Day 137 - 7/30

Daily mileage: 7.1
Total trail mileage: 1852.3
Starting location: Lake of the Clouds Hut
Ending location: Madison Hut
Weather: 47 degrees in the morning. 39 - 57 degrees during the day.
Mostly cloudy in the morning. Cloudy and foggy primarily while on Mt.
Washington. Partly cloudy the rest of the day. Very windy all day.

I am at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.115651,+-71.181807

Last night and today were the first time I have worn my fleece in a
long time, long pants in a couple weeks (the bugs haven't been bad at
all and it hasn't been cold enough), and hat and gloves in a really
long time. It got quite cold. I had to start thinking about my water
freezing and all the winter stuff again.

After breakfast and cleanup I headed up to the summit of Mt.
Washington. Visibility was pretty good until I got close to the
summit. Then I was in the typical cloud and fog for Mt. Washington.
And there were high winds, although they weren't that high for Mt.
Washington. I stayed around the summit for a while, ate some food
(Evan/Magician and his dad Ray gave me a Snickers and some cash for
ice cream...thanks!), talked to people, and read my book. I didn't
have to leave for Madison too early and I was hoping the cloud would
clear. Before I left I checked out the small museum and was surprised
that the record high temperature of all time on the summit was 72
degrees.

I had some periods of good visibility before decending down. I passed
the cog railway. It used to be a tradition for thruhikers to moon the
railway. I did not though. I have heard that people were getting
arrested and sometimes the rail operators would carry pellet guns.

The hike all day was above treeline. There were awesome views all day
long. It was also quite rocky.

My boots now badly need to be replaced. The front of my one sole is
no longer attached to the shoe. I was thinking about skipping Gorham
and having my maildrop forwarded, but I really should get a new pair
of shoes. There are outfitters in Gorham and I am not sure when the
next one would be.

I got to Madison Hut and again got a work for stay. 7 for 7. One
more hut to try for a perfect streak. There are two other
Southbounders that also got a position, but the Croo couldn't take any
others. They did however let a couple other Southbounders sleep here
for a small fee and no food.

We helped out with setup and cleanup for dinner. The food tonight was
really good. It was by far the best hut food I have had. And, they
baked 20 loaves of awesome bread and are going to send us away
tomorrow with a loaf each. During cleanup they got a Search and
Rescue call (it didn't sound serious), so two of the Croo members left
to handle that while we helped the other two do a little prep work for
breakfast. This was the first time I could actually help with food
prep :). I miss being able to cook.

Hopefully on to Carter Notch tomorrow. I might stop at Pinkham Notch
for a shower part way through the day.