Date: 2004-08-06
From: Crag Camp

To: Carter Notch Hut
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: light rain

A world of gray greeted me out the window of the Crag Camp bunk room in the morning. No matter, It's time to eat and pack. Almost immediately the clouds rose out of King Ravine. It was so exciting. There were wisps of clouds ensconcing the summit of Madison and dancing around below in the ravine. Undercasts could be seen in the distant valleys hiding the towns and fooling there dwellers from the true beauty of this day that the future would soon reveal to them. It was hard to look away to deal with the realities of food and packing. Something might be missed. What about the pictures.By 9am I was back above the tree line hauling up to Thunderstorm Junction. The clouds were playing hide and seek with Mount Adams and Mount Madison. 9:30am found me lost (figuratively speaking) in the clouds at Thunderstorm Junction and heading north along the AT around the dramatic King Ravine with views of Crag Camp back down the ridge. Madison Spring Hut with it's breakfast leftovers of cinnamon cake was another undeniable yet welcome distraction. It wasn't even 10am yet. From the register it looked like Oxymoron and Maine Dish had spent the night at the hut and had a great time with the Croo. Yes it would have been easier and plenty of fun to come here but Crag Camp was all mine and just mighty fine. And those cloud scenes this morning were unreal. The hut distraction only lasted about a half hour and then it was on to the summit of Mount Madison, another big pile of rocks, before 11am. That of course was followed by the long seemingly interminable descent down Osgood ridge. All the while the dark clouds, light puffy clouds and bright blue sky were doing some incredibly dramatic stuff with this rugged mountain-scape.The beauty of the Osgood Ridge is that it stays above tree line for so long as it plummets down 2,813 feet in the first 2.5 miles to the floor of the Great Gulf Wilderness. It was hard to stay focused on the trail and the trails up here demand focus. It is seldom that there are two consecutive footsteps at the same angle or elevation much less an actually level spot to place a foot. It's a blast.Before long the trail crossed the suspension footbridge over the west branch of the Peabody River which drains the Great Gulf Wilderness and it was just 1pm.Now, admittedly there are some signage issues down in the Great Gulf Wilderness. There are lots of trail that cross each other within a very short distance down near the West Branch of the Peabody River. The signs are pretty good at saying which way which trail goes but not so clear as to which trails the AT follows. This is coming from a guy who is very familiar with this area and who in fact traversed this very section of the AT just a year ago. Yes, we, the WMNF USFS and AMC need to rectify this. It is frustrating for a thru-hiker to stand there staring perplexedly at a bunch of signs scratching his head. Then to find his only recourse is to pick a direction and hope to see a white blaze soon. That failing, turn back and up to try another. Grrrr. Enough grumpy.From here the trail would just wander about through the forest across the Mt Washington auto road and follow the Old Jackson Road to Pinkham Notch Base Camp 4 miles away. This part was cake. Sure enough the auto road was passed at 2pm and the welcome sight of Pinkham arrived 45 minutes later.There was plenty to do at Pinkham. First there was the trusty old spring scale with the big hook hanging at end of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail just outside the Visitor's Center building. My pack weighted in at about 27 pounds on this rough scale. That was fine. The pay phone got a little use and then I joined Maine Dish and Oxymoron for some lasagna and chili in the dining room. Maine Dish was about to return to her home stomping grounds. We had a good time talking about the trail over the Presi's, comparing experiences and such. Heading out on this gorgeous afternoon a little after 4, it was hard not to be a little sad thinking we would probably never meet again. My pace was likely to be increasing as the whites were left behind and they were about to take a day off. That's life on the trail. It was sure good to have been a small part of one and other's lives these last couple of days. The trail crosses Route 16 at Pinkham and wanders for about a mile toward the height of land in the notch. It passes Lost Pond which was new to me. Normally heading south would mean parking at Pinkham Visitors center or heading north would mean parking at Glen Ellis Falls. This was new territory in my own back yard, a whole mile of trail in the Whites never hiked by me. In fact Glenn Ellis is the primary access to my adopted trail section of the Davis Path.Soon the Wildcat Ridge trail began it crazy climb to Wildcat E Peak. Here the trail climbs about 2000 feet in less than one and a half miles. It's just nuts and it's 4:30 in the afternoon having been a pretty long day already. The only thing for it was to set my gaze 3 feet in front of my feet and go till the climbing was done. Get into the zone, so to speak. By 6pm the summit was mine. This was the top of the high speed quad chairlift at Wildcat Ski Area. No need to stop. There were 4 more Wildcats, A through D, to summit before dropping into Carter Notch for the night.At 6:15pm I stopped on the summit of Wildcat D for a self portrait on the observation deck. Mount Washington was in the background flirting with a cloud that was trying to obscure it. It felt pretty good here but there were still 3 miles to go and the sky was looking somewhat confused.By 7:20pm my gaze was cast down the cliff into Carter Notch 1,100 feet below but only 0.9 trail miles away. When I was maybe 13 my brother Randy, his friend Dave and I climbed this trail out of the notch. The trail was much shorter back then because it was just a bee line up the slope. Today there are 1 or 2 switchbacks and it is still steep.Carter Notch Hut is now operated on a Caretaker Basis year round. It is never full service like the other AMC Huts are in the summer. That's kind of nice. The main building, housing the kitchen and dining area, may be the oldest of the hut structures still standing. Other huts were built earlier but have since burned or been removed and replaced. It is oddly cozy for a stone structure. The nice thing about caretaker basis, besides the price, is having the full use of the kitchen and all its utensils. Not that that means much to this thru-hiker but at least the whisper-lite stove could stay packed. There were plenty of people but the caretakers seemed to be most comfortable to talk with. Before my dinner was done most of the rest of the folks had left for the bunk houses. It's true, my arrival was late by most hikers standards, 8pm. I felt strangely separate from these folk. Yet most of them probably aspired to one day be in my shoes. Perhaps I was just too tired or too crazed looking.Trying not to disturb the other 2 or 3 folks in the bunk room, I quietly slipped into my bag on the hateful mattress with minimal use of my headlamp. My Thermarest makes me so much happier than those 3 inch thick foam mattresses. It was a good 14.6 mile day with an extra 1.1 mile thousand foot climb out of Crag Camp at the start. It was tough to comprehend that this morning had started at Crag Camp of all places. That just seemed so far away in these mountains.These last few days had been low mileage from a thru-hiker point of view and compared to almost every day for me on the trail till now. Granted there have been many distractions from huts to views to friends but that's not all. The hiking here is tough. The changes in elevation are big. Then of course this is the granite state. The trails are largely rock from slabs to stones to boulders. Most every step requires some consideration even though it may be subconscious, it is a mental effort none the less.