I barely slept – anticipating the difficult hike the next day.
Woke up at 4:55am to watch the sunrise over the mountains of the Presidential range. It was peaceful and beautiful! Slept a little.
Started the day @5:30am. Prepared my bag. Woke up the kids @ 6:30am. Went to wake up Ranger & Wild Flower in the ‘dungeon’. I promised them I would check on them since they don’t have an alarm clock or a phone.
Breakfast @7am sharp. Pancakes and eggs. We were the first ones out of the room to get ready. Brought cinnamon buns to the girls. I discreetly asked the staff to charge my phone. They exceptionally charged it b/c I had a family on a long hiking day – 12 hour hike!
Weather report on the summits: Blue and clear sky – no clouds – 110-mile visibility. Perfect weather!
We started @7:30am by climbing the Westside trail of Mount Washington. Was windy and in the shade on the west side! Took pix of the sign. Most dangerous weather alert! Half way on the trail, we met Quaker. He was lost on the Westside trail. He thought he was on the AT but we had to redirect him – he needed to go over Mount Washington. He turned around and went up the mountain. I had decided not to go on Mt Washington that morning to save time. Turned out to be a great decision! Went on to Mt Clay, Mt Jefferson ( Marc-Aurele fell around the “6 husbands”trail, which is a sharp steep climb down the ravine). His head fell on a rock with the heaviness of his pack. I was afraid of a possible concussion. I kept on talking to him to see if he seemed ok. He responded well. It was a long hike. Few people on the trail. Beautiful view! Mt Adams and view of Madison Springs Hut. Stopped there for late lunch @2pm. Thai rice soup! Bri took some time to treat her bad blisters before the next hard climb. Shared some sausages with Jeff the baker. Long discussion with WF and R too. Went back on the trail @3pm. The hut is situated at the bottom of Mt Madison. Right after the hut, we started the steep and rocky climb – .5mi to the Summit – It took us 45minutes. Beautiful but windy at the top . Top of Mt Madison is a bit scary! Rocks everywhere. It was hard to stand on top. I wanted to hold on to Raccoon but he kept on climbing. As soon as we reached the summit, we took a picture and started our descent. 3 mi of rocks – giant boulders. Very hard on our knees. We constantly have to pay attention – every detail counts: where we put our feet, what we step on, where our hiking poles land…It is not the time to keep our pole straps on because if we fall and our poles get stuck into the rocks, it could cause our fall. After Mt Madison, the ridge is known as Osgood ridge, it is well exposed on each side. The view is majestic but The ravine is scary to see. The length of the ridge is about 2mi. but it takes a very long time to go down on those big rocks. We were down the ridge by 7pm and arrived at Osgood Campsite by 7:30pm. I had a difficult decision to make: either we keep on going to Pinkham Notch / Joe Dodge* Lodge where we had a nice bunk bed waiting for us OR we could tent at the campsite for the night. It was hard to decide for 2 reasons (Bri and Spoons wanted to go on and sleep in a bed AND I told Patrice that if he does not hear from us by 10pm, he should call a rescue team so I could not leave him without any communication that we were ok ( I did not take into account that maybe I would not have any connection once we were below treeline and deep into the woods – it was a bit naïve of me to give a deadline but I was afraid that if something would happen I would not be able to contact anyone)).
I knew we were all exhausted: I really wanted to push to Pinkham but there were 2 things that held me: we were 1 hour away from night time and we were entering the Great Gulf Wilderness where there are no white blazes in this section of the trail (for political reasons as always – the Great Gulf Wilderness is its own entity and therefore, is not managed by the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club)). We met 2 hikers that afternoon who got lost in this section. I felt that moving on was taking a big risk of getting lost in the dark. I tried to call Patrice but could not get connection although my phone had still 70%battery. Thankfully, Wild Flower had 3% left phone battery but since she had Verizon, she was able to send a text message to Patrice (all is OK). I will later find out, especially in Maine that, although connection is limited, Verizon is the best phone carrier to have. Anyway, we got to the Campsite – there was a sign that said: please put your food in the bear box provided otherwise you could be fined $5,000. This campsite had had several bear encounters these past 2 years. I knew then we made the right decision. Not only we could have been lost in the Great Gulf wilderness, but we probably would have had to camp there before dark and could have been in the company of bears…
*Joe Dodge is an institution in The White Mountains. He is known as “the father of the Appalachian Mountains Club’s hut system”.
AppalachianTrailMom 