Date: 2006-08-25
From: White Mountains

To: White Mountains
Miles today: 0.0

One of the worst nights sleeps so far. I slept on a bench in the dining hall right by the path where people walked by to go to the bath room. Since Lake of the Clouds is the largest of all the huts people were walking by all night waking me up. After breakfast the whole crew did one last cleaning to pay for our stay then we were on our way. We only had 1.5 miles to go to the summit of Mt. Washington but it was straight up. Since I left after most of the people staying at the hut I passed most of them on the way up. While climbing I kept going farther and farther into the clouds and the visibility got worse. Suddenly I looked up and saw a giant building right in front of me through the clouds. I knew I was at the top. I walked around the historic top which is like a small city. It is where the worst weather ever recorded by man took place. Winds reaching 231 mph. It defiantly didn¢t seem like such a big deal when I got to the top and saw cars there. The place where people hang out with the visitor center and cafeteria reminded me of a mall. Inside you have no idea you are on top of a 6000 foot mountain. I stayed there for the longest time before deciding that I should get moving. Unlike the people who drove up there it would take me a while to get down. The other way to get to and from the summit is the Cog rail. It is a coal powered train engine that pushes a rail car up. The craziest thing about the Cog is that the entire time I have been in the White Mountains they have been talking about how important it is to leave no trace of being there and don¢t hurt the environment. However the most noticeable thing about the Cog trains are the giant clouds of jet black smoke they are constantly releasing into the air. Its kind of ironic how if it makes some one lots of money its ok to pollute. On my way down the mountain I followed the rail tracks for a while before I got the opportunity to partake in an age old hiker tradition of mooning the Cog. and being one who never likes to break tradition I did just that. When it came by I dropped my drawers and shot the moon. I didn¢t realize at the time that where I was is where they switch tracks to let the one coming up go by while the one going down pulls over. So I got three Cog's with one shot. I didn¢t feel that was good enough so I just kept walking with a full plumbers crack going. After that I was finishing the rest of the presidential range. When I arrived at the Madison hut my plan was to continue moving to the campsite 3 miles down hill. When I started talking to the croo at the hut I noticed that it was 3 beautiful ladies and 1 cool guy. I figured I didn¢t know when I would be able to experience staying in the huts again as a thru-hiker and decided to stay. Plus they were having chicken pot pie for dinner. I asked if there was any way to do my work tonight so I could get an early start in the morning. They asked if I would do a program that night on the AT and what it¢s like hiking the whole thing. I quickly agreed. I had secretly been hoping to do that for a while so after dinner they told everyone that if they wanted to listen to come up to the first table. When I started I gave them a brief history of the trail and all tried to cover all the typical questions people ask. At first only one table was listening. Next thing you know everyone in the hut was listening. People asked all sorts of questions. 42 and Rising Sun helped out before rising Sun had to go in the kitchen and was plates for his stay while I got to do what I do best, talk, for my stay. After realizing that I was now an expert on the trail one of the croo butted in to say it was 5 minutes till lights out. Time had flown by. A little over an hour and a half. I think I covered most of the basics about what it is like physically and mentally to hike the trail along with the culture of trail life. They gave me a round of applause as everyone got ready for bed. The funny thing is I think I enjoyed it as much if not more than they did.