Date: 2003-09-10
From: Whitewall Mtn. Trail

To: Mizpah Hut
Miles today: 11.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Last night was a cold one! Not sure about the temperature, but it felt colder than the night before. It was still pretty cold this morning, so 42 had to psych herself up to get out of the sleeping bag. In fact, while taking the food bag down from its tree, Moo heard strange, squealing noises coming from the tent, which turned out to be 42's whimpering noises as she put her slightly damp (read: sweaty) shirt back on. She finally did make it out of the bag & tent and was very excited to see the sun coming through the trees and not a cloud in the sky.The first couple of miles were flat and we should have flown over them, but we had a slight problem, only about 15 minutes into the hiking day -- 42 had a wipeout and found herself in the middle of a puddle of mud (a muddle?). Moo tried to help her clean up, but she was pretty covered in mud and there wasn't much we could do at that point until the mud dried. Oh well, she was already warm from hiking, so she laughed it off and hiked on, looking like a real hiker. Damn, she's one tough backpacker.Hiked down into Crawford Notch (1280'), then (since there's only one way out of a notch) up up up out of the Notch & into the Presidential Range. The Presies (as they're called) cover approx 25 miles between Crawford & Pinkham Notches, mostly above treeline. The ascent was a great one -- a challenging rock scramble that kept winding us around to incredible views of the mountains. Moo was impressed, but not surprised that 42 totally attacked what looked like walls of rock, turning what seemed scary into something really fun. Our progress was slow, though, b/c we kept pausing to admire the soaring & breathtaking views! We had lunch on a rock outcropping on a section of Webster Cliffs (3330'), nestled into a crook, putting us out of the wind but still under the sun. Eating on the warm rocks was wonderful. While we were eating, Cruiser and Reason came along and joined us for a bit. Then we hiked on.After lunch we finished the hike up Mt. Webster (3910'), then hiked up Mt. Jackson (4052')-- fantastic. Funny how the 1.4 hiking miles between the peaks of Webster & Jackson do not translate into a mellow 142-foot climb -- there's always that steep, rock-scrambly descent in between the peaks before we start the next climb.We must have had extra energy after lunch or something, b/c we arrived at the Mizpah Hut much sooner than we expected. It was a good thing, too, b/c we got the last 2 work for stay spots. We had to wash a huge pile of dishes, which was actually fun b/c we got to talk to the hut croo (Hannah, Kate & Ben) while washing, and they were great. After our chore was done, we set up our stuff. The bunks were too narrow for us to share, so we decided to sleep on our airmats on the floor. Moo found us some floorspace in a storage closet that had a window and a door -- later on we found out it was the designated rodent-free room -- score! It also turned out to be the most private space in the whole hut, b/c there was just the 2 of us, whereas other rooms had at least 4 people. We later heard it referred to as the "sin suite" -- we prefer calling it the honeymoon suite. We had to wait until the "real" guests (paying guests, as opposed to work for stay thru-hikers) had eaten to get dinner because we would just get leftovers, but it turned out that the croo made a fresh batch of shells & cheese, so we had our fill, along with soup, salad, bread and chocolate cake. Great change from Lipton dinners. Played trivial pursuit (Phlegm & Opposite George won), talked to some very nice real guests (Nat & Julie), then retired to our sin, ahhh honeymoon, suite. Pipes very generously lent 42 her 15-degree sleeping bag so 42 (who's been a bit cold in her 30-degree bag) could check it out.