Date: 2016-08-14
From: Mount Washington 

To: Mount Washington 
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: light rain

I will begin this entry with a riddle: I walked to the top of Mt. Washington twice, but I never walked down. How is this possible? The answer is that there is a private road (It costs $29 to drive a car to the top of Mt. Washington). When we got to the top of Mt. Washington the first time, Warren was waiting for us in his van, and he drove us down the mountain. The next morning, we started at the bottom of the mountain on the opposite side and hiked to the top of the mountain again. We did NOT walk the same route up the mountain twice. We first walked up one side of the mountain, then the next day we started at the opposite side of the mountain and walked back to the top again. We did this because the mountain is so steep that it is both easier and safer to walk up it twice.Some people say that the hike we did yesterday was the toughest one day hike on the AT. It took us seven hours to walk the seven miles from the mountain base to Madison Hut. We had to ascend Mt. Madison to do so, a route that is treacherous even by NH standards, and they have no mountain trail standards whatsoever. At the Mt. Madison Hut, we spent 15 minutes gobbling down their free cold, leftover eggs with cheese from breakfast and continued on our way. Given the fact that we were averaging one mile per hour, and given the fact that we left the hut at noon, we guessed we would reach Mt. Washington at 6:00 PM. This private road closes at 6:45 PM, so we were under time pressure. The AT on the way to the top of Mt. Washington is one of the WORST places to try and hurry, but due to our road closure deadline, that's what we did, with the predictable disasterous results. What they (AT) are calling a trail is a boulder field that stretches for ten miles. The boulders are of every size and shape imaginable, The sizes range from a football to half the size of a person. The boulders are wet from the constant rain and mist on the mountain. They are also covered with both moss and lichens, and thus are slippery. Some of the boulders are also loose and unstable and there is no way to tell in advance which boulders are unstable. Then there is the wind factor. We were lucky in that we had two consecutive days of weather that is gentle for Mt. Washington. The first day we had sustained winds of 39 MPH, The second day the winds were even less. However, it is common to have some gusts of 60 MPH or higher. I call it " Rock Roulette." Every step you take could result in a broken leg, ankle, arm, wrist, etc. It is not a question of if you are going to fall. We all fell several times. The question is are you going to be seriously injured when you fall. Also, we were carrying day packs with only lunch, water and a warm coat. Can you imagine what the boulder field must be like for people with full back packs? Do you know how much stress that puts on you when you are walking in such conditions all day long for several consecutive days? The most revered person in the history of the AT is the late Earl Shaeffer. (ES) ES was the first person to walk the entire AT in 1948. He did it again in the 1960's, and a third time in 1998. ES spent his life working on AT trail maintenance. After ES completed his third AT hike, he gave a speech where he BLASTED the AT trail routers for the way they had changed the routing of the AT over the decades. ES said that as far as he could see, the sole motivation for the routing changes of the AT over the decades had been to make the trail as difficult and as dangerous as possible. The AT has a failure rate of over 70 per cent. That is not a statistic to be proud of. There are many people who hike 1700 miles, and then quit when they get to the White Mountains of NH. Clearly, these are not weak willed or physically unfit hikers. The leadership of the AT blew ES off for his critical speech, saying he was entitled to his opinion. If you go to the AT website, they will have a noble praiseworthy mission statement. I am willing to bet that the unofficial mission statement of the route planners of the AT is to make the trail as difficult and dangerous as possible, because to them, a success rate of 25 per cent is disgracefully high. I still hold those people who work tirelessly and without pay to do trail maintenance on the AT in the highest regard, as I do for all the Trail Angels. Ok, I'm off my soapbox. . Now back to my demise.Shortly after leaving Madison Hut, while attempting to hurry to catch a ride before the $29 toll road closed for the night, I felt a sharp pain in my right knee. I got really scared, because I felt that if I further injured that knee playing Rock Roulette, I would be unable to walk out of that cold,foggy, rocky moonscape. Warren had insisted that the three people who were hiking that day stick together, and my two hiking companions, Jeff and Gene could not have been kinder and more helpful to me, and I am very grateful for their help. My spirits crashed to zero. I decided that when I got back to the car I would quit the hike and go home. After a nites sleep, I decided to take a rest day today and see if I can hike with the group tomorrow