Date: 2003-07-25
To: View Entry
Miles today: 19.5

it was nice to sleep in my tent last night, even though things got a little wet. some thru-hiker i am--it has been almost a week since i've used my tent. i was packed up and hit the trail with LT and orb by 7:30. our plan was to hike 19.5 miles to where orb's car was parked. normally, i can handle 19+ miles with little problem but today had me worried. the trail went up to Mt. washington today. this mountain has recorded the strongest wind on EARTH and is know for some intense weather year-round. we also were to hike across the Presidential Range too... so maybe this wasn't the best day to hike a lot... but oh well! we're hard core!and, unfortuneatly, the weather helped us hike fast in the morning. it was miserable: raining off and on which was annoying but the wind was intense and overpowering. it was about 30mph with gust around 50. Wow. we reached the summit of Mt. Washington around 11am. the summit is very anticlimaxtic--normal people can drive up to the top in their little cars and avoid the climb up to the 6000+ ft summit. so here we are, climbing up through fog, sideways rain, and wind to find cars packed into a parking lot. this took away some of the glamour a bit.there was a snack bar in an enclosed building near the summit which we hid out in to escape the wind for a while. i didn't realize how cold i was until i stopped moving. while trying to eat my tuna for lunch, i was shaking so hard that i couldn't keep it on my spoon. Orb and LT said my lips were blue--neat! but that was my sign that i shouldn't stay for long and needed to keep moving. by this point, i was getting frustrated. i've heard so much about the White Mountains and am finally here and have been walking through a cloud for the last 4 days. i assumed i would have to add this section to my list of "places to hike again when it's NOT raining".it was SO windy when we hiked on after mt. washington. i am in awe of the power of the wind up there and felt like a string puppet in the hands of a 2 year old at times. after maybe 2 miles of walking in the wind and rain, it lessened quite a bit but was still foggy.and then... it happened. away to our left, the clouds blew away briefly and we could see a valley far below where the sun was shining. that alone made a difference. in just one minute, the clouds were back and the view--gone. and then...it happened again on the other side of the ridge, and again, and again. and the sun peeked through now and then. and there--a patch of blue sky... and again! and by the time we climed near Mt Adams, we had vistas on either side of the ridge. i could see mt. washington behind us, where we were a couple hours ago. what a difference the weather can make when hiking in the whites.oh happy day!this made the last 10 miles MUCH more enjoyable. it was still a very long day, but we dried off fast enough while walking in the sun and enjoyed hiking once again.after a knee-grinding down hill towards the end of the day, we finally got to Pinkam notch around 8pm, 13 hours of hiking...hoo haa! me tired. me sleep now. me so happy to see some views of NH... and in the distance was our first glimpse of Maine, the last state of the AT.we're staying at a hostel in Gorham tonight.ps: a couple of days ago OLG put some of our own trail magic near Gorham. it included a disposable camera so that people who took some sodas could take a picture of themselves for us. orb and LT just got back from checking on the supply and the camera was Gone. that is so depressing and despicable that someone would steal something that was there because we wanted to give some magic back to other hikers. i am awfully upset about this.