Date: 2022-07-27
From: Lakes of the Cloud Hut Mile 1860

To: Joe Dodge Lodge Mile 1874.9
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: light rain

I was up a lot last night to pee, similar to the last time. However, I was actually hungry this morning. A bunch of thru hikers were gathered together for breakfast. Managed oatmeal, pancakes and eggs. After breakfast, Orchid and Pilgrim took off and I followed 10 minutes later. The crew puts on some skits in the morning and I left as they were starting. I caught up with Pilgrim on the way up and Beastmode caught me easily. Was focused on keeping the heart rate moderate to see if that helps after eating. At the top we beat the tourists up and got our photo op at the top. The building opened up and I took advantage while the others took off. I did a bunch of tourist pics and videos and left about 20 minutes later. The AT passes the cog railway and I saw the first three trains heading up. No mooning. A series of ups and downs followed to the Madison Spring hut where we were stopped for lunch. Pilgrim and I both made a wrong turn. Fortunately for me he was way ahead so I only did a little bit extra. I was feeling reasonably good considering yesterday. Orchid got to the hut a little before me, but she went over the presidential peaks which I skipped again. So far today the trail has simply been rocks. Some small easy to walk on and other larger ones you had to hop between. I think my feet touched dirt for only about 200m the entire morning. The one downside of the rocks is you have to constantly focus on the trail and your path through the rocks. It gets mentally tiring after a while.I had switched to trying power bars, granola bars and snickers in the morning. I was actually a bit hungry and today¢s soup was lentil and it was quite good. I had some bagel with it but couldn¢t face peanut butter.  I had leapfrogged Squirrel for a little bit and she joined us for a little bit at lunch. After eating Orchid left and I followed 10 minutes later. Immediately we started a tough boulder scramble up Mt Madison. I stopped several times to get the HR down as it was a relatively steep climb. We were rewarded with 360 degree views from the top. Unfortunately, that also meant we could see the cairns going down Osgood Ridge¢s rock scramble as part of the 3000+ feet we still had to drop. Overall while the descent was challenging and slow, it was mostly because the rocks are jagged, the path through them is not always obvious, and there is no room for error. There were only 2-3 spots that were more technically challenging where I ended up sitting to proceed to the next footing. I did stumble once and came close to pitching forward which would have meant a Hail Mary jump or face plant. It took me one hour to go from the summit to the tree line 1.2 miles away. Once in the woods again the terrain was better but the downhill was unrelenting. My quads were definitely burning as I got down to the bottom of the main descent. One more little hurrah thrown at us today was a roughly 500 ft climb just before crossing the Mt Washington Auto Road to keep the climbing legs in shape. After that the trail got cruisey and I made good time into Pinkham Notch. Not sure exactly when I finished, but at 6:14 I was taking a luxurious shower in the Joe Dodge Lodge. Was actually a bit hungry and ate a fair amount of dinner. I ended up eating a bunch of bars and snickers during the descent with some candy thrown in on the last 2 miles. Orchid got in about a half hour before me and Pilgrim got in around 2.5 hours later. We¢d made up a plate of dinner but with a mix up at the visitor center another hiker got it. They ended up making him a nice sandwich instead. We all agreed that this was one of the hardest downhills we¢ve had yet. Maybe not the most technical but unrelenting. Also fairly sure this is the most descent in a day so far  Taking a planned zero tomorrow, but food intake today is promising. Steps 25500Weather Forecast: