Date: 2014-08-17
From: Mizpah Hut

To: Madison Hut
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: scattered clouds

Man what a day! God was really watching out for me. Left Mizpah straight up. The climb wasn't too bad as it had some good foot holds. There were absolutely no views as the fog and rain saw to that. The climb was long and slow and on open rock. It felt a lot like climbing in the Adirondacks. Around 10 am the weather started to deteriorate with winds around 25 mph and the rain started in shortly after. I was glad to have my Frogg Togg rain jacket and pants and quickly put them on. At Lake of the Clouds I had some free left over pancakes and a strip of bacon. Also had a cup of coffee and a cool bowl of mushroom soup with corn in it. While inside eating the wind continued to blow and the rain go heavier as I moved onto Mount Washington. The weather really didn't bother me at all as I was properly clothed. What was interesting was the way the wind would constantly buffer you, throwing you off balance which made things quite dicey as I tried to go from rock to rock. But not everyone was properly prepared. About a half mile from the top I came across a Canadian couple from Ottawa who were properly clothed, but just ahead of them was an older woman who was on the heavy side and she was wearing sneakers, capri pants and was using a garbage bag to cover her head and bag. I got her to sit down out of the wind behind a cairn and got her gloves out of her hip pack. I then had the other couple get my winter cap out of my bag and gave it to her to wear. I moved on from there and the couple stayed with her. She was definitely a hypothermia case waiting to happen. As I made my way the last 200 yards the wind began to really move and blew me about like an over tacking sailboat. The winds were later reported to be 50 mph with higher gusts. When I got inside I advise the staff of the woman and they were quite nonchalant about it. While drying out and warming up I posted some letters, charged my phone and used the men's room hand dryer to dry my clothes. There were to be no pics from the top of Mount Washington. The rain continued to be unbelievable and the fog and rain just whipped everywhere. I talked to one of the workers who said that a number of thru hikers went down on the train instead of moving on to Madison. The mount Washington center was crazy busy with people going back and forth everywhere. It would be an interesting place to spend some time if I had some. With that in mind I bundled up and headed for Madison. There were a lot of downhill and the knees were holding up until.... The knee is a complex thing that does an overabundance of work, but it is also very fragile and can collapse in a moments notice. On just the other side of Jefferson Mountain mm 1855.1 I hyperextended my knee so bad I wanted to just drop right down and start to cry. I was just totally tormented by this knee thing as they were both just starting to feel better. Now I was facing another set back and this time it really hurt to the point that I could only take small baby steps as I made my way to Madison Hut. As a result, the time seemed to drag, but an hour later I made it to Madison. It had taken me 10 hours since I had left Mizpah this morning. As I entered the hut I said a small prayer that there would be space for me to stay and when I asked Matty if I could Work For Stay she said yes. SHE SAID YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! The German couple ended up being the only other thru hikers there and they paid. No other hikers showed up that evening. I did get a chance to speak to a woman staying there who's friend was a P.A. and looked at my knees. Her best guess is that I had some small tears in my outside ligament and there was not much I could do but rest it. Needless to say that's not happening. After changing from my wet clothes I had some snickers bars and downed 3 advil. The rest of the evening was spent journaling, watching the rain blow even harder now and talking to some of the guest. Even though I knew I would be eating later I was hungry now so I had some pepperoni and cheese. Again I was so, so, so, so happy to be inside. The crew is really easy going and leftovers included turkey soup, shells, salad, bread and brownies for desert. It tasted so good. In repayment for the food my work that evening was to give a talk on my hike and then answer questions. It went real well and I talked to a few other people some more afterwards. Since the weather had been so bad all day long the batteries charged by the solar panels were not fully regenerated so lights went out at 9 instead of 930 which was just fine with me as I got to sleep right away.