(start 10:20 finish 6:40. Tented beyond Garfield shelter. 11.9 miles)
Very tough day of hiking. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of rocks. Very big elevation gains. This is real hiking or at least the toughest hiking I've done.
7/17
(start 9:00 finish 5:30. Mizpah hut. Idk miles)
Today was an adventure. I woke up from my stealth tent site and hiked for an hour. It was more downhill than the guide showed and I passed a few water sources, again which the guide did not show. I was starting to figure out that i wasn't on the Appalachian Trail. Finally i came to a major intersection of trails and there was no white blazes and now I knew that i wasnt on the AT. So I pulled out my White mtn national park map and waited until someone came around to try to find out where I was. Luckily the first group of people were knowledgable and friendly. They helped me realize that i made a wrong turn the previous day. I was 2-3 hours away and a steep downhill from where I should be so I contemplated a new way to get back on trail.
I choose to continue to walk down away from the trail and pick it back up at another trail head. Well the guy said 'we'll take wherever you want.' then they mentioned the magic word. They said their father was in town waiting at McDonalds for them to finish. MCDONALDS!!! (their father and one his friends tried to hike with them the day before but after starting their uphill, they said they couldn't do it so they went into town and got a hotel) so I went with them to McDonalds and ate a quarter pounder. Yum!. And the guy wouldn't let me pay for my food. Peoples generosity is amazing... Then his other friend was driving in the direction that i had to go, so he took me part of the way. Then I had to hitch a good 10 miles on another road, then another 15 miles on another road. Hitching was pretty difficult this time. I walked a lot of the way and it was hot. I got sunburned pretty bad on my arms and neck. I had to catch 3 different hitches to finally get where i was going to pick up the trail. So I finally got to the trailhead and I only had to hike 2.9 miles to a Hut.
Throughout the Whites they have huts. A pretty good size cabin that has multiple bunks in multiple rooms. Hikers can spend the night there for $125 per person. They let thru-hikers do a work-for-stay which is sweet. My job was to sweep the floors in the morning for which I get dinner, breakfast and I get to sleep on the floor somewhere. There's really nowhere else to sleep because they don't want you to camp because the wildlife is fragile in that high elevation environment.
7/18
(start 9:00. Finish 11:00. Lake of the clouds hut. 4.8 miles)
Ok so last night two other hikers came in late from a 21 mile day. They agreed to also do a work for stay and their duty was to help me sweep in the morning. We had to wait until all the guests leave which is around 8.
So these two guys wake me up at 5:30 and say "sorry dude we're leaving. We have to get started early" actually they didn't day sorry. So i went back to sleep, woke up at 7, ate the leftovers from the paying guests, and swept at 8. Emma, the hut leader, was very upset that the dudes left without doing what they were suppose to do. I really didn't care that much because I like the dudes and I know they like to leave early, but what they did was wrong. They probably screwed over future hikers that come to that hut. Now Emma is going to be less apt to take in hikers.
One of the reasons I didn't mind them leaving early was because of the weather forecast. It was suppose to be nice in the morning but get very ugly towards the afternoon. So they were trying to get over mount Washington before the bad weather rolled in. Mount Washington is notorious for bad weather. It has the highest recorded wind speed in the world (normal wind speed, not a tornado). 146 people have died on mount Washington.
However later in the day I did become a little upset at what they did. When I started hiking at 9 AM the weather was decent but it quickly turned horrible- high winds, foggy, rainy and cold. (the highest temperature ever on Mt Washington was 72 degrees) So I stopped at the next hut which was only 4.8 miles for the day. One i didn't want to get stuck in bad weather over Mt washington and two I also wanted to see. The visibility was like 20 feet. I was walking in a cloud. And these views were suppose to be magnificent. I walked all this way and did this rough hiking in the Whites. I wanted to the payoff- the views, so I was content with only a 4.8 mile day.
So anyway when I got there, those two guys were there. They left early and left me to sweep alone just so they could get 4.8 miles. And they never said thanks or sorry. Thats what pissed me off. I talked to them about it and they still didn't seem like they cared. It's makes me think of a quote from a leading person in the evolutionary biologist, anthropology field, Robert Trivers- "The human brain is the outcome of the cognitive arms race set in motion by the Machiavellian intelligence of our primate forbears fueled by the emotions needed to regulate reciprocal altruism." when you live in a group, people count on each other and people need to be accountable to that group. Give and take. These two are taking without giving back. They had no remorse. No 'I owe ya one' nothing. And what made it worse we had work for stay at this hut too. And our only duty was we had to reorganize the library book shelves. It was me, another dude and the two guys. Three of started working on it while one dude was away. Well that dude walked right by us, saw us and continued walking away. He didnt even help. So after yesterday's ordeal of skipping out of his duty, he did it again. Taker.
So anyway it was a short day, bad weather and no views.
7/19
(start 8:15. Finish 5:15. Osgood tent site. 10.3 miles)
(I guess the spot didn't work tonight)
Today was a day I will never forget. My emotions were at the absolute opposite ends of the spectrum.
The hut was awesome because a volunteer hut crew came in to give the normal workers a day off. The normal workers are college kids who have a smug attitude towards hikers. The volunteer crew were older people who use to work the huts like over 30 years ago. They were happy to be there, cheery and receptive. We actually got a bunk room instead of having to sleep on the floor.
So after breakfast the weather was finally starting to clear up and we could actually see. IT WAS BREATH TAKING. one dude said it's so beautiful that it looks fake. And he was right. It looked like the kind of place I see in magazines when I'm at home and ask myself "why the hell am I not there." I cannot express how amazing it was- infinite visibility, above treeline mountain tops, cool rock formations, clouds blowing over the mountains from the valley. It was a treasure. I felt so fortunate to be there and wondered why should I continue to hike (away) from these mountains. I should find a way to stay there. But I had to keep hiking so I did. Most of the day was going to be hiking above treeline so I would be able to see all of this beautiful stuff all day.
It was tough hiking. Every step was on a rock. This sucks for multiple reasons- you have walk very slow because every step is different and rocks could slip, so it takes a longgg time to walk a short distance, and a lot of the times all of your weight gets pressed on 1 inch of your foot because of how you have to step on certain rocks.
The summit of Mt Washington (6288 feet above sea level) was only 1.5 miles from the hut I slept at. It was pretty cold and fairly windy. The views were awesome. I hung out there for like 30 minutes and continued hiking. It was then 4 miles to the next hut where I planned on breaking and eating lunch. It took a longggg time because of the rock walking. I was still in awe and loving it, loving every moment, loving every nanosecond.
Then things took a turn. After lunch it was 3.5 miles until we went back under treeline. It was all horrible rock hiking like it had been all day, but before I was in blissful euphoria. But after lunch my feet starting killing me and I tweaked my right knee because of the twisting and turning I had to do because it was a 4000 foot descent of all rocks over a 3 mile stretch. When your feet hurt it really sucks because every step is- ouch, ouch, ouch. And every ouch is a worse ouch. It got worse and worse and worse UNTIL... WTF!!! why am I doing this?!?! This is bullshit. Why does it have to be so rocky?!?! I'm done!! I'm quitting!! I'm done hiking... forever!!! I lost it. I broke.
So I finally get back under treeline. I get to walk on dirt again and things were looking up... Nope! I forgot all about how bad the bugs were because I had been above treeline for 3 days. As soon I got under treeline, the bugs were buzzing in ear, landing on my head, Mosquitos biting my arms. And it got real hot. As Bear Jew said later that night 'you cannot win on the AT. It's always something.' ha, I guess that's life too. You have to take the good with the bad. And after I ate dinner and re-acclimated to the heat and constant bug annoyance, I fell back in love with hiking.
My plan was to hike farther than I did, but I pulled up early at a campsite because I just couldn't stand to hike any longer that day. Well four others that I stayed with at the hut the previous night were in the same ballpark as me. I had eaten dinner and had my tent all set up when they walked in and they said how you doing. And I immediately went into my tyraid that I just shared with you about the day going from the best to the worst very quickly. And dude (bear Jew) threw his arms up and said "hallelujah. I was just saying that to my girlfriend." they planned on hiking farther too but they also couldn't stand hiking any further. that made me feel better.
After filtering some water, I went over to their campsite and hung with them. It was a great time. They were very cool and funny. (bear Jew, rock puncher, sea weed, biologist)
I also want to talk about the Hut dynamic. I think it really sucks because theres really no other place to sleep because its above treeline, there are no other shelters and they dont want you tenting because the alpine wildlife is fragile. So you really have to stay at the huts. You have to wait until the guests clear the eating quarters and then eat their leftovers and then you sleep on the floor. Some guests are really cool to you but some look down at you. And the hut crew are smug college kids. It's not that bad but I'd rather just do the normal shelter or tent thing and not have to feel like a second class citizen.
7/20
(start 9:00. Finish 10:30. Hitched into Gorham. Hikers paradise. 3.5 miles)
I was only planning to resupply in this town and continue hiking. But the heat and my sore feet slowly persuaded my conscious mind to get a room and stay the night. So I did. I hitched to walmart. Got food for four days and got a bottle of wine, a block of cheese, lime tortillas and salsa to eat and drink today. Yum! They sell alcohol in walmart here. New Hampshire's slogan is "live free or die" gotta love that!!'
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