Day 2's agenda was Madison Spring Hut to Lake of the Clouds Hut, with three summits on the way. Initially I had planned to already have Madison done, but given the weather that was still on my to-do list. So, I had Madison (elevation 5367), Adams (elevation 5793), Jefferson (elevation 5712) and Washington (elevation 6288). I decided I would see how things went, but since I already had done Washington, and didn't love it (it's a parking lot on top and a lot of people in flip flops who drove up, taking pics of themselves at the Mt. Washington sign) I could possibly skip that if necessary.
Breakfast at the hut was coffee, oatmeal, pancakes, bacon and eggs. I ate some of each, one thing I love about hiking :) I left my pack in the hut and did Madison. It was only .5 mile up, but it still took more than 45 minutes because of all of the elevation gain and because, though the wind had died down a lot, it was still pretty windy up there. Things had cleared up and I had a nice view, but I also had a long way to go, so I didn't say up top for long. I went back to the hut, got my gear (with everything in my pack at home it weighed about 30 pounds) and headed out. Adams was next, and pretty close to the hut.
I will say for the record that I am not a fan of Adams. It is a giant heap of rocks which requires hopping from rock to rock, scrambling, and a lot of picking your way. For someone who's more like a mountain goat I'm sure it would be fun, but for me it was a lot of work. From the hut it was .9 miles with 950 feet of elevation gain. As I was sitting on the top, enjoying the view and having a snack, this guy came running up. He had run all the way up from the parking lot in an hour and 49 minutes! It took me almost that long from Madison Spring.
After a little rest I headed down the other side of the mountain to the AT. Once I got down I had a rather depressing moment because there was a sign that said "Madison Spring Hut .9 mile." And I had already been hiking for like 3 hours! I decided right there that Washington was probably not going to happen, and headed off. It's 1.2 miles of gradual uphill from Adams to Jefferson. It seemed to take forever! It was super windy and very rocky on the trail. I was pretty psyched to get to the turn off for Jefferson and head up. Jefferson was also a pretty tough climb, but definitely easier than Adams. It's cool when you come to the top of a mountain and a whole new side of the mountain range is suddenly there!
I had packed a "bag of sugar" before I left - jelly beans, gummy bears, and swedish fish, and I enjoyed sitting up top and eating for a while. I couldn't rest for too long, though, because even with going around Washington I still had 3.5 miles to go, and it was like 2:00! Dinner at the huts is at 6:00, and I didn't want to miss the bread course.
I was so glad I decided to go around Washington. I was really tired and moving pretty slowly. In fact, at one point I was thinking I could hike up to Washington the next day and take the Cog Railway down, and then the hiker's shuttle to the car! Serious dark trail thoughts.
Later, I was sitting at the side of a spring, filtering water, when this woman came by. We were chatting and I asked her where she came from - "Georgia." I had meant that morning, but wow! Thru hiking is hard core.
The trail I took went under the Cog, and as I was walking there was a train going up and the engineer and I waved at each other. It was really nice, and the path was kind of fun - it was all rocks. but I had gotten my trail legs a little, and they were pretty flat and well organized, so I was moving pretty well, hopping from rock to rock. It was reasonably flat, and I was moving fast for me.
When I got my first sight of Lake of the Clouds, I was #1 really excited and #2 a little bummed because it was so far away. It took forever to reach after I had seen it. I mean, forever! And, at the end, I really really had to pee, and I didn't want to outside because there was water everywhere and I figured it all went to the hut's water (though I guess my little bit of pee wouldn't really have been that big of a deal). I was so happy to get there! It was 6:30 - I went to the bathroom (where I noticed that my hair had blown in one direction so much from the wind that I looked pretty ridiculous) and then one of the nice Croo kids brought me a bowl of soup and some bread, and I was still on time for the rest of the meal :)
Lake of the Clouds was amazing! The lake was gorgeous, the sunset amazing, there were a ton of through hikers staying there. I talked to this guy named Kimosape, who was saying how much of a mental game hiking is. Yup, that's true. I asked one of the croo about the hike the next day - I was like "today kind of kicked my butt. Will tomorrow be as hard?" and he said, "if it kicked your butt, you were doing it right." and that no, it wouldn't be that hard. So, I decided not to take the Cog down :) Also, my buddies from Kalamazoo had gotten there a few hours before me, but they didn't do any of the summits. The woman said that she had been watching to make sure I got there - very sweet.
One down point of Lake of the Clouds - when I went to my room, I was a little scared of the bunk - since I was the last one there I got last choice in beds and I was on the bottom of three bunks. My bed was basically on the floor and the next bunk was so low you couldn't sit up in it. It was pushed up next to another bed and my "bed mate" was some dude. I woke up at midnight feeling claustrophobic and crawled out of the bed and slept on the floor next to it, where someone from level 2 stepped on me at 3 am going to the bathroom :P
No comments:
Post a Comment