Date: 2016-08-22
From: Lakes of the clouds hut

To: before Crawford notch
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: clear sky

Lot of good people at this hut. Croo, hikers, and guests. Somehow I was one of the first ones up a little before 5 and I braved the walkway, which was now a river, from the dungeon to the kitchen where two nice ladies were getting started on breakfast. They put out a coffee pitcher kind of for the guests and kind of for me, and I proceeded to drink the whole thing. I was chilling at a table, the only one upright among a sea of work for stay nobos who were somehow still sleeping until 630 or so. We dawdled around while the guests got breakfast and another hiker let me charge my phone on his pack since he was planning to hitch to town tomorrow. That was pretty great because with the full service I was getting I had blown through like 60% of my remaining battery. Other nobos were sharing all sorts of goodies too, then the croo let me have a bunch of breakfast leftovers and even more coffee. We didn't get out of there until close to 10 after all the gluttonous revelry. I was glad we were descending too and not going up to washington because it was cold, whiteout conditions and the winds were whipping. Even still, as we went on they didn't get better with the lesser elevation and were probably steady at 40-60 mph all day. Worse at the peaks and unrelenting until we got closer to treeline about 4 or 5 miles in. We got to Mizpah hut for lunch and more awesome croo ladies gave us unlimited pancake leftovers with our soup and bread. We feasted with Another sobo we've been hanging with, tracker/toothless, and a nice college kid hut hopping. She wants to do the trail and her mom paid for her hut stays as a means to discourage her. Since she's an actual hut guest, that's obviously not working. 7 or 800 wasted dollars right there. I had been saying since the morning that I thought we'd eventually walk down into some views, but the rainy misty total fog was showing no signs of stopping. As the rest of the lunch table were down on their luck, I was agressively optimistic it'd still happen and renewed my beer bet offer with tracker that we would still walk out of the clouds and get some views. He took it. And even a couple hours later the wind was no weaker and Kate started to give up hope. And then glorious victory! A flash of sun, a flash of valley below. Then shadows, total clearing and we were eye level with the clouds looking out on beautiful, steep gulleys and mountains for miles. Just in time for the Webster cliffs which awol mentions as great views. The only downside was that it was a new kind of treacherous. Super steep at times with big drop offs and the wind was the most intense we've experienced. Before starting on the really steep stuff, it plain knocked kate off of her feet with a sudden gust. Not good when you're scrambling down granite with a cliff on one side. We took it super slow and ended up not being able to get to the notch where tracker was camped before dark. At least it wasn't wet rocks somehow, maybe because of the wind? We stealthed on a pretty steep pitch with some great views while we cooked. It took us a few tries to find a good spot because there are a lot of big dead trees around, and in wind like this it's best not to hang near them. It's nice to be stealth camping again. The huts are nice, but weird. And there are always loud snorers in groups and you don't really feel free in a hut. It's good to be back in my hammock.