Date: 2011-07-29
From: (113) Gear

To: (114) Madison Spring Hut
Miles today: 7.5
Weather: fog

In the morning the dining room filled with all of the cheerful guests, talking and eating breakfast while they watched the Croo staff perform a skit. The Croo performing a skit is a routine thing for the huts, as it is a way to educate the public about keeping The Whites trash free, packing out your food, and giving the Croo staff a large tip before you leave. Today¢s skit was a Cinderella parody where all of the guys wore dresses and the girls pants, and at the end Cinderella was turned into a can of Pumpkin pie mix and only tips could change her back. It was a funny skit, but I remembered from Zealand falls a few days back that Grasshopper had told me about a Croo skit he had seen where the Croo pretended to be body builders by filling their clothes with pillows and talking in Austrian accents, and that they taught the guests through different weight lifts they did. For example they would see a piece of trash and one of the builders would be like, ¢WATCH THIS LIFT!¢ and he would squat and emphasize picking it up and throwing it away as though it were very heavy. They continued showing off until at the end of the skit one of the body builders exclaimed, ¢AND NOW FOR THE GREATEST LIFT OF ALL!¢, and he pulled out a 1 dollar bill and put it in the tip jar. The guests cheered and then the other body builder pulled out a 20 dollar bill and shouted, ¢THE BIGGER THE BILL THE BETTER!!!¢ and put it in the jar. I imagine that they got a lot of tips for that day!Once the guests had dispersed Grandpa, Gingersnap, Walkabout, Milk Carton and I all got to work on our chores, first cleaning the tables and then sweeping or doing the dishes. Because there were so many of us we had everything done in a jiffy, and so then it was our turn to eat breakfast, a delicious meal of eggs, oatmeal, and more. I drank my own body weight in hot cocoa, which I dumped lots of sugar into to make it even sweeter (A non-thru hiker could have never of drank it, it was so sweet). While eating we were joined by Grasshopper and Tridub, who had hiked several miles that morning and caught up while the rest of us were working. Together we talked with the South Bounders and learned how they had gotten their trail names. Milk Carton had been told by her friends and family before leaving home that she would end up lost and on the side of a ¢Milk carton¢, and Walkabout had told some people that she was leaving home to ¢Walk-a-bout¢ for a few months in the woods. They both seemed to think that they could make it to Georgia before winter hit, and that the south would be warm even in the winter. Tridub insisted that it would be cold and probably even snowing in Georgia (he went to college there) but they didn¢t seem to believe him. I personally didn¢t see how they could beat the cold, as it already was cold.Grandpa, Grasshopper, Tridub, Gingersnap and I all discussed where we would hike to today. We had a lot to consider, such as having to summit Mt Washington, the most dangerous place on the trail, warnings of afternoon thunderstorms (and we would be above the tree line), and the fact that we wanted to get more work for stay. Personally, I was disappointed that the weather would be bad because it meant less grand views, and therefore wanted to do as small a day as possible so that I would not miss too much of The Whites. In the end we agreed that we would hike 7 miles to the next hut and call it a day. Tridub and I hiked together up Mt Washington, a slow process as the surrounding fog was as thick as smoke and so we could see little. When we reached the summit we found several buildings and even a railway with a train! (As a thru hiker tradition, many hikers choose to pull down their pants and ¢moon¢ the train and its passengers, because they rode up while we walked). Gingersnap caught up to us at the top and together the three of us went into the visitor¢s center, where we were later joined by Grandpa and Grasshopper. We all sat at a table together eating pizza and other treats from the snack bar (Mt Washington is self proclaimed ¢The worst weather in the world¢ and very dangerous. I guess they decided this title in between sips of hot cocoa and rice crispy treats¢¦). I bought a post card that was entirely grey called ¢Mt Washington in the fog¢; the joke being that you can¢t see anything in the picture, which is usually the view from Washington. I wrote a hilarious and very not-serious letter to my parents and then mailed it to them from the Mt Washington post office that some entrepreneur had had the genius to build. It was the only letter my parents would receive from me the entire trail, and it was really retarded. Therefore, I had succeeded. The letter read:¢Dear Mommy and Fat Man, Today I hiked. It was hard, except for when it wasn¢t. When it wasn¢t hard it was easy, except for when it was hard. I hiked a big mountain today. I think it was called Big Mountain. If not then it should be. Maybe someday I will get to name a mountain. I ran out of water today because I drank it all. I should have thought of that before I did. Right now I am on Mt. Washington in the Visitors center with Grasshopper, Tridub, Gingersnap, and Grandpa. We smell. See you whenever, Lemur¢Our group learned from one of the visitor center workers that a thunderstorm was an hour or two out, so we decided to leave in order to beat the weather to the next hut (by this time I had eaten and fully charged my phone and iPod). Hiking on, what should have been heart melting, eye popping, mentally inspiring views were nothing but a cloud of gray, as though I were hiking in an enclosed space. Ahead of Tridub and me, large rocks materialized out of the air before passing and disappearing again behind us. We heard the loud rumble of the train coming up the side of Mt Washington, and as it hummed through the fog like a phantom we joked about mooning it, but of course, didn¢t. We separated, and as the day wore on the sky cleared giving me some views. I was very high up, and far below I could see the start of the tree line, draped across the mountains like a receding hair line and spilling out into the valleys. I ended up passing both Gingersnap and Grandpa before arriving at the next hut aka Madison Spring Hut. I found Tridub, who had been hiding behind some bushes where the Croo couldn¢t see him to wait. We decided that it was probably late enough in the day that the Croo would accept us for work for stay, which was imperative as I did not want to tent at such a high elevation in The Whites during a thunderstorm with only a tarp, and the weather freezing cold already. We went in from our hiding spot and got work for stay (we were still early but the Croo let us stay because of the storm), and were soon joined by Grandpa. Gingersnap stopped by but decided to hike on, and Grasshopper got beat out for the last work for stay spot by a fat section hiker. (A section hiker is somebody who is attempting to hike the entire AT one section at a time, instead of an ¢all in one go¢ trek like a thru hiker). The section hiker was on his first day of hiking, and was apparently too tired and lazy to continue on, so he pretended to be a thru hiker so that he would not have to pay the 100 dollars for a bunk. He carried no gear, and had ridden the train up to the summit of Washington to start his hike, so he had only done a couple of miles (I now regretted having not mooned the train). Us thru hikers were not happy about this, and knew just by looking at him that he was green (a newbie) and not amongst our brood (It is easy for us to recognize our own, this guy stuck out like a sore thumb just by the dumb grin he wore).Grandpa, Tridub, the green section hiker and I were free for the afternoon, so we talked and read, then watched a speech presentation done by the Croo about the hut system and its environmental impact. Guests kept approaching me with extra food they had, and I ended up replacing all of the food that I had eaten that day and then some (The food included vegan beef jerky, which was pretty good). My top contributors were some engineers, and a retired jet pilot. As the rainy evening wore on into night, our group was joined by a north bound kid named ¢Zero¢, who came in out of the pouring rain and was given work for stay out of pity. Grandpa seemed very uneasy about his arrival, claiming that Zero was well known on the trail as ¢No good¢, and that he had actually been threatened by officials who wanted to ban him from the trail. I wasn¢t sure whether to believe this or not, but kept a watchful eye just in case¢¦That night we feasted on Chicken Risotto, peanut butter fudge, green beans, bread, and more. I also had several more cups of hot cocoa, as it was cold out and the stuff is addictive. After eating we all had different chores. Grandpa was asked to organize the book library, Tridub and Zero to wash the dishes, and I was assigned by the Croo to clean the stove, a job which I did very thoroughly to show my appreciation for being out of the storm. It was fun to do something out of the ordinary. The Croo seemed pleased by mine and the other¢s enthusiasm, and talked with us while we worked alongside them. I got a good idea of what it would be like to work in the huts, and it seemed like it would be a fun job; lots of cooking and cleaning, hiking up supplies, and entertaining guests for the summer.While today was a small day, it was very memorable. Tomorrow should be clear and sunny, and The Whites are beautiful, so I am glad that I have been taking my time and savoring their adventure.