Even in the bowels of the Lakes of the Clouds dungeon, we could hear the wind howling all night long, and when we had to duck outside for an occasional nature call, we found the rain just pouring down. So, it was no surprise to wake up to a steady 35mph wind, with gusts up to 62mph, and find ourselves “socked in” inside a cloud. The forecast called for these conditions to persist all day, along with frequent showers.

We four were all in a sour mood after a breakfast of burned pancakes and cold oatmeal that was extremely slow to be offered, and didn’t allow us to get started until 9:00 a.m. Yesterday afternoon we had had great views of the 1.5 miles up to the Mt. Washington summit. This morning the fog was so thick we could barely keep the front and rear end of our little band in sight as we struggled up the 1,200′ to the top of the 6,288′ Mt. Washington, the highest point on the AT since we left Clingmans Dome. The wet rocks were treacherous and frequent strong gusts almost blew us off our feet. The trail zigzagged across the mountain, and we could only follow it when the next rock cairn emerged from the mist just as we passed the last one.

An hour and a half later, we finally passed between the many towers atop the mountain and sought refuge in the snack bar. We parked our backpacks under a sign saying “Mt. Washington – Worst Weather on Earth,” and mingled with a senior citizen tour group (who had paid a lot of money today to see close up what fog looked like) as we secured a second breakfast/early lunch. After putting some energy fuel in our collective tanks, we decided to go out and get pictures of the summit sign. Fifty feet from the building, a sharp gust and a heavy rain/sleet shower sent us scurrying back inside to regroup. We had some discussion about Kleenex and Castaway going on at their own pace, as it was pretty obvious who the two slowest hikers in the group would be this afternoon, but they seemed content to keep the team together.

We spent about a half hour putting on more layers of clothes, looking at the radar on the wall monitors, buying new batteries for our headlights in case we were still hiking after dark, and talking to the state park personnel to make sure we understood the correct AT route as we still faced extremely low visibility. At the snack bar, we saw the other five thru hikers who had also been at Lakes last night. Three decided to bag it for the day, and try to hitch a ride to town. Bad Penny and Assrash (an Old Testament sounding trail name if ever we heard one) decided to push on and all we know is now they are well ahead of us. At noon, it was clear that the weather was improving no time soon and we headed back out.

The wind was nasty on the short climb to the summit, and we had to literally hold on to the sign to keep from being blown over while another visitor took our picture.

This afternoon and the 5.5 miles to Madison Spring Hut will be remembered by the Gang of Four for a long, long time. There was much boulder hopping. We had short protected pockets where there was no wind at all, and other times when we moved to the windward side and experienced those 40+ mph winds. We had times when the light through the fog became much lighter, and then rain with hail that soaked our shoes. The handful of people we encountered depressed us with their very early departure times from Madison, but we plugged on hoping to be covering at least a mile an hour. Our falls and near falls were without injury, thank goodness, and we wound up laughing after some as the only other choice would have been to cry. There was great joy when we saw the “hut 0.3” sign, and great relief when we came around the corner and it appeared out of the fog.

The hut crew (or “croo” as they spell it here) was extremely friendly and with no other thru hikers here for the night, they offered us a work for stay. However, with many cancellations, they were barely half full and we decided to be full-fledged paying guests. Ah, eating with everyone else, sleeping in a bed, having room to spread out our gear to dry – does life get any better than this??? We were all asleep by 8:00 p.m.

Postscript: During the night, a trip to the restroom revealed a brilliant moon and a few lights visible in the valley below. What a gorgeous sight! The prospects for tomorrow are much better. Maybe we can up our mileage back up to double digits again…

Postscript 2: A near disaster in the dungeon. Returning from a rainy nature call, N had a lens of his eyeglasses fall out. In the morning, he miraculously was able to find the missing screw on his bunk, and with the aid of an optical screwdriver on a five pound Leatherman tool (well, maybe not five pounds but certainly the biggest one N had ever seen) make a successful repair. It’s hard to imagine the consequences of that tiny lost screw on today’s terrain…