Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 138, Monday, 8/1 – I woke up at 3:30am. There was another guest making a huge racket with an emergency blanket. Those things are made of Mylar and are really crinkly. I went back to sleep, and when I woke back up at 5:00am, I learned that everyone else woke up at 3:30am too. It turns out it was a child making all the noise, so he didn’t know any better. The dad and son likely came into the hut at night needing shelter, because they were unprepared for how difficult hiking in the Whites can be.

In the morning, I see a another guy wake up out of a sleeping bag, wearing blue jeans and a dress shirt. My immediate assumption was that this man was also unprepared and needed shelter. I talked to him on the way up to Mt Washington. It turns out that he started hiking up Mt Washington in the evening, and planned on taking the cog train down to his car. It wasn’t until he got to the hut that he learned that the train didn’t run past a certain time. He was essentially stuck on the mountain, so the hut gave him dinner and a sleeping bag.

The thing is, Mt Washington is incredibly dangerous. Wind speeds on Washington can exceed 200 mph and temps drop below freezing even during the summer. There has been one weather related death in the Whites this year already.

I think there’s a false sense of security due to all the amenities on the top of Mt Washington. There’s a restaurant, a museum, and gift shop on the summit. I don’t think people think a place can be dangerous if it has a gift shop.

Anyway, I got to the summit of Mt Washington, which is the highest peak in the northeast. The view was completely socked in, but I got a photo by the sign anyway.

We hiked off the summit, but still had a lot more tough climbs to hit. I climbed Mt Clay, Mt Jefferson, and Mt Adams.

We then hiked to Madison Spring Hut where we stopped for lunch. I got a bowl of tomato soup and ate some snacks out of my food bag.

We left Madison Spring Hut, and had our last big climb of the day. We got to the top of Mt Madison, which completed the Presidential Traverse!

We still had 10 miles to hike and over 4,000ft of descent left for the day. We slowly hiked down from Mt Madison and then down the ridge. You can see the cairns marking the trail down the ridge in the photo below.

The hiking got easier when we got below tree line. I found myself hiking alone near the bottom of the descent. I passed an intersection when I heard Splitzy call my name. She saw me go the wrong way, and was calling me back. I’m glad she noticed, because I was beat from all the hiking. I don’t know how far I would have gone before I recognized the mistake.

I finished the hike with Genie. Our day ended at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, which is the road into Berlin New Hampshire. There were hikers everywhere. I dropped my pack, and went into the gift shop to get a lemonade.

We sat outside and relaxed before starting to hitch. A sedan pulled over, and Ziggy stopped for us. He was already giving a few other hikers a ride, but had one seat left in the back. Birthday and I both piled in, and got dropped off at the Berlin Market, which was only a short walk from our Airbnb. We grabbed breakfast items for tomorrow and started walking back to our place.

Genie, Splitzy, and Aqua had already arrived at the Airbnb. We all showered and got laundry going. We ordered 4 large pizzas from Domino’s while we watched Stop Making Sense. Then we watched Arrested Development to end the day.