Date: 2015-08-20
From: Mizpah Hut Tent Site

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 11.8

My tent site was sheltered and the trees weren't moving, but I could hear wind blow nearby and knew my luck with the weather had not held. Still, it wasn't raining and my first course of action was to get myself the 4.8 miles to Lake of the Clouds hut and see how things looked when I got there.I left camp at 6:38 and it was clear this was not going to be a very good day for views! There was enough visibility to hike and I had no trouble seeing the trail and the cairns, but that was about all. In addition, the wind was blowing but fortunately it was not cold. I had started out with my heavy hiking shirt overtop the regular shirt, but that was too warm. As part of the 4.8 miles, I traversed from Mt. Eisenhower to Mt. Monroe and that was a particular windy stretch. I hadn't seen anybody for well over an hour but now started running into people coming from the opposite direction. Rather unexpectedly (I love it when that happens!), Lake of the Clouds loomed out of the fog, right in front of me. For once, I had made decent progress, as it had taken me a little under three hours to get there.I went inside and ran into Snowta who had done a WFS here and who advised me there was probably some leftover breakfast to be had. And there was! So, I washed some dishes after I ate eggs, pancakes and canned peaches. The croo guy who set me up was very nice and helpful, showing me and Cruise Control where to get off the ridge if we got hit by weather on the way to Mt. Washington.The hike to the top of Mt. Washington was only 1.4 miles and it too was unexpectedly easy! Still no views, but I did get my picture taken with Mount Washington summit sign. Rain Check and Uncle D also arrived so then we took a picture with all three of us as well, before heading to the snack bar. Yes, there is a snack bar on top of Mt. Washington. And the rail station. And throngs of people, many of them severely underdressed for the weather. We checked with the visitors desk and it was 52 degrees (not too bad) and winds up to 45 mph, but the three of us agreed that the wind felt much stronger than that. Oh well.There is an emergency shelter room for hikers at the summit station, but you can't stay there overnight , so we had to move on. It was a little over 5 miles to Madison hut, where there is no tenting. The tent site is .6 down a steep side trail that is not part of the AT. Jeff, the croo member at Lake of the Clouds who had helped us, had mentioned that they are pretty strict at Madison hut about how many WFS people they take. The hike here was beautiful. The views were limited but I did get some near Mt. Jefferson. The trail was very tiring though, and towards the end I was moving very slowly. The rocks were hard on my ankles (which have never bothered me, they were just tired) and Achilles (doing much better, btw) and I was just getting fatigued overall. So when I got to the hut, I really hoped they'd take me for WFS, and they did! The others (Shimmy, Uncle D, Snowta and Rain Check) were all going to hike on another three miles to a camp site on the trail. These three miles involve going over Mt. Madison and then down rather steeply, judging by the profile. The forecast for tomorrow includes rain so they may be better off than we are, but this cold, foggy and windy night, I am super happy to be inside!Timothy, who I have been seeing since New Jersey, and Cruise Control are here as well. Cruise Control and I have a plan to get into Gorham tomorrow. Partially this is because of the rain in the forecast, but also because there are basically no reasonable options to stay anywhere in the next 14 miles. We could pay 60 bucks for a bunk at Pinkham Notch, but it seems to make more sense to either pay a lot less or get something a lot nicer. As chores for staying here, Timothy gave a talk on thru-hiking and Cruise Control and I both helped to clean the kitchen. Today was croo-changing day and apparently the last croo had gotten a bit lazy in the end. I scrubbed the stove burners. They needed it! The current croo is quite nice and they fed us very well, so I should be able to make it to Pinkham Notch tomorrow, no problem.I'm finishing this journal entry listening to the wind around the hut. Have I mentioned I'm glad to be inside?Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?