Mile 1,871.5
Elevation 2,031.0 feet
Miles Hiked 5.7
All the through hikers sleeping in the Madison Spring Hut woke up around 5:30 AM. We had to make way for the hut crew who makes breakfast for the guests. As I was preparing to leave, I discovered my new gloves were missing. I just purchased them at Walmart and wore them only one day. That kind of bummed me out.
At 6:25 AM I was off. Although I had a little less than 6 miles to hike, the terrain would make it extremely difficult. Today, I was going to hike the north face of Mount Washington, Mount Adams and Mount Madison. This would complete the hole in my trail, which was created when I got a ride down from Mount Washington a few days ago. Also, it would validate the miles hiked in total as true to what is listed above as “Mile.”
It proved to be an interesting hike, because I passed the Crawford family. This is a family well known in the hiker community. There are eight of them, mother, father and six kids. One child is two years old and rides in a carrier on the father’s back. I said hello to them and kept going. It’s important to note that the trail they were hiking is particularly treacherous. If the father falls, the baby would definitely be seriously hurt.
And speaking of falling, I was descending some rocks about mid-way through the hike when I fell hard on my hip. My hand also caught some of it as I used it to catch myself. As I type this blog entry, my leg is stiffening up. I’ll be doing a zero day tomorrow to see how the leg is doing.
By 2:00 PM, I reached the summit of Mount Washington, so the missing part of the trail has been done. Once again, I asked the first car I saw for a ride down from the mountain and they gave me a ride to the bottom. Then I hitchhiked to the hostel. A nice Indian couple from Dallas picked me up and drove me right to the hostel door, which was a ride of over ten miles. That’s good luck
