Date: 2008-08-13
From: Mizpah Hut\Nauman Campsite, NH

To: Mt. Washington, NH
Miles today: 6.2

It would have been a great nite¢s sleep except for this killer headache I hadall nite. I didn¢t want to take Execdrin because I was afraid the caffeine init would keep me awake, so I took Advil which did nothing. Besides that, thenite was full of pouring rain. I actually woke up sweating like bulletsthough, which is probably a first for me. I took my cap and down jacket offand that was better. It was really good to be in my hammock again, away frompeople, even if it was raining.I woke to a cool and foggy 54 degrees, but the rain had stopped, so that wasgood. My shoes were still completely saturated and anything that I wanted todry couldn¢t, so it was wet clothes and shoes again today. I walked over tothe campsite and got my food out of the bear box. Brent, the caretaker, hisbirthday is today, so I wished him Happy Birthday! I changed and got cleanedup in the hut bathroom and stood in the hallway and looked at all of theprevious croo pictures while eating my protein bar.I got packed up, but before stepping off, I stood there and just took in themoment. The green green forest, moss everywhere, huge trees, rocky cliff,white fog hanging everywhere, and fresh air. It hit me hard that my days arenumbered, I don¢t know how many are left, but there are only so many more daysI¢ll tear down camp, wipe the water off my hammock straps or tarp, add Gatoradepowder to my water, and scan my campsite to make sure I didn¢t leave anythingbehind.I was off at 8:05 a.m. It was an immediate climb up Mt. Clinton. The day wasas all other days had been so far, wet, foggy, chilly, crappy. Within 1 mileof the hut, you¢re in the alpine zone, which doesn¢t mean you¢re totally out oftreeline, but the trees are small and the vegetation is fragile. To hangers,from Mizpah Hut to Mt. Washinton, there are no places to hang on the AT. You¢dhave to take a side trail down below treeline, which means probably 2 miles, onaverage, off trail.I got to the top of Mt. Clinton, and it was socked in, but it¢s always coolbeing above treeline. Next was hiking around Mt. Eisenhower. You don¢t alwayshike over the actual summit of most of these mountains, to my surprise. Thereare side trails, however, that you can take to get up to the summit if youwant. I noticed the sun was trying to burn off the fog, so I was crossing myfingers. Slowly, the sky started clearing with big clumpy white patchesblowing by quickly. I could see a trailcrew working on top of Mt. Eisenhower.They actually camp at the Nauman Campsite by Mizpah Hut, get up and leave by 7a.m. and usually don¢t come back till 7 p.m. They work their butts off, andare trying to build a better trail up Eisenhower.There were tons of people out today, a lot of people out hut hopping. I met 2men, Dave and Phil (NH) (who asked me to describe them as ¢Hiking Experts¢) whowere hilarious and fun to talk to.Next was climbing up Mt. Franklin, and by the way, all of this time, you aretotally above treeline, totally exposed, which is very cool. The sky wascontinuing to clear, which was very exciting. You do climb over the summit ofMt. Franklin, but right at the top, I decided to stop and eat lunch on thisgreat rock. It was slightly cool, so I put my long sleeved shirt on. Ienjoyed my English muffin with mayo, cheese, and pepperoni on it. I sat thereand looked out to the valley. The sky was actually CLEAR now!!! There werestill super fast moving low white clouds that would blow by right by my head ora bit above, but I could tell¢¦.this was actually going to be a great day. As Iate lunch, 2 groups of these white clouds, one on my right one on my left cameblowing through. They slowly filled the valley in front of me, meeting to a V,with a spot of clear between them. They moved and floated all whispy like purewhite ghosts doing a ballet together. Really beautiful to watch. Overallthough, these white clouds were in and out and the views became spectaculartoday. I could see the summit of Mt. Washinton, and was watching it allmorning, but it was always covered in clouds. I even saw the Cog for the firsttime.Also, as I ate lunch, I could hear a Raven and looked way up on the very top ofMt. Franklin, where this Raven sat on the top o f a cairn. These birds areactually quite large, so it was a special site to see this bird in this placethat seemed almost void of life due to it being so beautifully barren, and yetthere is an entire ecosystem up here that has adapted to the harsh conditions.I moved on around noon and next, the trail went around the side of Mt. Monroe.I could hear the whistle of the Cog going up Mt Washington and clearly see theblack smoke puffing out its top (it¢s a coal burning train). The trail curvedaround the mountain, and by the way, the trail is rocky, but it¢s not toodifficult to hike on¢¦I¢ve been on worse for sure. All of this time, I¢ve beenwatching the summit of Mt. Washington, because by now, it¢s clear everywhereelse, and yet, Washington still has clouds ¢stuck¢ over its summit. I got tothe Lakes of the Clouds Hut by 12:30 p.m. I was stoked about this, because ittakes an average of 4 hrs to get from Mizpah to Lakes of the Clouds accordingto the White Mountain Guide, but even with all my chatting and lunch break, itonly took me 4.5 hrs.Lady and Tramp were already there and they had planned on staying there as well. I asked them if they¢d asked about staying and they said they were turnedaway¢¦too early. Now this hut has a 6 bunk ¢basement shelter¢ you pay $8.00 tostay in. I sort of feel like if you¢re going to pay, then you should be ableto get there as early as you want¢¦but whatever. I walked around the entire hutto see if there was anywhere I could hang, but there¢s not.   I wasn¢t going toask about staying if they¢ve already turned Lady and Tramp down, so instead, Idecided that I¢d try to find a side trail over Mt. Washington to hike down andhang below treeline tonight. A croo member (who had quite the cocky attitude)had a map showing the different tree zones, so the best plan was for me to hikeover Mt. Washington today, and go another 1.4 miles to Jewell Trail and thentake that below treeline. Madison Hut was way too far, so that was that. Iasked Lady and Tramp what they were doing. They weren¢t happy at all and quitehonestly, they look completely exhausted and depleted of all energy. Theydidn¢t know what they were doing, because they said they¢d heard there was a50% chance of t-storms this afternoon and they were worried about goingfurther. In my gut, after watching the skies clear today, my gut told me therewould not be storms, so I filled my waters and headed out again.I started up the 1.4 mile ROCKY trail from Lakes of the Clouds Hut to the summitof Mt. Washington. You pass 2 lakes, hence the name of the hut, and there wereactually pollywogs swimming around. There was also some weather and pollutiontracking equipment down here. I¢ll be honest folks, the day has ended up sobeautifully, I was happy to hike over Mt Washington today and the longer Ihiked, the more the summit started clearing out. I mean, could I actually belucky enough to hit Mt. Washington on a nice clear day with views up there?Only time would tell.A little over 1/2 way up, this man in the tackiest outfit came hiking down withhis family. He was wearing a chartreuse (fluorescent yellow) shirt and arubber ducky yellow pants. Now, I think it¢s because as a father, he wasprobably doing this for safety, which I respect, but something absolutelyhilarious happened. He was talking to me while trying to hike down theserocks, suddenly loses his balance and somehow to my amazement, made the save ofa lifetime and did not fall. I even said, ¢Wow! Great save!!¢ Well, thisyoung girl, probably around 10, who was with her friend and mom hikes by mynext and goes (only the way a 10 year old can), ¢Yeah, like I¢m going to admitthat¢s MY dad.¢ I died laughing man.I got more and more excited as I climbed closer because the skies over thesummit were clear and staying that way! At 2:00 p.m., I made it to the top of6, 288 feet Mt. Washington and realized I had been privileged enough to be thereon a trophy day¢¦one of only sixty days (on average) where the sky is clear, thesun is out, the temps were cool but manageable and folks the view wasUNBELIEVABLE!!!!! I could NOT stop smiling and my heart was pumping withexcitement to have had this good fortune.I stopped and talked to a woman, Joanne, and her son, Nile, who were visitingfrom the UK. She was unaware how lucky she was to have this type of day onthis mountain.It was quite windy which made it very cold, but I bet I could see at least150-200 miles away. There was a slight haze, but I truly felt like I wassitting on the top of the world, almost as if I could see the curve of theEarth. Folks, I SO realize my good fortune with having this incredible day ontop of Mt. Washington, which as you all probably know, is known for having theworld¢s worst weather and the world¢s highest ever recorded windspeed recordedon April 12, 1934 at 231 mph.   I felt torn, because to be given this gift andfeel like I needed to get moving to try to figure out where I was sleepingtonight, seemed just wrong, as if I was slapping mother nature in the face.And then..the lightbulb went off as it often does.Karen and I had talked briefly about trying to time it where she could meet meup here when I hiked here, but it was logistically too unpredictable, so wedecided we might drive up the Auto Rd. on a zero day. Well, my brilliant ideawas to call her now, because what would the chances be that we¢d have this viewon another day, and then I could go back to town with her tonight and then comeback up in the morning and continue hiking. So, that¢s what I decided to try.I called her at 2:23 p.m. and told her if she wanted the prize day up here,today was it. She said, ¢I¢ll be there in 1 hour.¢It¢s 8 miles from Gorham to the road and then a steep 8 miles up to the top ofMt. Washington via the Auto Rd., so I walked all over the place and exploredthe summit. See, if you¢re expecting a nature experience up here, you¢ll besorely disappointed. There¢s 3 giftshops, a snackbar, museum, the Cog railway,a road/parking lot, observatory, observation deck, the historic Tip Top House(used to be a small hotel and is the oldest summit facility of it¢s kind in theUS), and radar towers, cell tower, and about 10,000 people and kids runningaround.   It¢s a bit of a shock honestly, but who am I to say the only way amountain summit should be enjoyed is by the able-bodied person who can hike it? It¢s just a bit overwhelming when you¢ve been hiking and then suddenly you¢resurrounded by tourists.Lady and Tramp were up there, and I asked what they were doing. They reallydidn¢t want to hike on, so were trying to figure out what to do. I told themif (and this was a BIG if) we could all fit in Karen¢s (2 seater) car with ourpacks, I¢m sure she wouldn¢t mind giving them a ride down, but I really didn¢tknow if we could fit. I walked up to the observation deck to enjoy a stunningview of the rest of the presidential range, including Mt. Clay, Jefferson,Adams, and Madison, where I¢d be hiking tomorrow. All totally above treelineand all surreal. I also walked over to the official summit sign on Mt.Washington and got my pic there.At 3:30, Karen showed up so we all walked down and it was apparent there was noway we¢d all fit. Also, Karen said this road was so steep that she¢d be veryconcerned about the brakes on her car overheating, seeing it has a weightlimiton a normal day. I encouraged Lady and Tramp to try to hitchhike. They saw asign at the beginning of the Auto Rd. saying ¢No Hitching¢ but I told them (inmy normal break the rules to survive way), ¢who cares, I¢d do it if I wereyou.¢ They did decided to hitch in the parking lot (which was technically NOTthe road) and within minutes, they were on their way down. I¢m glad for them,they really needed some time off I think.So Karen and I spent the ENTIRE afternoon up on Mt. Washington enjoying thismost spectacular and unbelievable day up there.   She was speechless and justhugged me and thanked me for calling her. To me, it was a no brainer after Ithought of the idea. I mean, folks, ONLY because of my special circumstancesof having a support person around could I have been able to stay up here andenjoy this day. You can pay for a 1-way shuttle down for $26.00 per person, orride the Cog 1-way down for $42.00. That¢s your choices unless you hitchhike.I feel so fortunate.We walked all over the place, took tons of pictures, I shot some video on mycamera and am hoping to figure out how to get it up on You Tube and link it tomy journal for you all to enjoy.We went to the snackbar, because I was starving and we got some clam chowder andI got this pastry thing called a Wicked Whoopie and it was indeed¢¦wicked good!So my trailname is SO fitting people. I did the most hilarious thing I¢ve donein a long time. Karen and I are sitting there, and I look over and see thisgentleman with white hair and white beard with a younger woman at the tablenext to us. So ok, I¢ve not seen Sailor in a longtime but I keep thinking he¢sgoing to show up soon, so I see this man, lock eyes with him and am totallyconvinced it¢s him, so I throw my arms into the air and yell out of pureexcitement, ¢Sailor!!!!¢ I¢m smiling and making this huge scene, I getup¢¦Karen is following with a huge smile on her face and the man gets up andwalks over to me and I¢m like, ¢Wow man, you¢ve lost TONS of weight!¢¢¦and thenin that horribly odd silence, I realized¢¦it was NOT Sailor!   LOL I mean, Ithink 1/2 of the snackbar heard my enthusiastic reaction and then they all gotto witness this poor man standing there NOT knowing who I was, but I almost hadHIM convinced he knew me! Oh man, I was laughing so freakin hard folks. I wasso CERTAIN it was him, I had Karen convinced too!! So, I apologized if Iscared the guy and his name is Tom, and I got a pic with him. Of course, aftera few minutes I could see it was not him, this man was shorter and would be avery very emaciated version of Sailor, who is a more substantial man than thisguy, but at first I didn¢t notice these things. How funny is that? I swearI¢m such a dork. I sat down with a red face, looked at Karen, and said,¢Well..how was that for making a scene?¢ We both just laughed our asses off.Weird things were happening all day up there actually, we got up to go exploresome more and realized Karen¢s OR hat (like mine) was missing! Crap! So westarted asking the workers and luckily someone had found it and turned it in atthe desk. Whew.There¢s all sorts of information on the walls in this building too. There¢s ahuge poster thing that lists all of the people and causes, who have died on Mt.Washington, since people started climbing it in the 1800¢s. There were 140people listed, with the most recent being January of this year, when a man gotkilled due to an avalanche. Most of the deaths, though, were due tohypothermia, heart attacks, skiing accidents, and a few were from dare devilsor workers who would go down the railroad tracks on a thing called aslideboard. The most common area for people to die was in/around Tuckerman¢sRavine, which is a dangerous place. Really interesting stuff to read about.Then we went downstairs to the museum. It was small, but interesting to seesamples of all of the plants in each of the tree zones, and the actualanemometer that measured the 241 mph winds, as well as a weather center thatshowed this hilarious video of 2 men trying to sit at a table and pour coffeein these winds that were so strong the table was being lifted off the ground!Then there was the story of Lizzy Bourne (no..not Lizzy Borden the one who tookan ax and killed her parents) who at the age of 23 decided to climb Mt.Washington from Pinkham Notch on September 14, 1855, in order to reach thehotel on top. She didn¢t even start her way up till 2 p.m. with her uncle andcousin, and took the path where the Auto Rd. goes today, which had been thebridle path. Well obviously they were hiking in the dark, above treeline, latein the year and they could no longer see where to go. They stopped and Lizzyperished in the night. The next morning, they discovered they were only a few100 feet below the summit and their destination of the lodge, but they didn¢tknow it. There¢s still a white cross in memory of her place of death rightwhere she died, which is now next to the railroad tracks for the Cog. Shewasn¢t left there though, they did carry her down and bury her. Crazy huh?See folks, I really got to see everything Mt. Washington had to offer.Otherwise, I would have gotten up there, snapped the pictures, and then had tohead on for my own safety. Today goes down as perhaps the most incredible dayI¢ve spent on the AT, simply because I respect this mountain so much, and theweather it produces on its own.We left the museum, and Karen bought me a shirt that says, ¢This Body ClimbedMt. Washington.¢ Hilarious huh? They want you to depart no later than 6:45p.m. to get down in time, and we hung out up there till 6:15 p.m. I got to seethe sun starting to set from the top of Mt. Washington, which was stunning. I¢mreally speechless and without words to describe it. It was very cold though,with the windchill in the low 40¢s by now. Supposedly the weather isn¢tsupposed to be as good tomorrow, but I¢ll be getting an early start.The last crazy thing that happened was that we walked over to the car, and Karenrealized she couldn¢t find her normal glasses (she¢d been wearing herprescription sunglasses). She looked inside the car and bags, and then Iwalked around the front of the car and saw her glasses wedged between thewindshield wipers. Apparently when she leaned over the front to let me takeher picture with her car when she first got here today, her glasses fell out ofher pocket and landed here. Man¢¦luck is in the air huh?The drive down was nerve racking. There¢s no guardrails on this road and it¢s anarrow road with many places to pull off to cool your brakes because it¢s verysteep. The Auto Rd. is the oldest American man-made tourist attraction in theU.S. by the way. It costs $20.00 to drive up it (+ $7.00 for each additionalperson in the car) but they give you a CD to listen to up and down that tellsyou all sorts of stuff about the road and mountain. Also, the Crawford Family(hence Crawford Notch) were the first people to hike up Mt. Washington, in the1800¢s, so the hiking trail, Crawford Path (the AT follows part of it at thetop) is the oldest hiking trail in the U.S. too.   So so cool to learn all ofthis stuff about this incredible mountain. The drive down was beautifulthough, looking at the remainder of the presidentials, you could see hikingtrails cutting across them. It is a majecstic and breathtaking thing to seewhen you get the views folks.We got back to Gorham, and the road opens at 7:30 a.m., so we¢ll be heading backup in the a.m. so I can continue to hike tomorrow. I¢m safe and sound in themotel again. Man, what a day folks. I can NOT believe I hit Mt. Washington onthis day. I am officially giving up my rights to bitch about the weather now(at least in NH). It was worth every single day of hiking in the rain to havethis day on this mountain. Truly the highlight (so far) of my hike, and to beable to share this experience with Karen was most incredible too. All I cansay is wait till you see the pictures.~Certain