Date: 2016-07-02
From: Lakes of the Clouds Hut

To: NH-16 Pinkham Notch
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: broken clouds

Just over a week ago a very good friend and supporter Tanya wrote to me saying she used our hike as a lesson on perseverance for Jr. Worship at church. Today's blog will not be about the details of my hike, although it was the hardest day yet, it will be about the lesson I witnessed today about perseverance and resilience. I did "work for stay" at the Lakes of the Clouds hut last night. This is a program that allows thru hikers to stay on the dining room floor of the hut and eat leftovers when the paying guests are done with their meals. In exchange you do some simple work for the staff for two hours. Because I was doing this I got to observe dinner but not really meet with the guests. I saw several interesting people and/or families. This post is about one of those families. It is relevant to start by saying that just after dinner one of those epic thunder and lightning storms hit us in the cabin. It lasted for a good part of the night. At one point the rain was coming down so fast the water from the eaves of the roof poured off as if they were coming from a fire hose. I was told that we received over 2" of rain during the storm. This means the terrain for the day's hike would be extra wet.One of the families that I observed and later got to speak with briefly was a younger couple, very fit, I believe they both had Crossfit related shirts on. I guessed that they are competitors. They had a five-year-old daughter, Lili, with them. I believe they had hiked up the Amanoosic Trail to the hut that day. This is a very strenuous hike for anyone, so I thought it was cool that a five-year-old had done it. As it was clear that the weather was bad and the forecast for the next day was for heavy winds several people asked me my thoughts on the hiking conditions. Since I have hiked this particular route many times in the past I did have some appropriate advice. Lili's dad told me that they were considering going to the summit and taking the Cog Railway down instead of hiking back down the Amanoosic. I agreed because all the water would make the Amanoosic even more difficult. It was 1.5 miles to the summit, but the water was the unknown. About the first half mile, through the Lakes, is relatively flat. The problem is there is a lot of standing water to dodge and that might now be totally submerged. He decided heading for the summit was the best bet.My work for stay was done in the morning after breakfast. While the paid guests were packing up for their hikes I was sweeping floors and cleaning bunks. When I was wrapping up I saw the family again. They had just come back in from outside. I spoke with dad again and he said they were back for a second time because Lili was scared. It is important to tell you about the conditions. We were in clouds. It was foggy and wet, both on the ground and in the air. Worst of all the wind was howling. The forecast was for 60 mph winds with gusts up to 80 or 90. The parents worked on boosting her confidence while I was packing up my gear. They left for the third attempt while I finished packing and thanked the staff for letting me stay. I was just a few minutes behind the family so caught up quickly. Since it was really hard to see the trail; just barely able to make out the next cairn, and the fact that I had an app on my phone that tracked my progress on the trail via GPS I decided it would be safer for all if I tagged along with them to make sure they stayed on the trail. I asked mom if she was ok with me tagging along and she seemed happy to have that additional comfort. I followed behind and just watched as we went along. What an inspiration for me. After the first half mile of puddles and standing water there is about a mile of climbing over nothing but volcanic rock beds. Assuming you stay on the trail these rocks tend to be 1 to 2 feet long. I watched Lili fight her way over these rocks sometimes holding mom's hand and sometimes on her own. She is only about 3 feet tall so she had to "bear crawl" over a lot of it. So just picture, the wind is howling (at one point it blew my pack cover off), her feet are getting soaked by stepping in cold puddles, and her hands/gloves are getting wet because she has to bear crawl. She just trooped right along without whining or complaint. At one point, while she was holding her mother's hand her mother got knocked off her feet by a gust of wind. She just kept on. Our group actually passed one of the staff carrying garbage to the summit as well as a tour group. When we had about .3 miles to go, Lili wanted to take a quick break. It was clear they were going to make it. I went on ahead because I needed to get to the gift shop before they arrived. My girls will understand this, I had to get a commemorative pin for Lili. The tradition in our family was that you earned this badge of honor when you completed an adventure like this. I found the one I wanted, it was an "I climbed to the top of Mt Washington" pin. The family arrived not much later. They allowed me to give her the pin. I was so impressed with her accomplishment and used the pin to tell her so. This has turned out to be a very long winded tale, but I was trying to capture how moving the event was. Not only was Lili amazing but the parents showed true resilience when faced with one of those tough parenting decisions. They had to make a choice, neither option was easy, and they had to see it through. They were tested because Lili was scared and they had to backtrack twice. Not once did I see anger, frustration, or yelling. The parents just put on that face of determination and got it done always being supportive to each other and LiIi. I was truly impressed by the whole family and feel blessed to have been a small part of their adventure. My only regret is that I did not get a chance to talk to them more and learn a bit about their story.As an afterward, their adventure was not done. Way in the beginning of this I mentioned their plan after reaching the summit was to take the railroad down. As it turns out, while I was in the gift shop, they made an announcement that the railroad was closing for the day and the last train was leaving now. So by the time the family reached the summit the last train was gone. I am pretty sure they ended up getting a shuttle instead. This was a blessing in disguise. I stayed at the visitor center for another 45 minutes, partly to dry out and warm up, partly in hopes the weather would clear (it did not). About an hour after departing to continue my hike I was still close to the rail tracks. I heard the whistle of the train. When the winds are very strong, I believe 60 mph or more, the train is required to stop and wait for the wind to die down. So they missed the last train, but I believe that train ride, because of the wind, was a horror story of its own.