Date: 2015-07-17
From: Saco River

To: Edmands Cutoff Trail - Mile 1859.8
Miles today: 15.8

Wookie and his parents arrived at 6:15. We put our gear in the back of his parents truck. They planned to meet us after we hiked the 12.5 miles to Mt Washington. Then Wookie, Uphill, Crafty, Sugar Magnolia, her dog Sullivan and I set off. Uphill took off. I hiked with Wookie. The first climb was up Webster Cliffs which was steep and had some rock scrambles. They were fun and we made it up to a spectacular view. We could see Mt Washington in the distance. We traversed over Mt Webster and caught up with Six Strings. We hiked with him to Mt Jackson where we took a snack break. We then set off the remaining 1.7 miles to Mitzpah Hut. Six Strings was carrying his full pack and may have Lyme Disease but he set a brisk pace which I could only keep up because I was slack packing. We got to the hut and they gave us some leftover bread and cookies. Crafty and Sugar Magnolia arrived shortly after. We sat down and I also purchased a piece of White Almond Pumpkin Bread which was delicious. The hut croo asked us to help with some dishes so I washed. We had lingered longer than planned so Wookie and I set off again. Fueled by baked goods and adrenaline and eagerness to get to Mt Washington before it got too cloudy, we hiked the 4.8 miles to Lake of the Clouds Hut in 2 hours and 5 minutes which is really fast for me. We were flying by day hikers. I felt like we were in a video game. Along the way, we took pictures of Mt Washington as we got closer and closer to it. We arrived at Lake of the Clouds Hut and had a quick snack. We had 1.4 of rocky climbing to the top. Once again we hiked a quick pace and it became a game to pass by the day hikers. Finally at the top I saw Uphill. I lost Wookie. There were so many tourists and day hikers it was overload! Not knowing where to go, I got in a long line to take my picture in the summit with the actual sign. I then saw GQ and Walking Man. I took their picture and then I walked over to the Observation Deck. Then down into the snack bar where I saw an outlet and started to charge my phone. After a few minutes I noticed their was a hiker pack room downstairs so I moved down there and left my gear and phone charging. Then I went to look for Wookie. Uphill was eating and pointed out Wookie who was with his mom Phyllis. We went down to the parking lot where his dad Bill was. I got my gear out of the truck. Phyllis then offered Gatorade and chocolate so I sat down on the truck and chatted with his parents. It had been over an hour since we had reached the top so we carried our gear plus Crafty, Sugar Magnolia and Sullivan's pack up to the snack bar area where we ran into Crafty. In the hiker pack room, I repacked my pack and then wandered through the Mt Washington extreme museum and then got some veggie chili and we ate downstairs. Wookie and I had been there nearly 3 hours so we decided we better get moving since we planned to hike 5 miles to camp. We stopped and took a group photo at the Mt Washington Summit sign and finally started hiking downs little after 5 pm. It was slow going. The Cog train passed by. I think we could have run faster than the train. We hiked approximately 3.5 miles before we decided to quit. We had a climb to go and it was unclear if there would be a place to camp. We stopped where there were some flattish spots. We hung out waiting to make sure no more hikers passed by. A couple of guys came by who were tenting in some tres nearby. They reconfirmed it was supposed to rain with possible severe thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. We were exposed on the ridge but kind of stuck. So we cooked dinner and set up camp. The wind is always blowing my tent. Hope it's not too bad!