| Mile | 1863.4 |
| Miles Since Last Update | 14 |
| Day | 138 |
It didn’t look like it was going to rain last night. Garmin weather said it wasn’t going to rain last night. Even ever reliable Piph told me it wouldn’t rain last night. So I didn’t set up my tarp. It started raining at 1030 PM. I was quick enough to setup and not get drenched but I lost a good chunk of sleep because of it.
I was up at 5, out before 6. By the time I’d finished the descent I was drenched in sweat. It had barely cooled down overnight. A trail angel was setting up in the parking lot and I blew right past her in hopes of hitting the climb before peak heat. For whatever reason she felt the need to tell everyone who came after me that I just sped by her.
Climb was brutal. Lots of exposed ridge. Lots of scrambling. I fell on a scramble up to mt Jackson and got myself a new gash in my left knee. The view was good, but again, not worth the suffering.
At this point I was in the presidential range. Rest of the day was more scrambling, more exposed ridge walking. By the time I got to Mizpah hut the wind was starting to rage at least.
Chilled at Mizpah for a while, ate most of the rest of my food, and drank 3 liters of water. Slim and Piph showed up right before I left. They said they were going to do Monroe and Eisenhower, two optional 4000 foot peaks. I was for sure skipping those and gunning to lake of the clouds hut.
Lake of the clouds was slammed with people. We had thought we’d be sleeping in the basement but one of the croo (I have no idea why they spell it that way ) members said they had 4 work for stay slots open. We’d do some chores around the hut and get to eat leftovers from dinner and sleep on the dining room floor.
Notyet and I got talked with inventorying the freezer. It was pretty easy. The wind here is crazy loud. We climb Mt Washington in the morning where the wind will likely be even heavier, but at least it won’t be as hot. Then we finish the presidential range (most of which I will probably skip since it is optional), and go into town.
Still pretty sunburned, heat rash is becoming unbearable, and my legs are sliced to shit. 50 more miles in NH and I am very ready for it to be over.