Date: 2001-07-03
From: Osgood Tentsites, NH

To: Mount Washington, NH
Miles today: 8.6

I slept restlessly last night. The tent platform I was on sloped a bit to one side, just enough to keep me sliding to one end of my bivy every so often.      I got up early again, around 5:00 and started hiking about an hour later. I enjoy being out on the trail first thing in the morning. It¢s a quiet time of the day. The plants are dewy and the corridor is frequently criss-crossed by spider webs. I especially enjoy hiking early when the trail will be going above tree line ¢ like today ¢ just a mile up the steep Osgood ridge.    The first views revealed a ceiling of clouds high above the peaks. It was cool and dry, warmer than yesterday, a pleasant 50 degrees. From the ridge I could see the route I¢d been hiking for the last three days. Old Speck, just over the Maine Stateline, was visible just beyond the Goose Eye Peaks. So I could roughly see the Mahoosuc Notch Trail where I started. All the peaks of the Mahoosuc Range were easy to see, leading from Maine into New Hampshire and ending at Mount Hayes between Berlin and Gorham on the Androscoggin River. Moriah, The Carters, Carter Dome, Carter Notch and the multi-peaked Wildcat descending to Pinkham Notch. The Presidential Range stood ahead of me. The Mount Washington Carriage Road and Cog Railway were both silent. It was a wonderful day to up there. It was calm and pleasant.    I stopped at Madison Springs Hut around 9:00am and had a coffee and some leftover sweet bread of sorts. It was just $1.00 for ¢all you can eat¢. I wonder why Lakes Of The Clouds Hut was charging $2.75 for the same ¢AYCE¢ two weeks ago? While I ate I perused a Hut Register from 1976 and found my mother¢s entry from her honeymoon. My parents were married on Mount Washington¢s Alpine Garden, and they honeymooned in the AMC Huts: Mizpah, Lakes Of The Clouds and Madison. They were here 25 years and two days ago, apparently on a very cloudy day. They had to search carefully for each cairn as they traversed Mount Adams.    The Hut food was a nice supplement to my diet. I headed up around Mount Adams about 9:45. It was a beautiful day but rather uneventful. The wind did start blowing as I rounded Mount Clay and headed for Washington. This cooled me off a bit so I added a layer. As the Gulfside Trail / A.T. pulled along side of the Cog Railway I saw two trains steaming for the summit.    I arrived with a sea of tourists. To avoid being trampled I disappeared down the stairs to the deserted hikers room. I unwound for a while and then went upstairs to use a payphone. The crowd had diminished; some sitting down to eat in the cafeteria others had dispersed to the various things to see around the summit. I called my father and we talked for a while. Afterwards I went to the roof and stood in front of the Weather Observatory¢s web camera. Frank was going to try and catch a glimpse of me on-line. It was rather chilly outside so I soon headed down the mountain to Pinkham, once again via the Tuckermans and Lions Head Trails. I was in the notch by 3:30. I called Bruce for a shuttle and soon I was back at my car in Gorham, at the end of another hike.