Mount Washington And Beyond

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Appalachian Trail, White Mountains, NH – 8/19/12 – Lake ofthe Clouds Hut to Valley View Campsite – 7.6 miles
Faint light through our dungeon window awakened usearly.  We were out of our bunks by 6:30a.m., washed up, prepared and ate our breakfast in the LOTC dining room.  We had a minimum of 7 miles today and expectedit to be slow going, so no time to waste. 
Stepping out into the chill, we turned our faces towards thetrail and stopped to marvel:  blue sky, alacy wisp of cloud over Mount Washing- ton....
...and a cottony blanket of clouds down overthe valley.  Can you see where the name“Lake of the Clouds” comes from?
Another interpre- tation of "Lake of the Clouds"



The first big pile of rocks to climb today was MountWashington, carefully choosing our footing across a boulder field with onlyrock cairns as guides.  I say “first”because pretty much all day was the same, above tree line navigating oneboulder field after another.  The goodnews was the clouds dispersed for a wide-open blue sky and we could see for milesand miles in every direction…all day long. This was quite a gift because Mount Washington is famous for having the “worstweather on earth”.  Today there wasn’teven a noticeable breeze.  For me theexpansive views definitely made the rocky terrain worthwhile. 
Saying goodbye to Mount Monroe and Lake of the Clouds Hut
I took a dozen photos looking backwards as we climbed – thisis Judy and Mount Monroe and a tiny LOTC
Most of the rock cairns featured a chunk of quartz largerthan my head
Ugly but necessary equipment towers on Mount Washington –can you believe it was hard to get a cell phone signal?
We were ahead of most folks getting to the summit, i.e. thecog train and driving tourists had not yet arrived.  Sadly, the snack bar was also not yet cooking.  There’s a hospitable hiker lounge on thelower floor with tables and chairs, outlets for recharging things, and mostimportantly, bathrooms and showers.  Wehung around for an hour or so waiting on sandwiches from the snack bar, threwaway trash and did one last edit of pack weight, tossing out a little bit offood.  We briefly considered riding the cog railway down and back up the mountain, but the fee ($62) and the time involved made us say no.
The requisite photo to prove we were here
Here the AT changes from the Crawford Path to the GulfsideTrail, more presidential summits ahead. Overheard remark from a female hiker ahead of us:  “Next is Mount Clay?  That one must be named for those people wholost a presidential election.  Come on,let’s go climb Mount Romney!”
Standing on the cog railway tracks
Click on this photo to enlarge it and see the cog trainascending Mount Washing- ton, with Lake of the Clouds Hut (shining roof) andMount Monroe in the center background
The women ahead of us (the Romney joke) mooned the train asit went past, a tradition amongst AT thru-hikers and apparently anybody whofeels like it.  The conductor shook hisfist at them and yelled, maybe threatening to arrest them later?  How would he identify them?  Well, it is a family train…We just smiled andwaved politely as it passed us.
We’re going over all those mountains
Do you see a trail? Neither do I.
Typical character of the trail today.  Most intersections were well signed, but theonly indication of trails was rock cairns leading off in different directions. 
Mount Clay – once again the AT skirted around the contourswhile a side trail went to the summit. 

Judy was cool with summiting Mount Washington, but therelentless boulder fields did not improve her opinion of New Hampshire as shecontinued to be extremely cautious and uncomfortable.  Fortunately she is very strong physically soshe just sucked it up like a pro and kept going.  I felt more confident with the rock surfingthan on the first day and the climbs were not as extreme, but I still didn’twant to foolishly twist an ankle.  Wemoved slowly enough not to get hopelessly exhausted, but as the day wore on therocks got more challenging and we grew weary. One mile per hour was our top speed.
During one rest stop I stepped on one of my new hiking polesand bent it, had to fiddle with it and readjust to keep the proper length.  Once you’ve bent a pole you can’t reallytrust it.  (Once back home I returned itto REI, walked out five minutes later with a new set of poles.) 
Huge hunk of quartz on the trail
Mount Washington over Judy’s shoulder.  From there the AT follows the ridge line in ahuge semi-circle to the right, so we could see Mount Washington all day and even thefollowing day.
A little outcropping fun near Mount Jefferson
Interesting ridge lines
Hobbit- esque patch of stunted trees near Israel Ridge
A rare AT blaze – the yellow blaze represents Gulfside Trail
Near Thunder- storm Junction – here the AT skirts the contoursof Mount Sam Adams.  Some clouds werebeginning to form, the hour was getting later and we were ready to be done butstill had a couple of miles to go.  A fewthru-hikers passed us, mostly young guys moving at high speed, not what youwant to see at the end of a tiring day. Our goal was to score two guest bunks for the night at Madison Hut, ouronly hope since they don’t have emergency shelter like LOTC does.
Madison Hut at last – and Mount Madison, the rock pilebehind it, which we will have to deal with in the morning
No room at the inn for us, but we got to say hello to some fellowtravelers we’d met at LOTC.  So what areour options?  A campsite about ahalf-mile down the Valley View Trail…down meaning straight down, steeply down,ridiculously steeply down.  By now mytank of optimism was running low, but Judy was perked up because we were againbelow tree line and the Valley View Trail was enclosed by thick woods whichmade her feel safer.   
After a lifetime ofdescent we found the side trail to the campsites, small spaces strung out alongthe still-steep mountain- side.  There wasone fellow at a neighboring site who we chatted with briefly.  He was wearing jeans, didn’t have a tent, was tryingto cook some foil-covered objects, said he was a grad student just out for somefun for the weekend.  As we went to setup our site Judy commented that she hoped we didn’t wake up dead.
A little hiker humor there, folks, everything was fine.  He was a nice young man.
Alpine glow sunset on the mountain with the privy in thefore- ground.  We go to the nicest places.
Our site was very quiet, peaceful and secluded.  Judy and I agreed that we were happy to skipthe hut social scene.  It felt great totake a bird bath and change clothes completely from the skin out, a littlecleaned up for our last night on the trail. We cooked, ate, toasted Day 3 with a little brandy.  I fell asleep to the babbling sound of thenearby creek.
“Mountains should be climbed with as little effort aspossible…The reality of your own nature should determine the speed.  If you become restless, speed up.  If you become winded, slow down.  You climb the mountain in an equilibriumbetween restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just ameans to an end but a unique event in itself.” ~Robert M. Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”