Date: 2008-07-21
From: Zealand Falls Hut

To: Nauman Tent Site
Miles today: 14.0

It had rained moderately for the past two days, but today was something else - it poured. My weather radio says this area may get as much as 2-3 inches of rain during today. Not a great way to see the sites because the higher elevations are pretty much fogged in. We are supposed to have one more significant rain day tomorrow (when I plan on going over Mt. Washington) and then some nicer weather.The temps are also a lot cooler today. It felt like the daytime high must still be somewhere in the 40's. Almost (but not quite) warm enough for me to wear a long sleeve shirt.Left around 8:30am from the Zealand Hut. Ahead of everyone else since I did my "chore" last night. But still had to start hiking relatively late if I wanted to eat their breakfast - which I did.The first "mountain" for the day was Whitewall Mountain, which is actually lower than Zealand Hut. Then past Ethan Pond (pretty, with good water to drink) and then a side trail to Ripley Falls. It actually stopped raining for a while and I decided to go see the falls which were about a half mile down the trail. Probably not a smart decision when I thought about it later because I used up some valuable hiking time.Ripley Falls is a long sheet of whitewater that flows over a smooth rock wall. The rock wall is at a very steep angle, causing the mountain water to maintain contact with the rock during its descent. For the next three miles or so the trail keeps on descending into Crawford Notch. When I reached Crawford Notch I was sorely tempted to head over to the Highland Lodge which you can reach on the AMC shuttle that goes to the various notches. The rain was really very steady and I was tempted to call it a day even though I had done less than 8 miles. But I decided to just push on and wanted to make up for the rain if possible. After about 15 minutes of "pushing on" I regretted my decision, but went on anyway.The Highland Lodge is one of several AMC lodges in the area. You could also consider them hotel/motels because they have all the utilities and other services. AMC members get a small discount to stay there. I have heard that they will also give thru-hikers the same discount. But that needs to be verified.After Crawford Notch there is about a 2,000 climb up to the Webster Cliffs. There is supposed to be a great view from there, but I sure couldn't see it due to the weather. In the meantime it began to get colder and I started to get a little worried about hypothermia so I would put on my rain jacket whenever I'd stop somewhere for a break. The jacket doesn't keep you any drier but does help keep your body heat generated from escaping from your body.Getting to Mt. Jackson brought me back into the 4,000 foot elevation level. The impact of the winds was a lot stronger. Now I put the rain jacket on even while hiking. It's possible that the wind chill might have been in the 30's - although I had no way to verify that. I got to the Mizpah Hut before long. My intentions were to stay here for the night. But as luck would have it, a crewe member told me they already had their maximum amount of "work for stay" hikers for the night. This was the first time I have ever had that happen. Indeed, there were about ten other hikers already there. So I pretty much had to go over to the adjacent Nauman tent site for the night. Setting up the the tent site was pretty miserable in the rain. I did manage to keep my Hubba tent pretty dry. But since I was on a wooden tent platform it was difficult to stake out the two sides (one of which creates the vestibule). So the vestibule was only partially available to keep my pack and boots in. After this I pretty much just hunkered down in the tent for the night. I even cooked my dinner with the stove inside the vestibule (but with the flap zippered open for good ventilation). Cooking like that you have to be really careful not to burn your home down.Thus ends a very wet day. Tomorrow comes Mt. Washington.