Date: 2010-08-27
From: Lake of the Clouds Hut

To: Osgood Tent Site
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: broken clouds

I am, of course, completely worn out but today has been incredible. We aoke to the wind still howling and fog all around at the hut, but some how I was in a great mood. I think the hut had just enough of a camp atmosphere to make me the cheery, perky morning person that that I somehow magically became at camp. We quickly moved   our stuff off the hut tables and floor and I wiped the tables for breakfast. (Yes, I suck up to the hut croo). We had yummy breakfast (delicious eggs plus other stuff). After all the guests had eaten and then after breakfast-five of us did all the dishes for our work-for-stay. I finally got out of the hut just before 10.   As I said, this was my first work-for-stay so I'll take a minute to talk about that. All in all I had a great experience. Of course there were good parts and bad parts. I have absolutely no problem eating after paying guests, doing work, etc. EXCEPT that there is no other option for us. There are no shelters at all in the Presidential range (26 miles from Crawford to Pinkham Notch), so thru hikers have absolutely no option in this stretch than to either pay $100 for a bunk or work-for-stay in a hut. In other words, I think the set up for thru hikers is great IF we were choosing to do that for the benefit of an enclosed space and good food. Oh, I failed to mention that there are also no opportunities to camp in the Presidentials because it is almost all above tree line.   Anyway....the food was great and abundant. I slept fine on a table and most of the crew were fantastic. One gal was very rude. She clearly had to look way down her nose to see any thru-hikers and she passed some of this attitude on to the guests. She was the most verbal and visible person through dinner so the guests saw and heard her a lot. During their "questions" period after dinner one of the guests asked the biggest animal they had seen up around the hut was. Her quick reply "thru hikers." Now I happen to think this was a pretty clever, funny joke but there is a fine difference in delivery between laughing with us and laughing at us. She was pretty clearly doing the latter. In her delivery of that tiny little joke, without saying a word about us otherwise, she told all of the guests that we are beggars at the door rather than normal intelligent people who have worked our butts off to get here. I handled it great at the moment but clearly I'm still irked about the whole thing.   The only other real downside to the hut system is that because I had no personal space to pull anything out of my pack until everyone had tone to bed, I felt more like a hobo last night. I mailed off journals to Dan today so I can't check. Anyway, like I said, all in all the hut was a great experience! Big thanks to Angie, Alex + Tom on the croo.   So, around 10 I hiked off into the cold, windy, foggy day. Just before I reached the top of Mt. Washington the clouds broke for a few seconds and revealed the before hidden summit and beautiful blue sky. I summited moments later in the fog, singing "On the loose." I stayed on the summit for about 2 hours, getting wonderful trail magic from Scatter's Mom (Thanks Donna) and sending some postcards during which time the sky cleared to a rich blue. There were many other thru hikers up there and there was a definite air of celebration about. No one said outright but I think that Mt. Washington was a major milestone for all of us. The end feels very near now.   I didn't leave Washington until around 12:45 so the rest of the hike felt a little rushed but I made it in by 7. I rally wanted to stay at Madison Spring Hut but that would have really messed up my next few hiking days. I ended up so glad that I hiked on. I'm at this small spread out tent site and I enjoyed a quiet evening cooking and journaling alone after the people overload of the past several days.   The hike to get here from Mt. Washington is almost indescribable. As far as beauty goes it is one of my favorite days on the trail so far. The hiking was very hard, basically just picking my way up and down piles of scree. Because the trail does a big loop around between Mt. Washington and Pinkham Notch, which are actually pretty close. I could see the layout of where I was going to hike beforehand. We traversed the rest of the Presidentials, staying above tree line for about 6 miles after Washington. The wind was strong but the views were constant and majestic. I just counted and I took 35 pictures today. I felt like every time I looked up there was something even more spectacular. The AT skirts all summits except Madison, but boy was that a summit. It was a steep climb 1/2 mile up and down, exposed rock with a tiny pointy summit. At 5366' it is much lower than Mt. Washington (6288') but this felt more than any other time like I had really CLIMBED a mountain.   What an amazing day on the AT!