Date: 2005-06-25
From: North Conway

To: Mitzpah Spring Hut
Miles today: 6.4

Got a good early start this morning with a ride from Early Bird's parteners in the condo, who was also named Jay. Droped me off and I started my way up the Webster Cliff trail towards Mitzpah Spring Hut. I'd been to the top of Webster, Jackson and Pierce on two seperate day hikes last winter, but had come from the north side.It's quite a climb up the Webster Cliff trail - I was sweating like crazy. Caught up to Robo and Java Pete on the way up. Pete and I climbed together and had a great chat about politics and philosophy and all sorts of groovy things. There were many day hikers which we passed. It was a bit hazyer than it had been in previous days - hot and humid, but still beautiful.On the top of Jackson Java Pete spent some time talking with a French speaking family from Canada. I really didn't understand too much - German doesn't get one very far. Then we continued on to Mitzpah, where I secured a work-for-stay spot and we gorged ourselves on delicious lasagnia. Mmmmmmm.... Thanks croo!As it was still early and Scrubs was coming all the way from Zealand, I decided to take my own little jaunt down off the ridge to the Dry River via the Dry River Cut-off trail to take a dip. It was hot hot hot, and I could feel the temperature change as I decended about 1,500 feet. I passed a few folks headed up to the Hut on my way down - two younger guys and an older guy, though they didn't appear to be together.Stripped down, had a great swim, found someones old Nalgene floating in the river, and spent some time writing in the glorious sun. Ate my power bar and headed back up the hill.Not to far up I found again the older gentleman who I had passed on the way down. He hadn't moved far, and he was lying on the side of the trail apparently resting. I stoped to talk with him, and it turned out that he was in a bit of trouble. He said he had hurt his ankle a ways back and that his nephew was going up ahead - they had gone the wrong way and didn't know where they were. They had gone up Lion's Head and I guess were anticipating coming down the Boot-Spur cut-off past Lakes of the Clouds and to Mitzpah, but ended up going down the Dry River trail. Ooops. Not enough water, hadn't eaten enough and seemed a little dehydrated. I was to find out later that he was a lot dehydrated and was heat stroked.Anyway, I wasn't going to let him sit there, so I made him drink some more and we wraped his ankel with a bandana. I put on his huge Marlboro brand pack and we started walking. We still had a couple miles to go at that point, but we slowly chugged along, stopping for rests. Then at one of the rests he dry-heaved - clearly a very bad sign. I offered him my power bar, which he refused, and made him sip the Gatorade that he had. At that point he decided that he should just roll out his bed roll right there and start again in the morning. I said that was a bad idea, especially since he had no water. So, I went up the trail to find some water (which I knew there wasn't any) and came back to inform him that he had to keep moving. And we kept going, step by step. The fact that he had twisted his ankel (not broken or even sprained) had kind of distracted his mind from the fact that he had heat stroke.Happily 4 people from the croo with WFRs showed up once we were a little less than a mile from the hut. They administered ritz crackers and Tang and cold packed his ankle. I took off at that point, and zipped it back to the Hut and a jogging 4mph or so pace. It was a nice bit of trail - not spectaularly maintained, but well enough.Got back to the hut, helped with dishes, and ate food and more food and more food. They were a long time in getting back - they must have made him keep all his weight off the ankle the whole trip up. Good idea, but it jut felt like ages. Scrubs was there, and he had gorged earlier on the lasagnia too. We bunked down in the attic of the hut even before the last light had gone. A long day, but a good day.