Date: 2007-09-20
From: N.H. 16/Gorham

To: Lakes of the Clouds hut
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: fog

We actually got up at 6:30 which I wasn¢t sure was possible. By the time we packed up and started hitching it was after 8. We caught a ride with a woman who worked at Wildcat and she took us to Pinkham Notch. My package was there, but Highlife¢s hadn¢t arrived yet. Got to love the U.S. Postal System.   Highlife had some food in his pack, and he was expecting a drop in Crawford Notch which was about 25 miles away. The rest of us gave him some food to get there and we hit the trail. There was a scale outside the visitor center and my pack weighed in at 35 pounds with 4-5 days of food and a quart of water. I can¢t imagine what tonnage I was carrying through the 100-mile wilderness with 8 days of food and more water.After a few miles, I passed Highlife and Ragnar and eventually caught up to Spyder at Osgood tentsite nearly five miles into the day and 10 miles from Lakes. After a nice little break, he headed up the 2.5 mile and nearly 3,000 foot vertical climb that is Mt. Madison and I soon followed. I was now carrying two quarts of water which meant my pack was 37 pounds and I felt it. The climb just about broke me off. I stopped one mile into the climb to eat some food and chug half a quart of water. I ran into Spyder a little over halfway up, just above treeline. He had stopped to take his shirt off, which was a solid with another mile to go with the sun beating down. We eventually made it to the peak, but didn¢t linger long as we were intent on pushing to Washington. After a break for lunch at the hut, we packed up and started the walk along the northern Presidentials toward Washington. The elevation changes weren¢t too terribly bad, but the sun was incessant and the trail ¢ well it wasn¢t much of a trail; just mostly rock cairns built up in a rock field to guide you were to go.Spyder and I trudged along, stopping once at a spring. We eventually came within sight of the railroad tracks and as we got close, a cog was starting its descent down the mountain. We dropped our packs and waited for it to get within sight and gave the riders a double full moon of pale ass. Some of the passengers actually started taking pictures. We had heard rumors of mooners getting busted by undercover cops, but we weren¢t deterred in the least. After it went by, we picked up our packs and followed the trail as it paralleled, then crossed, the tracks. Just after we crossed the tracks, we heard and saw smoke from another cog as it was coming up the mountain. We waited until it got within range and gave those passengers the business as well, a 2-for-1 moon session!We finally summitted Washington at around 5:30 p.m., and much to our disappointment, the snack bar in the Observation building was closed. Both of us had been looking forward to some food at the top, especially after such a hellacious day. We settled on sodas and vending machine snacks and headed out at about 6:30. While we were on the summit, a huge bank of clouds had rolled in at about 5,000 feet. Midway down the descent to Lakes, we decided to stop and watch the sun set into the clouds. I was glad to take my pack off since I had nearly three quarts of water having filled up at the summit building. After another great sunset we headed to the hut. Spyder was flying along and I was a good 100 yards behind him, rock hopping along when I made a leap from one rock to another and came up short. It was a distance I¢ve covered literally hundreds of times, but with a combination of fatigue and a heavy pack, I was well short this time around. I jammed my foot into the rock and then nailed my shin on a sharp rock, taking a few nice patches of skin off before falling ungracefully to my back. I vented with a few loud obscenities which caused Spyder to turn around with an ¢Are you alright?¢ I responded with an ¢I¢ll make it¢ and hobbled down the trail. When I got to the hut (which was closed for the season) Spyder was talking to two guys who I thought might be Highlife and Ragnar because there were a few side trails that bypassed some of the lesser peaks and went straight up to Washington. It turned out to be a couple of section hikers, one of which packed a much-needed bowl and offered it around. I soon forgot about the pain in my leg, and after cooking dinner, I drifted off to sleep under a canopy of stars and a half-full moon.