Date: 2015-07-28
From: Crawford Notch

To: Lake of the Clouds Hut - The Dungeon
Miles today: 11.1

7/28, Lake of the Clouds Hut - The Dungeon, 11.1What can be said about today other than it was a study in contrasts. We began our day at 2 am when lightening and thunder woke us, warning of an incoming thunderstorm. I made a quick bathroom run and ducked back in my tent before the rain, then finished yesterdays journal entry that I was writing when I fell asleep. From then I slept off and on listening to a pretty good thunderstorm, the worst of which must have been on the mountain while we were camped in the valley. The rain was over some time before 5 am when I woke and purged my air mattress to begin my day. We packed up wet under a cloudless sky, ate, and headed to the road to flag down a hitch at 7. Traffic was light so we spent twenty minutes waving our thumbs at passers by when a rental RV pulled out of the campground driveway and headed our way. They quickly pulled over and loaded us inside to ride the 4 miles to the trailhead. They were a german family in the US on vacation and they have been day hiking the mountains nearby. They were traveling with a cousin from the US who spoke both German and English to facilitate communication. JP also knows some german so we had a nice ride and friendly visit the end result of which had us on trail at 7:45. Todays hike was a steep entry to the presidential range through which we cross several peaks in ascending height culminating with Mt Washington, the highest peak in the northeast. Our goal today was Lake of the Clouds Hut at the side of Mt Washington, nearly twelve miles away along the ascending ridge. Trail conditions were very wet from the two large rainstorms the past two days making the rocky climbs very slippery so there were many areas where we needed to stow our hiking poles in order to have both hands to climb. Progress was slow with the steep climbing, keeping us down to 1 mile per hour. We reached the top of he steepest climb around 10:30 and took a break then hiked on toward Mizpah Springs Hut. IB has been bothered by his arthritic knee quite a bit so he decided to slow down and asked us to hike on ahead. I set out snd determined I would wait at Mizpah to see how he was doing. I made it to the hut at 12:15 and bought a candy bar, butterscotch bar, poppyseed bread slice and lemonade. I added a candy bar and another lemonade by the time JP hiked in, and IB was only a few minutes later. Hiking uphill has not been a problem for any of our knees but the steep downhills of late have really been pounding our legs. IB's knee is especially painful downhill but we know that without the pack weight his pain is greatly reduced. We began discussing ideas for off loading our packs to the hostel tomorrow morning so we could hike the predominately downhill section to Pinkham Notch as a slack. We have a couple of options at the Mt Washington Summit in the morning so I will let you know how we made out tomorrow. After our break we had a short steep climb to the main ridge and then hiked the rest of he day above tree line. At this point I am at a loss for descriptive images but let it be said that the views of surrounding mountains were the greatest so far in this adventure. Not only were he mountains, ridges, cliffs and valleys amazing, the weather cooperated and we had clear views as far as the eye could see. Soon we could see Mt Washington which made it possible to look across the ridge line where we would be hiking. It ended up being a grand afternoon hiking closer and closer to the big mountain as we looked off both sides of the ridge to the valleys below. Our plan was to get to the hut in time for the work for stay spots specifically for thru hikers. Each hut accepts a few hikers to help with dinner and breakfast clean up along with a few other daily chores in exchange for a bunk and two meals and we planned to try and experience this part of the AT here at Lake of the Clouds. Unfortunately when we arrived at 5:15 the work for stay spots were filled so we were afforded our second choice, a bunk in what is affectionately called "The Dungeon". The dungeon is a bad weather safety shelter in a basement corner of the hut that is open year round for emergency use. In the summer, when the hut is in operation, they open it to thru hikers for overflow lodging. It is a damp, musty stone room with a heavy iron door that we plan to leave open in order to prevent folks from feeling claustrophobic. We are settled in for the night now listening to the activity on the main floor above where the hut residents have finished dinner and are now socializing for the evening. The work for stay hikers are busy cleaning up after which they will be allowed to feast on dinner leftovers. Part of our fee is that we, if we so chose, are allowed to eat whatever the work for stay gang does not finish. We decided to cook our own food rather than wait for leftovers from thru hikers since there is no such thing. Tomorrow we summit the 6288 ft. Mt Washington. On a dad but understandable note Otter left us a message on his way past here today thanking us for the three weeks of company but letting us know he was forging ahead so we are back to the original three of us. It will be somewhat appropriate from my point of view as we started this adventure together, and talked clear back in Tennessee about finishing together and how much fun that would be. IB and JP have become good friends and will make these final miles as memorable as they could be. Only 334.3 miles to go!Silverback