My one goal for my staycation was to solo Mt. Washington for #48 of my solo NH 4000 footers. Well, today the mountain won. It was not a good day for hiking Washington, though it was nice out everywhere else it seems.
My goal was to hike up Tuckerman's Ravine to the top, then down Lion's Head. To make things easier, I stayed at my friend's place up in N. Conway - they've got wifi up there now, it's so on-the-grid. The forecast looked OK - rain overnight, clearing in the morning, sun coming out around 10 or 11. I decided with the rain that I would hike the other side of the mountain, doing the Ammonoosuc Trail up and Jewel down since they are less climbing-like, and I figured that the rocks would still be wet. Which they were, because it rained the whole time I was there!
I got up a little later, around 8:30, made coffee and had my oatmeal that I brought, and hit the road by 9:15. It's a 45 minute drive, and I got to the mountain around 10. It was a beautiful day in N Conway, but as I drove closer, I could see the clouds around Washington. They were thick. It didn't seem like they were going to clear off, but I went with hope, and started off on the hike. One thing that's nice about Washington is that there are real bathrooms at the foot of the trail, so I stopped at the visitor's center to pee before heading out.
Although it's August 2, I wore long pants, one of my new long sleeve lulu shirts, my rain pants (the egg salad people would be so happy that I learned my lesson from Isolation) and my rain jacket. I was a little warm once I got going, but not too bad. The first mile is pretty chill, and I strolled along in the rain wondering if there really was any chance that the clouds would clear up. After a bit you get to a really pretty little pool with a waterfall going into it, and that's the start of the really uphill bit. I pulled out my hiking polls, and headed up. After about a half hour I ran into a park ranger who said that another front was moving in, and the winds were picking up above tree line, and it might be hypothermia weather up there. Which kind of silly to think of dying of hypothermia in the beginning of August, but it can happen. I started thinking about maybe just going to the hut instead, and tagging Monroe.
As I hiked, I got warmer, and it kept raining. I was sweating, and so my pants and shirt were getting wet, even though I had rain gear on. As I got higher, the wind started to pick up. I came to a second water fall which was beautiful, and stopped to eat a power bar and my cheese sandwich on sourdough bread. And, I thought about how miserable Isolation had been. And then I was like "fuck it, I'm turning back." Because I didn't think I was going to be able to make it to the top, and I was probably going to have to go down the same trail, and it was steep and slabby and not fun and I didn't want to do another miserable hike like Isolation just because I had started it. So, that's what I did!
I only wound up hiking for about 3 and a half hours, with a total of about 4 hours on the mountain. I didn't actually make bad time - the slow split in mile three was due to sandwich eating, photographing the waterfall and deciding about going back. I'm glad I made the choice I did. When I got home and looked at the current weather conditions on Washington it said winds were at 44 mph with gusts up to 52, temp was 42 with a wind chill of 30. In wet clothes, that would not have been a good idea. The mountain is always there for me to try again.
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