Date: 2007-08-13
From: Nauman Tentsite

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: fog

(Erin) We woke up early so that we could get as far as we could today. We left the tent site by 6:30 and then couldn¢t find the trail, that was a bit annoying. But we finally found it and were on our way up into the clouds. From the hut we went up into more of the Presidential Range, first was Mt. Clinton (aka Pierce) where we were above tree line for the rest of the day. Next was around Mt. Eisenhower and over Mt. Franklin then past Mt. Monroe, all of which are above 5000'. Then we dropped down to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut. The clouds were so thick we couldn¢t even see the hut until we were right next to it. All I could think about were all of the great views we were missing because of all of the clouds. We took a quick break to warm up than looked at the weather report. ¢Clouds in the am, then in and out of the clouds in the pm, winds 35-45mph, wind chill of 42 degrees¢. Oh goody! They say that its normal for the weather on Mt. Washington which has had recorded weather as being the worst in the world. So with the lovely weather report we started up to Mt. Washington with little to no visibility except for the rocks and cairns. I was a bit nervous and couldn¢t believe that this was ¢normal¢ and that we had to keep going. It wasn¢t the bad horrible hike that I thought it would be. The wind was moving the clouds so fast that we got a few glances of all of the mountains around us. It was amazing to see. We made it to the top at 6288' to a lodge where we went in and had lunch and I sent out some post cards from the Mt. Washington post office. I even over heard a man tell some people that the mountain is in the clouds 300 days a year, so usually there aren¢t many views from the top. Just before we packed up to keep hiking it had been raining and we were inside and didn¢t notice. It had gotten very very cold so I didn¢t want to leave just yet. Beside the fact that I was very nervous to leave the Lakes of the Clouds Hut now I was even more nervous to leave the summit. We had 6 more miles to go and no where to hide if the weather got bad. But we had to go and keep moving. It was a very hard hike over to the Madison Springs Hut. Lots and lots of rocks all over the place that really slowed me down. The weather had cleared up a little bit and the clouds were moving by quickly from the crazy high winds. Most of the rest of the day we were fighting to stay on our feet when the wind gusts got so strong. The clouds even cleared around the summit of Washington and I was able to get some cool pictures. Well the 6 miles really kicked my butt and it took over 5 hours to get to the Madison Spring Hut. When we reached the hut I was NOT going to keep so we asked if we could do a work-for-stay. The crew (aka croo) said yes and had us scrap the ice off the inside of the freezer, oh boy! But at least we were going to have a warm place to stay and some good food after the long day. So today was amazing but very very hard. In the past every time we have had a hard day and I don¢t think anything can top it, things get harder. So tonight we are sleeping on the floor of the Madison Spring hut listening to the howling 50mph winds whip around the hut outside. Glad I¢m not in a tent tonight!HUTS - * Are actually amazing little houses in the mountains that sleep 50-90 people a night* They have a crew or ¢croo¢ of college kids that work at the huts* The Croo cooks dinner, breakfast and soups for paying guest and pack up all the food twice a week.* The cost is $75 on weekdays and $87 on weekends* All of the huts have amazing views and are situated in some very remote spots in the Presidential Range of the White Mountain