Finally, after all the rain, I lucked out with decent waether in the area with the most unpredictable weather on the trail! That's not to say it was all sunny, and the wind didn't howl, but it was at least clear for the most part, and particularly on my traverse over Mt Washington. The summit of Washington was totally socked in in fog and cloud when I arrived. It was just barely above freezing, and I was wearing literally everything I was carrying: long pants, sweater, vest and down jacket, buff ear cover, wool hat, gloves. Everything! But as I stood waiting for my summit shot the sun started to break through, apparently for the first time in several weeks, and the temps rose a little. It was still windy though. I managed to remove a couple of the layers, coat, gloves and the hat I think. I spent the night at Lakes of the Clouds hut doing a work for stay. This hut was definitely a different experience than Carter Hut. The croo were at least civil to the hikers, though I still wouldn't consider it actually friendly. The food was better than Carter hut too. We even got brownies, and a couple of differnt meats with our dinner. It's a much more satisfying meal when it's not all carbs. I actually almost missed the dinner call becasue I was outside, where it was extremely wind and cold again, but there was a beautiful sunset.
I cleaned the stove for my work for stay. I didn't mind the work, but was worried about getting my only clothes all greasy from the stove. I met Abby, another female SOBO at the hut. She's a lot younger, and is hiking solo, which is very courageous at her age and with little backpacking experience. The remainder of the Presidentials was pretty routine. Yes, there were sttep rocky trails, but soome gorgeous scenery, and it was predominantly warm and sunny. I had left Brian behind in Gorham. He had some kind of a funk on, and decided he wanted more time in town. He didn't seem sick or anything, so I figured this was his way of telling me it was time for us to go our seperate ways. That's OK with me, because that was our agreement in the beginning, to just hike together as long as we both wanted it, and if the time came to split up we would do so. I just wish he could have actually said that instead of just hanging back though!
I actually enjoyed hiking alone. I think I talked to more people on this stretch than I have on others, but that's probably just because there are more people here than we have seen so far. This a very popular area, and of course it is the middle of summer (freezing temperatures and all!).
The trickiest part of this hike was the descent down Webster Cliffs. It wasn't as bad as many of the slick descents I've had so far, but some of the NOBOs had made it out to be much more dangerous than it was. Boy, are they in for a surprise when they hit Maine! The only reason it was tricky for me is that I had decided to tackle it late in the day, instead of stopping at Mizpah hut, which would have been the smart thing to do. There was a storm brewing and the top of the cliffs were very exposed, so I continued down in a light rain instead of being stuck on the top in a storm. The rocks granite rocks were very slick when wet, and it was getting late in the day. I knew I'd have to hitch hike to get to a campground when I reached the road, and really wanted to get down before dark, and preferably before it stormed.
I did make it, and got a ride from a nice French Canadian man out for a weekend camping trip with his son. He was a hiker, and was looking for a campground too, so they were happy to have me join them finding it. I lost him in the crowd at the check in, so I don't even know if he is staying here. I was saved from the long line by Richard, the campground owner. He easily identified me as a backpacker in the line (maybe the backpack, or maybe I stink again already?) and pulled me over to the side. He gave me a towel, shower tokens, and directions to the bunkhouse, and told me to get settled and shower (I guess maybe it was the stink!!) and return to register after the crwod had gone down. That was nice.
I was actually the only hiker in the bunkhouse the first night. What a great place: a fully enclosed hut with 4 sets of bunkbeds, table, shairs, individual bunklights, etc. The showers were hot and clean, a little slippery underfoot though. I fell and jarred my right shoulder pretty badly. Nice bruise on my thigh too. The fall caused me to zero for a day, I hadn't slept well, knees, hips and right shoulder weren't happy with me, and I had to take ibruprofen to get some rest.
For my second night here the bunkhouse was completely full. First to join me was Abby, who had work for stayed at Mizpah hut the night before. She is on a quest to work for stay at every hut in the system. She had had a hairy hike down the mountain today. She had been put off by the NOBOs stories about Webster cliffs so had decided to try an alternate route down, but ended up following false trails and having to ford a river several times to reach the road. I told her she needs to have more confidence in herself after what she has already achieved to get here and not be so freaked out by NOBOs!
As the day progressed more hikers arrived. The storms that never materilzed yesterday came out in full force today, and that will always fill up a hiker hostel or bunkhouse. By dark the bunkhouse was full. Just as we were all preparing to settle down, who walks in? Brian. He had been trapped up on Mt Washington by the lightning storms. Unable to hike on, he had finally bailed off the mountain in a car with a couple of guys who then drove him here. Today, as I write this, he has taken the Cog Railway up to the top of Mt Washington and will hike back to here tonight. I'm taking another zero day, as is Abby, and we'll all hike out tomorrow morning, if the weather cooperates.
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