Troll's 2010 AT Journal

05 September 2010, Mount Washington
While we were eating dinner last night at the hut a younger couple was just arriving at the hut during dinner. The female was not doing too well and the guy was carrying her day pack.

I woke up for a bathroom break in the middle of the night and it was pretty damn windy outside. I am very glad I was not outside in that wind. If I was outside last night on this ridgeline I would not have survived. As it was I was sweating in my zero degree sleeping bag inside the hut.

When I got up for my nightly potty break last night I walk through the dinning area where they let the hikers sleep. All the tables had hikers sleeping on top of them and Pebbles strung his hammock between two posts.

The crews at this hut and the last hut that I stayed at have both put on a skit at breakfast each morning about tipping the crew. Each one has been hilarious.

During breakfast this morning at the hut we sat across the table from the younger couple that came in late last night. It was quite obvious that she was still upset at her counterpart. He spilt a little hot water on her and she started to cry. I could tell it was not just the hot water that made her break down. Hopper asked them if they were heading back down the mountain today and he replied they were going to Madison Hut. Madison Hut was 10 miles from this hut and I knew that by their looks and the attitude she had, she probably would not make it. When the crew announced today’s weather for the summit she slumped over and I thought she was going to cry again. Hopper realized this too and tried to loosen her up. The guy asked what we were doing and Hopper explained that she was going to the summit and taking the Cog Railroad down. I told him after hearing the weather report that I was going to the summit and if the weather was bad that I would take the Cog down to, if not I would continue on north. He then went on to tell us he thru hiked in 2006. I asked his trail name and he said it was Snakebite. The girl did finally start to talk a little bit and said she had never hiked before and that this was her first hike. After hearing that I was thinking to myself, "what was this guy thinking taking her on a hike of this magnitude, stupid idiot". Later on in the men’s bathroom I heard him tell someone else that he was going to the summit and see how she felt and decide from there. I felt better hearing that.

The visibility is potato soup outside right now. We left shortly after breakfast and the fog was still like potato soup. The wind was 40 to 50 mph when we started out. When we got to the top it was 60 to 70 mph. I was dressed in my convertible pants with my rain pants over them for a wind barrier. For the top I wore my long john shirt with a fleece over it and my rain coat. I stayed warm. I actually started sweating and had to unzip my rain coat and its pit zips some. My left ear started getting cold, even with my buff on and my rain coat hood. My balaclava somehow did not get sent to me in my cold weather gear I had mailed to me earlier in the hike. I was able to keep my ear warm enough, my ear did not fall off nor did I get frost bite on them. I started feeling it in my ankles more than anything on this hike up because with the wind and its gust I was constantly trying to compensate leaning forward, left, right, and sometimes backwards. I was not able to see more than 30 feet in front of me on the climb up. The whole time while hiking to the summit today with the wind and the temps all I could think about was how miserable and cold this girl that we ate breakfast with was going to be.

The other thru hikers at the hut last night were giving Hopper and me a line of crap for paying for the hut and getting the food and a bed. It was all in fun though. They came up with a nick name for us. They called us DHJ = Dirty Hut Jumpers.

At the summit it was quite obvious that I was not going to go on because of the conditions. I bought a one way ticket to go down on the Cog. Going down we we're the only ones on the train. We noticed the conductor turning what we thought was a break wheel. Hopper asked him if that was what he was doing. He explained that the trains are not coupled together. The car is pushed up by the train and on the trip down it just rest against the train and since there were only three of us on the car he had to play with the brake a little so there would be no bouncing between the train and the car. He also went on to say he thru hiked in 2005 and when asked his name he said Dream Catcher. Hopper and her Husband Spike also thru hiked in 2005. I asked if he had met them and he did not remember their names. Hopper said she knew a Dream Catcher but he was really skinny. I laughed and said people change and gain weight in five years.

I came back to Lincoln for dinner and ran into Superman. He told me that he sent his jeep to Rangeley and was hiking the rest of the way to Katahdin without any slack packing. He was using his jeep previously to do a lot of slack packing and yellow blazing.

I will come back and pick up at the top of Mount Washington after I go back and pick up Mt Moosiluak and hopefully the weather will be better.