Date: 2015-06-11
From: Crawford Gap

To: Madison Hut
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: broken clouds

Today, Deadline, LittleDebbie, LunchBox, and I started at a little, private campground a few miles south of the trail. The hitch back to the trail seemed daunting. I was wrong.LittleDebbie and Deadline championed the effort. After some absolutely hilarious dancing and tomfoolery, a lady stopped to give us a ride. Unfortunately, the kind lady only had room for two. Deadline and LittleDebbie encouraged LunchBox and I to take the ride and they would meet us at the trail.LunchBox and I got to the trail in no time at all. The lady who dropped us off had overshot the trail by a tiny bit, so we were all too happy to walk the short distance back to the trail. In the 5 minutes that it took to walk to the trail, a Subaru pulled up. Wouldn't you know it, LittleDebbie and Deadline got out of that car and joined us. Record time for two hitches!! The first climb of the day was purported to be the worst on the trail, according to Legion. I don't know about it be on the "worst", but the climbs up Mt Webster and Mt Jackson were tough to start the day.Right at the beginning of my hike today, I took a spill. Nothing unusual, pretty much like everyday. The problem was that when I stumbled forward and fell, I jammed my finger right into a log. Afterwards, I was confident that I had cracked my finger bone.The trail passed many scenic overlooks and revealed incredible views. The winds were building and giving constant reminders of the large summit to come--Mt Washington. From the windy overlooks, the path dove back into the sheltered pines and forest. A lot of the ridge around here was alpine bogs. Some wooden planks were laid to aid in walking through the deep, muddy sections.Early in the afternoon, the route took us passed Mizpah Hut. It was an interesting hut, as all huts are. The head staff was prepping his dinner for the visitors that would be coming today. There was baked goods, coffee, soup, and lemonade for sale.Deadline and LittleDebbie took a break to enjoy the hut (and its snacks). I felt ansy about the weather and having enough time to climb Mt Washington. That was because the fair weather window for submitting Mt Washington can be tight and one always has to be mindful of it. I walked on to get a head start on getting up said mountain.Many day hikers and overnighters were on the trail today. So many of them were very interested in my hike and asked lots of questions. The most flattering were a group of day hikers that were really excited to meet some thru-hikers. They actually used the term "heroes" to describe us. Walking on, the winds gusted harder and harder. There was one last stop along the trail before we committed to climbing Washington. It was here that we would have to decide if the weather was good enough.The shelter was called Lake in the Clouds Hut. We all stopped in to check the weather and to get some more water. The staff was super-friendly again!!! Margaret and a couple of her co-workers fed us lasagna and stuffed shells. It was incredible. They asked us to "help" them by eating as much as possible. As if that wasn't enough, they brought out a whole chocolate sheet cake. Mmmmm!!As we were leaving the hut, we met naturist who we had run into a short while back. He was setting up time-elapse cameras to study the alpine flowers on the mountain. He was an interesting fellow.We climbed up Mt Washington. During the climb, the weather observatory and visitor center stayed in view. It was a fairly quick hike, but the winds got stronger and stronger. The sustained winds were at 60 mph and gusting to 78 mph. Eventually, we created over the large Boulder fields and discovered that there were many folks up there.It was easy to forget that the cog railroad and a car-accessible road led up to the top. The first noticeable things were the towers and buildings. My favorite building was a stone hut that was built in the 1850's for visitors to stay at! My second favorite thing was the cafeteria with natural-casing hotdogs!! We had lucked out and got there just before closing. We didn't linger too long on the summit. There was still quite a long ways to go before we could call it a day. Immediately below the summit, we crossed and paralleled the cog railway. As with AT tradition, we mooned the railway. Of course, there was no train because it was so late in the day. The winds got stronger and stronger.   It actually made it difficult to walk. If one was walking perpendicular to the wind, it literally blew you off of the trail. When you faced into the wind, it actually would stop you in your tracks. This led to an impossibly slow pace of 1.5 mph. The path turned into rock hopping through many serious boulder fields. This also equated to a slow pace. The winds were so bad that LittleDebbie leaned out on a rock and achieved a ridiculous angle as the wind propped him up. LunchBox was blown around so much that he snapped his hiking pole.Late in the day, we finally got into Madison Hut. It was a true oasis. The winds kept peaking and ominous clouds rolled in. If they couldn't take us in at the hut, we would have a long night hike to the road. Luckily, LittleDebbie's friend hooked us up. He was the hutmaster for this hut. He was off today, but told the crew of our possible arrival. We were so lucky that the crew was super nice and let us stay.We watched the sun go down and are tons of enchiladas, salad, fresh bread, and chocolate chip cookie bars. It was fantastic!! We chatted up the crew as we ate. Once we were done, we washed all of the dishes as a part of our Work For Stay. I actually was hoping for that chore. I don't mind/almost like washing dishes! Before long, the dishes were done and we could relax. The winds kept howling and were forecasted to be upwards of 70 mph again. It sounded like that was accurate. We talked with the guests and perused their book collection.At 9:30pm, the hut turns out the lights in the common area. That is the time that we can set up our sleeping bags and whatnot on the floor. Now, it is 10:43pm and I am listening to the relentless winds pound the hut. It certainly feels good to be inside a nice shelter!!!Even better, it feels great to get through Mt Washington without being held up for weather. Today was a great day. We accomplished a lot and enjoyed the terrain and elevation. What a beautiful and rugged area!!