Date: 2003-08-30
From: Osgood Tent site

To: Carter Notch
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Some of my readers have probably been wondering what happened to me this Fall. I know a lot of journal just sort of stop. You wonder what happened to the hiker. Did they continue? Did they get off the trail? Did they get abducted by aliens or did they just get lazy and stop updating their journal?I got lazy. I'm sitting at home in a lull between this weekend's snow storms so I thought I would catch up on the journal. When I last left you, we had just hiked over Mt. Washington and down to Osgood Tentsite trying to beat the bad weather.--------------------It rained on and off all night. My new tarp tent worked out well in the bad weather with no leaks at all. We didn't get up all that early as we had a short hike into Pinkham Notch this morning to pickup maildrops and then over the tough but short Wildcat Range to Carter Notch. A number of the guys were looking forward to the lunch buffet.The file miles to Pinkham Notch went quickly with no significant climbs or descents. I knew the next six miles over the Wildcat range to the notch were hard so I didn't wait for the lunch buffet at the Visitor's center. I picked up my maildrop and rearranged my food for the next three days and two nights to Gorham planning to leave before lunch.Just before heading out, I ran into Bugbite. She has been ahead by a day or two ever since I started heading north from Hanover. I found out she was not continuing on to Kathadin due to an unexpected job offer in Colorado. As with many addicted, long distance hikers, Bugbite works contract jobs as a visiting nurse during the off season and plans for more adventures for the hiking season. It was good to see her before she heads west. We'll both be doing the PCT next year in fact she almost convinced me to do it this year but we both decided we had other things to get done first.It took me a little over four hours to hike the six miles to Carter Notch. I took a half hour break at the top of the Wildcat Ski Area. Even with a few hours of light left, I decide to tent near the hut instead of climbing the 1500' up to Carter Dome at the end of the day.I hung out at the Carter Notch hut until dinner time. I should mention that Carter Notch hut is a self-service facility. Dinners are not prepared by the crew, which consists of just a single caretaker, but hikers are free to use the kitchen with a gas stove, refrigerator, and running water. Mellow, Hepcat, and Kodiak wandered in and we all started talking with the caretaker, Heidi, about the hut-to-hut raids that are a traditional part of the hut rivalries in the Whites. Various "raid items", such as a plane propeller, a lobster buoy, a pink plastic flamingo and so on. The items are hung on the walls and off the ceilings of the huts. From time to time the crews raid another hut. It is sort of like a crazy, long-distance, mountain version of Capture the Flag.Heidi managed to recruit Mellow Yellow and Mellow convinced Hepcat and Kodiak to go on a night raid with her. I wanted to join them, but my body wasn't ready for what they were going to attempt. Their plan was to hike to Heidi's car around 9:30 at night, drive to the north side of Mt. Madison, hike up the Valley Way trail to Madison Hut, swipe a few items in the middle of the night, and then reverse the route to get back to Carter Notch Hut by morning. All told, they were planning to hike another 15 miles and over 5000' of elevation gain (and loss) after already hiking 11 miles and 5000 of gain during our hike from Osgood. Even for a thru-hiker, 26 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation change is a lot!I wished them well and headed to sleep around 8:45.