Week 15

Week 15 Tuesday-Monday Happy Labor Day! Today marks the 107th day of my journey! I cannot believe so much time has passed so quickly. I have hiked 1,386.5M, and I have 333.5M until I reach Khatadin. The past few days have been full of moments I will never forget. This week I hiked Franconia Ridge, which is one of the above-treeline ridges the AT follows in the White Mountain Range. The ridge takes you on a jaw-dropping hike which allows you to summit Little Haystack Mountain (4,800 ft.), Mt. Lincoln (5089 ft.), and Mt. Lafayette (5263 ft.). We ate lunch on that beautiful ridge, and I had one of those moments I often have out here, when all the magic of these mountains overpowers me, and I can't believe I am really here. I can't believe where this beautiful life in recovery has led me. 

After a captivating hike, which included another 1,000 ft. hike to summit Garfield Mountain, Wolfdog and I made it to a campsite. Camping in the Whites is much different from other parts of the trail. You have to camp at particular sites, on tent platforms, and you have to pay for those sites as well. I don't mind paying to camp, but only being able to camp at those particular sites make it much harder to plan your day and gauge your mileage. Being able to stealth camp anywhere you want is much more convenient. The White Mountains have been gorgeous, but they have also been challenging. The rock scrambling and bouldering it takes to get through them is tough, both mentally and physically. I have come to find that I can fly up a mountain, no matter how steep, but coming down on difficult terrain is a whole other ball game. Slowly crawling down rocks for an hour, and only going a mile or so, is a big change from the 2-3 M pace in which my mind is accustomed. It is both tedious and psyche numbing. Everyone said the Whites would "slow you down", and they were right. I just thought it would be the constant four and five thousand foot climbing that would do the slowing, but I was mistaken. It is the rocky descends that slows the hike to a snails pace. 

On top of a reduced pace, I encountered some bad weather which forced me and my friend Wolfdog back out of the mountains after only two days of hiking. We had made it to Crawford Notch (right before the presidential range) and were warned by park rangers that risky weather was coming to the area. 90MPH winds, -5 windchill, and snow was to hit Friday, and it was recommended that we delay our hiking until the following day. Reluctantly, we called the Notch Hostel and shuttled back to North Woodstock for a zero day. This day off, and the short days preceding and following it, threw me off my tentative schedule, but after seeing some photos of the summit the day before we went up, I definitely think it was the right decision. 

We hiked 11M up the presidential range on Saturday, starting with Webster, Jackson, Pierce, Eisenhower, Franklin and Monroe. The weather was gorgeous and again, like on Franconia Ridge, we were above tree line nearly the entire hike.

When we reached the base of Mount Washington, there was a hut at 5,000 ft. called Lake of The Clouds. It was surrounded by small acidic lakes that reflect the cloud-filled sky and surrounding mountain. 

The huts in White Mountain National Park sit about 20M apart from each other and house bunk rooms, a staff of about ten, and anywhere from 40-75 guests, depending on the hut size. People pay around $130 per night to sleep in the bunks, hike during the day, and be served breakfast and dinner. If you are a thru hiker, you can do 'work for stay' and sleep on the dinning room floor (which is not swept after dinner is served , FYI). The work includes scrubbing pans, sweeping floors, and tidying bunks. Wolfdog and I got there in time to sign up for work, but were unable to get evening work. Therefore, we had to stay late the next morning to complete our work for stay. This was unfortunate because more bad weather was set to come in during the late morning.

By the time we finally left the hut it was 9:30am. This was not good. We stepped outside of the front door, which was exactly 1.4M from the summit, and were immediately blown away. 70MPH winds with 80MPH gusts, and temps in the mid 30's, blasted us from the first step of our hike all the way to the top of the mountain. I was blown off rocks and lost my pack cover, which was cinched on super tight, several times as I was hiking.  

The white outs created by passing clouds made it very difficult to spot the cairns, which marked the trail up the side of the mountain. At any moment, we could have lost the trail and ended up on the edge of the deep ravines that surrounded us, but luckily we made it to the top. We grabbed the summit sign at 6,289 ft., attempted to snap some photos, and then ran toward the visitors center.

Mount Washington is no joke. It is home of the world's worst weather, due to its geographical location, and has claimed hundreds of lives. Six people died there in 2016 alone. After we hit the summit, I decided there was no way we were climbing down 6M to make it to Madison hut that day. For the first time on this entire trip, I felt completely unsafe hiking, and it is one thing to climb up something in those conditions, but to scramble down steep jagged wet rocks would be a whole other ball game. I wanted no part of it. Wolfdog and I opted to take a shuttle down instead. By the grace of the gods, we caught the last shuttle they were running that day before they were shutting down due to inclement weather. Forty-five minutes later, we were at Pinkham Notch trying to figure out our next move. 

I felt like a refugee sitting on the floor of that visitors center basement. The weather was forecasted to be just as bad for the next two days in the Whites... so we opted for a little trail vacation. Wolfdog's sister Elizabeth lives in Portland, ME, which is about two hours from where we were. She got our call, and grabbed us up a few hours later. We were saved! 

We will be heading back to the trail on Wednesday, but for now we are both resting and relaxing. A little trip to the local beach and park area was enjoyed today. We even had a little Labor Day picnic of lobster rolls, whoopie pies, and Moxie sodas. One more day off and we will head back to New Hampshire, so we can get on trail and head back to Maine.