We started out planning an ambisious schedule intending to do nearly ten peaks within 4 days, first starting in Crawford Notch and meandering our way toward the summit of Mt. Washington all the way over to Mt. Madison. However, after much debate, we thought that this would be too ambisious for us, (Greta was new to backpacking, and I was grossly out of shape due to graduate school.) So, we decided to cut back the trip and make it three days, and only encompassing the northern Presidentials.

So we started out out trip early on Wednesday morning, put on our packs with enough gear and food for 3 nights and treked our way up Tuckerman's ravine. It was a beautiful morning, slightly damn on the ground, partially overcast. But by the time we reached Hermit Lake Shelters the clouds opened up and the sky was beautiful. It was our intention to relax at Hermit Lake and hike up to the top of Washington and over to Madison Hut tommorrow. But because we had an early start we decided to set up camp, and then make our way to the top of Washington today before the summit clouded over again. So at about 2 o'clock we set out for the rest of the hike. We reached to base of Tuckerman's and to our amazement found snow and ice. This was something that caught us by surprise, and we decided to take a small break here enjoying the cold treat in the midst of the summer.

There was an immense amount of people on the mountain at this time. It must have been due to the holiday weekend. Manuevering was time consumming due to waiting at some sections of narrow near vertical trail hopping. Once we got to the top of Tuckerman's Ravine, all that was left is about a mile of pure rock hopping. I didn't seem to mind, it brings back memories of hanging out on Jetty's at the ocean. However, Greta on the other hand decided that she could do without it on later trips. You rock hop for half and hour, and it feels like you are not much closer. Eventually, what seemed like hours we finally could see the top of the a few radio towers. The longer we hiked, the more we could see. Eventually there came a point when we started to see automobile headlights, and people starring back at us. We had reached the Autoroad parking lot at about 3:30 PM. The first thing out of a gentleman's mouth was "you just hiked all the way up here!" And we replied an enthusiastic "yes". The last 100 feet or so of the hike was sort of disappointing, it consisted of some wooden steps up to the main building. Where we refilled our water and took a little bit of the scenery in. We had mistakenly taken refuge at a picnic table which was too close to the Cog railway (the smog is horrendous - I wish they would shut it down.) We later moved to the top of the building to take a look at tommorrow ridge walk.

A little bit of a rant: This place is just a huge city among the clouds. It is kind of disheartening walking half a day to share a view, with crowds of people who either drove their ozone depleting auotmobiles, or the smog and stench producing Cog Railway. I don't mind the buildings per se, but the fact that the people who arrive up there are not considerate to the nature that surrounds them. In fact the day we got back into town we heard about some guy beating the time record on the autoroad, took him like 20 mintues to drive a racecar to the top. And I ask you "WHY!" Not to say all hikers are legit. In fact we passed, on the way, an indian couple were the misses decided to hike in sneakers and her saran. We latter saw them on top, her husband ditched her a while back and he indicated that this was a huge mistake, she was crying and everything due to the difficult climb. He figured they could hitch a ride in a van and take the autoroad back down. This was definately the smartest option for him, otherwise they would be spending their evening slowly making their way back down in the cold. The clouds we about to start rolling in, so we decided to take our final picture at the real summit, and make it back down to our camp.

Anyhow, we headed back down to Hermit lake. We were real glad that we set up our tent earlier. We made ourselves dinner (Freezedried Lasagna, YUMM.) And quickly fell asleep. We woke up the next morning to overcast skies, and we decided to check out the weather report. It indicated Thunderstorms galore, which I suppose is not too unusual for the White Mtns. The next portion of our hike would have led us up to Mt. Washington again and across to Mt. Madison where I had two spots for us reserved at the Hut. The day after we would have hiked down to the Great Wilderness and staked out one of the wilderness1 campsites. Considering that we would not likely get as great views as we did yesterday, we decided to call our trip short and try to get a spot at the hut at a later date. I personally don't like to hang out on exposed mountain ridges in Thunderstorms and Fog. So we headed back down the way we came. Which took us no time. Along the way down, we passed a gentleman whom we recognized. He asked "Were you guys on top yesterday" and we answered "Yes." He responded "Well seeing you yesterday inspired me to hike up it today." This was heartening. Well we conquered Mt Washington, and I am sure this will not be our last visit to this crowded place...