to see this cog train up close and personal. It is not to be. I do find coal along the trail from the Cog train. One run a day uses coal to generate Steam for power just like they used to. When they do use coal it spits out so much black smoke, it's an environmental nightmare. For some reason coal gets thrown out of the train as well. So they only do it once a day. We see three mountains and r wondering if they r the mountains were going to climb today. It's a beautiful sunny day and we hang out and take a couple breaks on a hike. One of the mountains is Mount Clay and then Mount Jefferson. After a fierce rock climb scramble we go by Mount Adams. Now just like the hike up was a tough 11 miles, today's hike is a 10.3 miles and it's all rock. Today we're hiking on big rocks, little rocks, lots of rocks, whole rocks fields, and sometimes the only thing you can see is rocks. We talked about how it's total focus every time you put your foot down so you don't take a tumble. There's a few slips and a few ouchs. It's very, very hard on your feet, and on your concentration. If you want to enjoy the view you try and stand still because otherwise you're going to get hurt. We're really hiking slower and it is more enjoyable. We are now in the Whites and this is nothing to rush through. So we take multiple little snack breaks because we know we have to keep eating to keep calories burning. We finally get to the Mount Madison Hut. It seems to take forever. We talked to one hiker who says yesterday one of their group fell and face-planted into the granite. The feller says he's trying to get the memory of what he looked like out of his head. This is a place of great beauty and opportunity. A misstep can be a tragic mistake. We take an hour or so at the Madison Hut. Our food plan is pretty good and we're really limiting the amount of food we are carrying. I have 1/8 of a stick of butter, half a pound of cheese on some Darn Good Bread. I stretch out on a wooden bench and take a nap. We're seeing a lot more day hikers and section hikers here in the Whites. It's really a hiking culture here. A woman gives us a four pack of different kinds of cookies and we each get a pack of cookies. We head up Mount Madison which is a steep all rocky ascent. You follow the carins as best you can but any way up is still up. It's only half a mile and it doesn't take that long. We hang out on top for about an hour. It's a very bright, piercing, burning sun today. We're really not used to that because we're not above tree line that often. We meet a number of other hikers up on the summit. I share a bunch of shuttle lists and we all talk to Wild Life, a southbound female hiker, about the trail ahead. It feels good to share information, to help somebody else's hike. After an hour, PT says let's roll on. We start the descent from Mount Madison. It's a full total rocky scramble. The sun is burning hot and we now know we're getting sunburned. The wind picks up to such an extent that it literally causes you to lose your balance. It's an added stressor to a very difficult downhill decent. There are multiple false peaks on the way down. What I mean is, you think you're going to stop going so severely, steeply downhill when you get to the next edge that you can see. Each time it just drops off again super steep. We each really take our own trail down. You read where you think your feet will go safely and follow your safe path. We finally make it into the tree line. The trail is very narrow and still very steep. Everyone is getting very tired. We've only gone 10 miles but it feels like 20. We finally get to Osgood tent site. There's only space for Thumper's tent and my tent. PT decides to hike on to find a stealth site. We agree to be on the trail by 6 to give us 4 hours to go 5 miles to our extraction point where Trail Angel, Kathy is going to pick us up at 10. I don't get to sleep until 8 p.m. Up past hiker midnight again.