Date: 2006-06-22
From: Crawford Notch (Crawford Campground)

To: Madison Springs Hut
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: overcast clouds

6:31 p.m. I wish you could write beauty. Write 62 degrees and warmth from sun at an angle and air just barely moving from a breeze. To one side a mountain, just descended, to another just sky. Above the dwarfed trees, all that's visible is light and sky and one puffy cloud floating, small and round, against blue so pale it is almost white. Today was lovely. I look at Moses writing his journal, and Kaptain, the sun illuminating the hair he's accumulated since Trail Days, and I wish Lockjaw were here. And would be forever. I wish Team Steve and Sunshine were here too. Making faces at me and giving me crap about sitting here listening to the string quartet I'll play at Colby (the string quartet workshop I go to each year ("band camp")) and being stupid and romantic. But it's like Mendelssohn saw these mountains, and there are few things I would change. My feet and ankles hurt today, but since North Woodstock I have been spared serious emotional pain, it seems. I can't explain exactly why. I never cease to be amazed at the power of beauty and simplicity and accomplishment and struggle and success and a chocolate bar. Times like this, I feel like 19 days is far too short a time. Five hours ago, I was walking up slippery, loose boulders through fog so thick that seeing the next cairn marking the trail was a challenge. Other hikers would appear from the clouds. The summit of the mountain (Washington) was completely obscured, until we stumbled right across the summit building. Visibility was truly terrible.9:49 pm And now for an actual account of what happened today. We woke up at the bunkhouse, packed our stuff, and then my parents arrived at about 7 am with Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwiches and goodies. Dudley came along too. We packed up our slackpacks with various daily necessities and the delicious lunches my parents brought (corn chips, brownies, fruit, chocolate, and sandwiches). We set off up the steep initial climb to Webster Cliffs, 2000 ft in 1.7-ish miles. It wasn't that bad, really, but probably mostly because we weren't carrying much of anything. From the top of that steep section it was really easy to Mizpah Hut, where we stopped in for a snack. Shortly after leaving and passing above treeline, it began to rain. Fortunately there was no lightning. It stayed at a moderate rain for a while, then stopped again. The terrain increased in difficulty after Mizpah, but it still wasn't bad at all. Before I knew it , we were at Lake of the Clouds Hut, situated 1.5 miles below the Mount Washington summit. Like I said before, it was a slow, slippery ascent through increasingly poor visibility. When we reached the top and finally stumbled upon the building, we met my parents who were there with our stuff. We spent maybe 45 minutes or an hour in the summit building, then said goodbye and headed down. That part of the day, from Mt. Washington to this hut (Madison Springs) was maybe our slowest-going of the whole trip. Overall, we averaged about 2 mph on the section, going significantly slower at times. Rarely do we travel so slowly, and I can't imagine how long it must take day hikers. The trail was nonexistent, really, just a jumble of rocks, the path marked by a series of rockpile cairns. We got through it though, uninjured except for some old chronic problems (feet, ankles, and knees). This hut is pretty nice, a bit smaller than some, and filled with high school kids, who are loud and annoying. The croo was very nice, though, and one thru-hiked last year actually. The dinner we ate here was spectacular too. I'm pretty exhausted. Today wasn't super hard though. Probably would have been without slackpacking. A good day. I feel refreshed.