Leaving Garfield shelter was a brutal downhill rock field. Still, I made the South Twin peak by nine thirty. The sun was out and it was pretty. There was a large group of hut hikers on top resting before heading to Zealand Hut. I ran into a grouse on the trail down, it seemed confused and didn't run off very quickly.
The trail down wasn't as tough as getting up to South Twin. I'm beginning to suspect that AMC spends more money on maintaining the trails between hits than the AT sections. I made Zealand Hut at one thirty and stopped for a late lunch. Freedom Fry showed up as I was finishing and was quite surprised to see me.
The trail from Zealand follows an old logging rail line for a while and the grade was pretty good. Areas where I suspect the loggers had bridged are washed out but it was a nice three miles or so after the crap trail of the morning.
I reached the campsite before four thirty. Guthook's app is wrong, the shelter is old. The tent platforms are new and there's a bear box. The caretaker is named James, and says the shelter is old but not due for renovation for a few years. It's a slightly less than decent shelter in that it sits pretty far off the ground without an easy way in and there's a edging log across the front lip of the platform that makes it hard to sweep out the dirt that collects.
Lone Ranger and Cat, Olaf (female), and TK (Trail Karma) all showed up before dark. I met flipflopper Birthday Bear before getting here.
9/2/15 - Mizpah Hut
I got out of Ethan Pond at seven, and headed down fairly decent trail. At the highway, I was met by Trail Angel Stitches, who was giving out sodas, donuts and coffee cake. Lone Ranger, Kat, Freedom Fry and Plus One all stopped by.
The trail up from Crawford Notch is tough. There are hand over hand climbs and downs too. But I do think Mt Garfield was worse. I got up to the Webster Cliffs by eleven thirty, got a good cell signal, and checked the weather. Stitches had said tomorrow would be thunderstorms, and sure enough the forecast is 50% for Mt Washington tomorrow, all day. So I jumped on the phone and reserved a zero day here at Mizpah. And I might have an option in the morning to move to Lake of the Clouds Hut, but I think the weather will preclude that.
I saw Lone Ranger and Kat, Plus One, Freedom Fry, Language Barrier and Doppleganger and met flipflopper Stately.
9/3/15 - Lake of the Clouds Hut
Looking at the weather report, I decided to risk the walk from Mispah to Lake of the Clouds hut and had my second day reservation moved. After breakfast I headed out into the clouds. And I stayed in the clouds all the way to Lake of the Clouds hut. The wind was whipping, the visibility was usually less than one hundred yards and the climbing was hard enough that I was soaked in sweat. So I was also cold all day. It's only five miles between the two huts but it still took three long hours to finish. Pfunk and Antwerp caught up just before I got to LoC hut and we couldn't see it even though it was less than one hundred feet in front of us!
Later in the day it cleared and we had a beautiful sunset. Tomorrow will be good weather for climbing Mt. Washington.
TK, Antwerp, Pfunk, Olaf, Cooter, Crow Daddy and Clown Car are all here this evening. Squirrel and Bull walked out into the rain earlier this afternoon, heading for Madison hut on the other side of Mt Washington.
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