Date: 2010-08-31
From: Lakes of the Clouds Hut

To: Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: scattered clouds

After doing our morning chores, the hut master wrote a note, taped it shut and gave it to me to bring to the next hut master. The entire croo was a delight and sent "The Ladies" off to Mt. Washington, albeit in heavy fog. There are quite a few trails that criss-cross the AT, so navigation in the fog was tricky but after a mile and a half climb, we finally made the summit¢with only a view of the clouds we were in. There are several buildings on top of Washington, one of which has the museum, cafeteria and gift shop which is where we were headed. It was very disorienting in the clouds but finally found the right building and after dropping our packs off in the lower level thru-hiker area, made a dent in their food supply.It looked as though the clouds were going to lift and we SO wanted the view that we hung around and people-watched all the tourists brave enough to drive up the mountain and a lot that took the cog railroad train up. Doodled around the gift shop and museum but finally couldn't delay our departure any longer and left about 2:00. Lo and behold, about a half mile or so down the mountain, the fog did lift enough to get a picture of the observatory on the summit.It was cool, partly sunny and very breezy the rest of the day. Crossed numerous boulder fields which had us hopping from rock to rock, climbed but never summited Mt. Clay, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Adams and chose not to take the side trails to the tops because we were pressed for time. Again, the trail was predominantly marked with rock cairns across this stark, rugged land, and navigation had us paying close attention to taking the right path at every trail intersection.Finally late in the day with shadows long, we climbed our last mountain, and had a 700' descent over yet another boulder field to get to the hut. We immediately asked for work for stay and handed over the note the croo from the last hut had sent with us. Turned out the note asked the Madison croo to hook us up so "The Ladies" got work for stay again.Turns out the Madison Spring Hut is being closed next week. A construction crew will be coming in and it's going to be expanded and totally renovated. This will mean a 2.2 mile roundtrip to another cabin below treeline for hikers coming through after Madison closes. The new hut should be open for next season.Had yet another great meal, watched a beautiful sunset and then some stargazing to while away the time until 9:30 lights out. At all the huts we've been to so far, almost all the guests are in their bunks a bit before lights out, but here there seemed to be a late night crowd that was still sitting at all but one table in the dining room with their headlamps at the ready to continue their card games or reading as lights out approached. Well, it's already well past my bedtime by the time lights out rolls around, so I blew up my pad, put it on the one empty table and climbed into my sleeping bag. I fell right asleep but found out in the morning from the other hikers that everything got real quiet in the dining room after I climbed into my bag and pretty much all the guests got the hint and wandered off to their bunks within minutes so the other thru-hikers could go to bed, too. I didn't mean to be pushy, I was simply falling asleep standing up.