Date: 2005-08-07
From: Willey House

To: Lakes of the Clouds Hut
Miles today: 11.2
Weather: broken clouds

9:30 A.MOn top of Mt. Webster taking a break.I wanted to get up before light this morning. Man, it was cold. It was below 50. The dew had really set in. Everything was soaking wet outside, so I just kind of laid there until 6:15 before I got moving.I got on the Trail about 7:30. The part of the climb that I was dreading, turned out to be not so bad after all. It took me two hours to get up to Webster here, at a very, very leisurely pace. Some very cool views. I¢m looking down at Wiley House now. I¢ve only done a couple of miles, but I¢m in no rush.What a beautiful day. Just a couple of little clouds starting to form. I¢m sitting here having a cigarette and eating a Cliff Bar.Later...The hike up here was incredibly easy. I was all worked up for nothing. I took my time getting up here. I even spent a lot of time on the ridge, stopping, taking pictures, and relaxing. I made Lakes of the Cloud Hut by 2:15. I was tempted to walk on, but I talked to South Bounder and the told me that the Madison Hut was an easy two hour walk. So I could have been to Madison Hut in another six miles, well before 5:00.I started thinking that this is what I¢m here for, to enjoy this. This is a very, very special place. I am looking, right now, 1.4 miles down the Trail, at the summit of Mt. Washington. I have taken tremendous amounts of pictures. Why push it? I came in here at 2:15. I asked the gal in charge, Tia, for a bowl of soup and some lemonade. I started throwing money in the basket and she said, ¢No, no. It¢s free.¢Then I just kind of questioned her about The Dungeon, which is this little tiny room under the hut, that they can put thru hikers in on a first come, first served basis for $8 a night or overflow, or whatever. She said, ¢Yeah, it¢s completely empty, but you don¢t have to stay down there. You can do work for stay up here, and sleep on one of the tables. So, I ended up washing dishes for two hours upstairs. Voluntarily, really, because I still am staying in the dungeon and it would only cost me eight bucks. But it was actually fun washing the dishes and hanging with the ¢croo.¢ By the way, that is actually spelled ¢c-r-o-o¢. The kids that man all of these huts are croo. The kids that man the Lake of the Clouds Hut is a magnificent croo. They are seven young kids in their twenties, feeding and running the place.It has been booked solid for days and days now, which means there¢s 93 people here. There¢s 93 beds in this hut, in this desolate place.   It¢s nothing but mountains and rocks all around. The wind is unbelievable and is kicking up.They have solar powered panels up top. They¢ve got wind generators they have blasting away.Like I said, I¢m here, staying here, only because this is what I paid for as well. I paid a high price just to be here just like paying $77 a night to stay upstairs, I paid a hundred times that to make it here.I¢m watching the cog railroad which goes all the way up to the top of Mt. Washington from the bottom of the mountain here, steaming it¢s way up. The cog railroad, it¢s called. I¢m not sure what it is. I¢ll get a chance to look at it. Obviously, it must be a special train in order to make it up here; this steep incline. I do understand that it takes two tons of coal to shovel into it for it to get to the top of Mt. Washington, and then they have to shovel a ton and a half of coal to get it back down again. I¢ve seen this train go up and down now six times today. Big polluter. Surprised that they¢re still using it here. It¢s been around forever, so I guess it¢s an institution.I met a couple south bounders today. One of them who walked through here today at Lake of the Clouds, whose name was Stone Passer. You can imagine what that¢s all about. Then there¢s another guy who is staying here that did the windows when we came in. His Trail name is Disco. I talked to him for a while.I¢m just going to enjoy the day and the vista. Every day, as I head north, it just gets more and more magnificent. I thought yesterday was a great day, and the day before was a wonderful day hiking. Today tops everything I¢ve done on the Trail so far. In fact, tomorrow is going to be more of the same. I¢m only a mile and a half from Mt. Washington, and I plan on going up there, and hanging out, taking a lot more pictures, eating and talking to people. Probably go 18 miles tomorrow. I¢m pretty confidant I can do that, and be happy about doing that, down to Pinkham Notch. Try to camp somewhere down there.I'm requiring very little of the food that I¢ve packed. So far, I¢m still managing to scrounge food. I¢m going to get fed tonight at Lake of the Clouds Hut, here, because I washed the dishes.The Madison Hut is six miles away tomorrow. I¢m going to stop there to eat their cold pancakes again; their leftovers. Head down to Pinkham Notch and pig out with whatever food is there. I pretty well discovered after today and the past other days that I¢ve been hiking alone, is that, it really works out better for me to be hiking alone, especially up here. I set my own pace; my own agenda. I¢m not worried about keeping up with anybody, or waiting for somebody else. So for the time that I spent hiking with Vern and Albert was great times, but I think this is what I need to do anyway.September 7th is still when I¢m figuring I¢m going to be finished, if I take it easy. If I take it even easier, I might even finish later. And I might be real happy about that. I might just go ahead and take extra time. God knows, I¢ll probably never be up here again. It¢s really moving me to be up here. It¢s a special time, and I want to make the most of it.It¢s 9:00 now. I am in The Dungeon by myself. Naked Son and South Shore walked in here about 6:00 and they managed to get some work for stay. So, they¢re sleeping upstairs. Another gal also walked in well after them and the place was overbooked so she was in trouble. So she was going to stay in the dungeon. I convinced her not to because I snore terribly. She¢s sleeping upstairs on one of the tables too.Today was the best day I think I have had on the Appalachian Trail. What a magnificient day. Just topped off tonight by going up and eating with the ¢croo¢ and with the other through hikers in the kitchen. I had a real good time talking to everybody. Then I came out here and watched the sunset. Unbelievable sunset. It's freezing cold out. Probably 50 mile an hour winds. Very windy place, there¢s nothing to stop it. No trees. We¢re above tree line so everythings bare rock. City lights below. The sun setting down over it. Above that a bright moon and Venus next to it.Boy, am I glad to be here