Date: 2002-09-03
From: Maine

To: GA
Miles today: 11.0

Tuesday Sept. 3, 20026:30 in the morning and I am off and running, not running, climbing. Did not sleep too good last night. But heck I went to bed at 7:30 but it seems like I wake up about 10 time¢s night. Twist and turn, getting a little more used to getting used to being confined and you can¢t spread out in a sleeping bag. SO far the day is nice. Had Tea and Pop Tart for breakfast. It¢s clouded over on Mt. Madison, misting. I don¢t have much luck with these giant mountains. But the rocks are very slick so I am going to have to be careful today. Stopped in at Madison¢s Springs Hut. Have not had much experience with the huts but of course there has not been many up until now. There are some about every 8 miles where you can work for stay. They will feed you. If you don¢t work for stay it¢s about 41 dollars without food. If you have food like supper and breakfast, it runs you about 60 bucks. But don¢t think I will spend anytime there. I don¢t think. But it was nice to stop in and get dried off. It¢s been rainy and cold and I fell down once and it¢s been miserable going today. Foggy, windy, rainy and cloud cover. But it was nice because I had leftover oatmeal and about 4 cups of hot chocolate. I got dried off and stayed about an hour, and now about half-hour back on the trail, it has quit raining. The sun is trying to shine through. Abe was the nice guy that ran the hut there; they have a crew there about 3 or 4 people, girl and 2 other guys. Was a northbound hiker there named Hollywood. He had been some kind of a big shot executive and decided it wasn¢t worth it and quit his job and is hiking the trail and afterwards he is going to go to photographer school to be a photographer. Met 2 more north bounders, names Honey and Homey. MADE THE SUMMIT of MOUNT WASHINGTONThe sun came out, but now it is clouding in again. I didn¢t get a decent picture but will try again. Had some lunch up here. The post office here was open and found a cardboard box and shipped those darn shoes, there is no sense of me carrying that extra weight in my pack. I sent them ahead to Dalton, MA. Only cost me 3.50 so what the heck. But what a climb and what a view. I am telling you, you can¢t believe it. It¢s amazing. Way above the clouds, like being in an airplane. Going to take picture here. Here comes the sun. Mount Washington has the worst weather in the world. It was really hot coming up here to the peak and now that I am here on the observation deck it is cold. Especially with the clouds rolling in with no sunshine. Met older woman, !frogcaller and her son !zulu. She had a cap on that said Frog Caller and I would guess her age to be in the 60¢s. She is section hiking. Her and her son are going southbound. They are fun to talk to. They are headed to same campground I am going. I will tell you more about them when I talk to them tomorrow. I am going down Washington now and headed to lake of the clouds hut and hopefully I can stay in their basement. Basement will hold 4 hikers and I guess they call it the dungeon because it¢s so dark down there. But I am happy really happy to have summated Mt. Washington and I have really had it in the back of mind how tough it would be because that is all the North Bounders talk about is how tough it is. So that was something that was always there for me for quite few days. And so it¢s a milestone. Especially with some rain and slick rocks and once I got on top I felt good, the feel good feeling of YES I DID IT. Got in at the Lake of the Clouds Hut about 5:30. Going to stay in the dungeon and they only charge 8 dollars and I got down there and it was BAD. !frogcaller and her son !zulu. They came in and they said there wasn¢t any place to stay and when this place is full it should hold 90 people. They bunks and dormrooms with about 10 bunks in each room. So they said they would give them a bunk room for 10 bucks, so I heard about that and I said heck I am going to upgrade and went to them and said, why can¢t I have a room for 10 bucks and they said Okay, so I got a bunk for 10.00. Then these huts are run by a crew and they cook supper and breakfast. Hikers that are coming through it cost 60 for breakfast and supper and what a lot of hikers will do are work for stay and wash dishes, set tables. Clean. I ask for work for stay and they had too many already. So I paid the 10 but anyway after breakfast was over there was a bucket that said free pancakes. I sat there and had about 10 pancakes for nothing and hot chocolate. Then I find out that they have people that have reservations and they come up and hike for a day and then they have all their meals also. Then after they are done, then the crew and work for stay people eat, and after that if there are leftovers then anyone can come in and eat. So Frog Caller, Zulu and a couple of the other guys, that is what we did. Eat up the leftovers. Had good dinner too, really got full but must not have got too full because I still ate pop tarts, 4 snickers, 3 cups of hot chocolate. I don¢t¢ know where it all goes. But tonight I am in a room here and there is no heat in here but the stars seem like they are right above you. Then out below us, we are up on top of mountain, are these little towns all over and they look like little jewels all around you. This fresh mountain air just can¢t be beat. I think I am getting hooked on the trail but it is hard work and treacherous. But when you get to the top of mountain like I did today then you look down and see the lakes and it reminds you of Switzerland and although I have never been there but have seen it in movies. Made 11 miles today. Met a lot of good people. Went from feeling really low today, being wet, climbing Mt. Washington and then summit Washington and the sun coming out to feeling really high. Met superfeet last night, he is just happy all the time and he is just rearing to get going again. He tells me it¢s all DownHill, well you know how that goes.