Date: 2019-09-03
From: Osgood Campsite (NH)

To: Lakes of the Clouds Hut (NH)
Miles today: 10.3

I went to bed at 8pm last night, although I was technically in bed most of the day. Anyway, I fell asleep listening to the rain fall on the tent. I slept pretty well for just sitting around all day. I don¢t know exactly when the rain stopped, but it was before I woke up about 4:15 and got up at 4:45 to use the privy. When I got back to the tent, I used my towel to dry it off as much as possible. Then got inside the tent and began packing. Soon SC was awake and packing as well. We had 2 big mountains (including the tallest mountain in New Hampshire) in 10.3 miles to do today, so we were trying to get out of camp as early as we could. I left just before 6:30. SC caught up with me about an hour later. We had camped at the base of Mt. Madison, so as soon as we started hiking, we were going up. The first 1.5 miles were in the trees which hung on the trail and got us wet. Then there was a mile from the tree line to the summit. As we walked up, the clouds swirled around us. Sometimes we could see down in the valleys below and sometimes we could barely see more than a few feet away. I fell once on the way up Madison (#15). I was on a slight downhill and slipped on a rock. At the time, I had twisted my arm trying to catch myself, but it quickly recovered.When I got to the top of Madison, there wasn¢t much to see. I wasn¢t even sure where the summit was as it wasn¢t marked. I was excited to go down until I actually started going down. The trail was treacherous. Lots of rocks and boulders, no clear trail, and lots of places where one could sprain an ankle or bash a head against a rock. Climbing up was slow. Climbing down was slower. At one point I looked down, and saw a leather bracelet between some rocks. I recognized it as belonging to SC. I picked it up and gave it to her later. She hadn¢t even realized it had fallen off. I can¢t believe I saw it given that there wasn¢t a clear trail so I could have been yards away from the route SC had taken.I finally reached Mt. Madison Hut on the other side. It took me 5 hours to go 3.5 miles. I still had another 7 miles to go. I hoped the rest of the miles would go faster.After taking a brief break and getting water at the hut, I kept hiking. The trail past the hut was much better. There were places where the rocks had been laid flat so that it was like walking on a sidewalk.Between Madison and Washington, we hiked by Adams, Jefferson, and Clay. At one point, SC passed me when I thought she was ahead of me. Apparently she had started up Jefferson and saw me walking below. She was about to yell to tell me I was not on the AT, but then she checked her phone and saw she was the one not on the right trail. She told me later that there were several places where she got off on a wrong trail. I was checking Guthook regularly and was always on the AT even when I thought I had made a wrong turn. The whole way to Washington was not sidewalk-like. Several places were rocky and difficult. Fortunately they were horizontal and not vertical. The last half mile up Washington was particularly sketchy. I was so glad we were going up and not down. I was worried that it would be bad when we came down the other side.I got up on Washington and it was nearly empty. It took me a while to find SC who was in the hiker basement at the visitors center charging electronics and organizing her pack. They were closing, so we went out and found a couple to take our picture by the summit sign. Most of the summit sign pictures I have seen of hikers are in clouds, wind, and rain. We had a beautiful, clear summit. We had 1.5 miles to Lakes of the Clouds Hut. The trail down was really nice. It wasn¢t quite a sidewalk but got close at times. We arrived about 7pm. We could pay $10 to stay on the floor or commit to working in the morning and stay for free and get breakfast. We picked the second option. I was surprised there were still work for stays available this late. Most people just paid the $10. We made dinner outside and then ate inside with other thru-hikers. There¢s one other flip-flopper here going sobo. Everyone else is nobo. We met a couple of them back in Virginia. It¢s now late (after 9pm), but we are sleeping on the dining room floor so we have to wait until the hut guests go to bed before we can set up.