Date: 2007-08-18
From: Madison Hut

To: Lake of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: light rain

mi. 7sleep hut/floordest. Lake of the clouds hut day 37 My work for stay at madison hut was pretty easy. I just scrubed some kicten racks for awhile. Nothing serious. Best of all they had enough food left over. Enough to go around for the 5 thru hikers going a work for stay. We were talking and 2 of them are from really close to Cincinnati. One is from Louisville and the other from Indina. I got their email and we talked about hitting up Red River Gorge, KY when I get back. Well today was a crazy weather day. I woke up to weather outside being 38 deg and windy. With no views, fog, and rain. Lets just say it took awhile for everyone to get moving. I saw 1 woman leaving in a pouncho and shorts. She had to have frooze. Although I think they took the short trail down. I had another route to go. It was an exposed 6 mile ridge walk to Mt Washington. It's elevation too is 6288 ft. I for once put on a lot of clothes to hike in. Smartwool mid weight bottoms, shorts, rain paints, short seleve shirt, long seleve shirt, 100 wt fleece, rain jacket, windproof fleece hat, and mittens. This is the first real time I used the mittens. I was glad I had them. Everytime I stopped and needed to take them off my hands about frooze. I did end up taking off the fleece. I was getting hot and wanted to make sure it was dry for later. I learned today that my bandana also works as a face sheild in a pinch. Pretty funny looking. And yes I took a pic. The weather was crazy. I was out of the direct wind a little, but exposed most of the day. This was by far the worst wind I have ever walked in. It's funny and cool that a couple times I used the wind to help brace me as I walked over things. Towards the summit the wind shifted a little to my back. It gave me a good boost and lift to my step. The views well they were not there. I could only see 40 feet in front of me. To add to that I hiked without my glasses. They fogged up so bad I culdn't see anything. I could see better than I thought without them. My biggest issue was seeing the edges of the rocks. It was as if the whole contrast was turned down.   I was thinkful for every sign, cairn, and blaze I saw. There were not too many blazes but lots of cairns. Cairns are just piles of rocks that mark the trail. I could usually maybe make out the next one from the one I was standing by. There is kind of a treadway, but it was hard to follow at times. More than once I was off the trail. Ok the big thru-hiker tradition is to moon the cog railroad. It is a loud, cool train that goes up and down mt washington. I got to the track and could hear it. But I couldn't see it. I have been hearing this thing for the last 3 days and really wanted to give it my regaurds. Plus the mountain around the tracks is covered in small pieces of slut and cool. Well I finally got there. It was just the engine and 1 car. It was going really slow. Slow enough it could stop if it wanted to. I waited untikl It got past me and gave it my regaurds. I was only 10 feet from the tracks. It was bittersweet though. I don't think everyone saw me. Not to mention it was really freakin cold. Certain parts are not used to the wind. Right after that the real wind started hitting me. As I was putting my pack back on, I did get blown over. At this point I was only about .5 from the summit. The wind was intense here. This is by far the most wind I have ever been in. It was raining off and on. It was realy on now. I'm pretty sure some sheet and small hail was involved. I finally made it to the top and a sign and building. Funny thing happened. I went to reach for a rock, and I have no idea how it happened. But my leg pushed on my trekking pole and all of the sudden the handle hit me on the cheek. That was my only scrap of the day. More like a big red bump now. I have never been to the top. I went to the only building I could see. A small 1 floor cabin like building. It was locked. All I could think is I'm screwed. I walked down another 10 feet and could barely make out a tower in the distance. I could only see about 40 feet or so. Really socked in. I walk up to that and no way in. There is a big visitors center up here somewhere. I walk along the building and finally find the door. It felt so good to get out of the wind. There is a hikers lounge in the basement, read factory lunch room. I took off my pack and raingear. Luckily only my downstairs on the windward side was wet and my shirts were wet from having my pit zips open. Can't say enough how happy I am with the proformance of my rain gear today. I found barbarso at the snack area. He passed me earlier. I was feeling this hot food all morning. Well 3 trips though, $19, 2 chilli dogs, 1 bowel clam cowder, 1 chz noachos, 1 soda, 1 hot dog, and 1 bowel of corn cowder later I was a little fuller. I did score some good trail magic from some day hikers. We were talking and they gave me a cliff bar, 2 gernola bars, and some peanuts. Glad to have that extra. I'm still on the fence if I need to go into the next town or skip it. It was funny to see all the day hikers and tourons. A lot of them were very unprepared and had no business out. I did see a sign that said cog rides down $42. So that option is always there. I also saw a shuttle running people down. There is also a weather center ontop. It is maned year around. There were a couple moniters showing the curent weather. Temp 30 degrees, wind chill 17 degrees, sustained winds of 70 mph, peak guest of 93 mph. Lets just say this is the worst weather I have ever hiked in. The plan was to hang out here and head to the next hut which was only 1.2 miles away. If we got there too early they could send us to the next one. I really didn't want to hike another 6 miles in this stuff. So I hung out until 3:30 or so. I did get a chance to use the phone and send my emails. My friends Scotty said he was in the area and wanted to join me. I got it a little late. I'm not sure if he would want to be out in this o if I would want to take him through it. Hopefully next time though. Funny thing happened, as I was packing up and getting ready to head out, a woman came down and said she was closing the hiker lounge. Hmm closing the basement. I really get the impression that the AT is a hassle to the AMC, and they would prefer it didn't go through their trails. This is the going preception among all the thru hikers, so it's not just me. Anyways. I headed out fallowing barbrasoa. The trail actually starts south down the same side I came up. It was also nice someone knew I would be at the hut and to look for me if I didn't make it.