Lake of the Clouds hut to Webster Mountain tree line stealth site - 8.8 miles hiked today - 1867.6 total AT miles hiked to date
After a big breakfast at the hut, we struck out to climb Mt Washington, the granddaddy of the White mountains. At 6288 feet, it is the highest point in New Hampshire. It only took us about 90 minutes to get to the top. We were told you could see 100 miles in every direction from up there. A lot of tourists were at the top as you could actually drive or take a train from the valley to the top. We spent half an hour there before moving on.
After Washington, the trail remained above the Alpine line for the next 7 or so miles, climbing up and over multiple mountains and balds. We scaled Mt. Clay, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. Adams before reaching Madison Springs Hut around 5pm. There we had some leftover lasagna and carrot cake before heading out for the last big climb of the day, Mt. Madison, and then two miles back down to the tree line, where we’d find stealth spots for the night.
This last section was extremely technical, taking us up and over a dozen or so balds topped with rock cairns to show the path when the cloud cover blanketed the mountains. Each step was a precarious one, and progress was extremely slow. To top it off, it started to rain, even as it started to get dark. We cautiously picked our way up, over, and down until we reached the tree line just as the sun was setting. We found a tight stealth site and squeezed all of our tents in as darkness fell.
Tomorrow we head into Gorham to the Barn Hostel for an overnight, resupply, laundry, and best of all - a shower.
Until next time..,
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