McAfee Hikes

Date Written: 8/29/2024 | AT Mile 343.8 | Day Total: 16.4 miles | Gain: 3824 ft

Woke up to the sounds of cooking this morning. The Croo was making breakfast early this morning but made me aware that they would probably be up around 5:15 doing so. It was nearly light outside so I decided to start getting packed up myself. It’s nice being able to spread my gear out on a table and pack it up. Much better than in the confined space of my tent.

The views from the hut this morning were very beautiful. I’m a little jealous of the croo that gets to spend all season out here. The croo does a lot for these huts. The job is not easy through. They have to climb 3.4 miles to bring up the dinners, breakfasts, paper products, snacks, etc. They encourage thru hikers to eat the leftovers otherwise they have to pack it down.

As I got ready to leave this morning I was stoped by one of the croo members and he gave me a large piece of ginger cake. He also handed me a stick with the feet of a rubber chicken on it and said I should take this to Lakes of the Clouds Hut (the next hut). I guess it’s a running joke that the is chicken keeps getting passed between these two huts. Rumor has it the Chicken Stick has beeen over Mt. Washington at least 50 times this year. It’s not light by any means by it makes a memorable experience.

As I walked away from the hut I realized that I was just wearing my sweatshirt baselayer and not my sun hoodie. I didn’t remember putting it in my pack so I ran back to the hut real quick to see if I had left it there. It was no where to be found so I went back to where I dropped my pack and sure enough it was in my pack liner. I must have thrown it in there without realizing.

As expected I was above tree line the whole morning. The weather is looking unusually good for the Whites. It’s a bit brisk this morning (44F) but nothing unmanageable. The sky is mostly clear and there was very little wind.

This morning I went up and down some steady inclines and declines. The AT goes around a lot of the peaks which is odd but keeps the grade nice. You can go off trail and bag (hike up) each peak but I’m going to leave that task for another day. I had a fairly drippy nose bleed this morning but keep sprites high.

From Madison Spring Hut to Lake of the Clouds it’s 7.1 miles. Not mentioning the climb over Washington. I hardly saw anyone this morning but as I got closer to Mt Washington the amount of hikers I saw exponentially increased. I got some weird looks and lots of question about that “thing you got”. Most of them laughed when I told them the short story behind it.

When I was about 2 miles away from Washington heard a loud train horn in the distance and a cloud of black coal smoke. It was the Cog Rail making its way up the mountain. They have multiple engines that run up and down and one of them is steam powered.

I eventually crossed the rail as I neared the summit. It’s pretty neat to see chug by. They propel themselves up the mountain using a ratcheting system and toothed gear as it’s goes up steeply.

The summit stands out because of all the things up here. There’s a large visitor center, cafeteria, gift shop, weather station, observation deck, mountain safety, parking and more. It’s very unusual feeling to be up so high with so much going around you. One of the first things I did was get my picture next to the summit sign. The line was short because not too many people had gotten there yet.

I looked over to the observation deck and the steam engine was coming up the line. It was the same engine that had started just over an hour ago. I talked with a photographer and he said that it has to stop half way up and load up on water. The water weighs too much for it to go all the way up without stopping.

The engine is slightly tilted from the tracks so it’s level when it’s climbing which I found fascinating.

I stoped in the visitor center for a second a looked around briefly. Nothing too exciting in there. I was checking FarOut on a bench in the entrance and a hut croo member came running towards me asking “is that the chicken stick?!?!?! It better not be going to lake of the clouds hut!”. She was doing a food run down Washington to the hut. She was supposed to do it yesterday but the weather was too bad for her to go down. I saw her later while I was eating lunch having just arrived at the hut.

I began my descent off of Mt Washington and away from the growing crowds. I passed the old, maybe still in use, weather observatory.

Lakes of the Clouds Huts were not too far away. I could see it from nearly the whole time I was hiking down the 1.5 miles down to it from Washington. I passed three other croo members from the hut that were hauling garbage to Mt Washington. When they looked up at me I would say “I come bearing a gift” and they would say “noooooo! Not again”. The smile on their faces made it worthwhile to carry. It’s pretty crazy to hike over this big mountain not to mention doing it with a very worthless Chicken Stick in hand.

When I come across another hiker or hikers I usually say hello and ask them how they’re doing. The chicken stick was a good conversation starter and I began taking with a Dad that was hiking with his two kids. He said he thru hiked about 20 years ago and I asked what year. He said 1999 and I lit up! I told him my dad thru hiked that same year and he asked what his trail name was and I responded with 1st Degree. Oddly enough he recalled the name and had hiked with 2nd degree for while and even know the story about how all three degrees meet on the train. It sounds like he didn’t run into my dad much as he was a little ahead of him but remembered seeing his name in log books.

I delivered both the Chicken stick and letter from Madison Hut. I ate lunch outside the hut while tons of other day hikers roamed around. Lots of dogs were here too. The hikers seem to come in waves of 20 at a time.

This hut is home to the hiker famous “dungeon”. The dungeon is on the outside of the hut and has a heavy prison looking door opening to where thru hikers can spend the night. In early times of the season the bunks can be filled with ice.

I left lake of the clouds and began my slow descent down. The next hut is in 4.5 miles so I filled my bottles and made my way there. I started to see a few nobos at this time in the day. One of them, Meryem, I briefly followed on instagram up until I left. She was worried about making it to Katahdin before it closed for the season. We also talked about the upcoming difficult terrain and what to expect. I guess she was also contacted by Jolly Gear which is a popular thruhiker shirt brand offering a free shirt after the one she started with fell apart.

The walk down into Mizpah Hut was mostly dirt and rock so it was pretty easy hiking. I loaded up on water as I’m planning on camping on the ridge where there’s no water access.

I had just a few miles until I got to where I plan on sleeping tonight. There are comments about a really nice campsite that has an amazing view right off Webster Cliffs. There were some steep sections but they were not too bad.

My bottle holder has held up pretty well but has gotten fairly worn and it falls out occasionally when I put pressure on it. Unfortunately it released my water bottle down a 15ft cliff just before I got to camp… I was able to retrieve it but it took some time.

My legs got burnt today in the sun. As the pine trees brushed up against them I could feel them burn a little. I later took a picture at camp of them and there was a nice line where my socks and shorts meet my leg.

As I approached camp for the night there was already another tent setup as some hikers mentioned before. I found a nice place to set up and went to check out the view. It sure was nice! I setup camp myself and headed over to the view to cook dinner for the night.

I could see the road I plan on hitching on tomorrow morning. There seems to be a good amount of traffic going through so hopefully I’ll get a quick hitch. Fingers crossed.

I sat around until sunset. It was super pretty and the view was perfectly placed for viewing.

As I was watching the sunset the other hikers started yelling at a Pine Martin that was peeking under his vestibule. He then came running over to the view where I snagged a picture and a quick video of him. He was definitely looking for some food.

As it got darker I moved into my tent to continue journaling and I saw the Pine Martian again brushing up against my vestibule. I hung my food so I hope he doesn’t rip apart any thing in my vestibule while I sleep.