Today's miles 9.3. AT miles 1846.3
Another warm sunny day, we left camp just before 8am. The first three miles of the trail down to Crawford Notch were fairly easy going compared to what we've been over the last few days. That soon changed, we had another steep four and a half mile climb up to get to Mount Jackson. Steep and not too rocky to start but then the White Mountains lived up to their rugged reputation again. The rocky climbing started up to Webster Cliffs where there were fantastic views again. The trail got harder with some scrambling sections from the cliffs up to Mount Webster where we had good views over to Mount Washington which we'll be going over tomorrow. The trail levelled for a bit but then more rocks and scrambling up to Mount Jackson.
It being a Saturday there were lots of people on top of Mount Jackson. We were only a couple of miles away from Mizpah Hut/Nauman Campsite which we could see in the distance and our destination for the day. We had originally planned on continuing another five miles to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut where thru hikers can stay in 'the Dungeon', a bunk room in the basement for $10pp on a first come first served basis. It only holds six thru hikers though. We didn't want to risk getting there and there being no space left it was too much of a gamble. We knew of a least two thru hikers ahead of us, plus there are southbounders coming through from the opposite direction. The hut would have been fully booked on a Saturday night so no chance of checking in there either to stay. It would have meant continuing hiking another 7+ miles up and over Mount Washington to the next campsite.
Two more miles later we arrived at Mizpah Hut/Nauman Campsite about 2pm. We paid our $8pp fee and set up our tent on a platform. We visited the hut and bought some lemonade and brownies, there were very friendly volunteers in there, then came back to our tent for an afternoon snooze. We have a big 15 mile day tomorrow going up and over Mount Washington, 6288ft the second highest mountain on the AT, so will have to be up early in the morning so took advantage of the extra rest. We're half way up, the ascent to Mount Washington is 12.5 miles in total, we have 6 miles left to do tomorrow. In the evening our German friends Wall-E, Milk Monsta and Pillow turned up on the tent platform next to us, it was great to see them again. From keeping in contact by text we knew they were catching us up and were only about half a day behind us. We've not seen them for such a long time so had a good old chat catching up. Hopefully these last few weeks we'll see more of each other, maybe even finish on the same day which would be fantastic. Their target finish date is 20 July also. We're on a large double tent platform. The campsite wasn't very busy when we arrived but filled up a lit later. In the evening two thru hiking brothers who we'd not met before, Sox and Spiderman, pitched next to us, very friendly guys. Later still, the caretaker squeezed another single man tent between the two of us. It's like being in an outdoor bunk room. Tents being tents you can hear every sound and the large wooden platform vibrates or bounces every time someone else moves, we much prefer the single pitch platforms.
There were lots of annoying bugs today too, black flies, but we'd bought some 'White Mountain' insect repellant for midges, black flies and noseeums whilst in North Woodstock that seemed to keep them at bay for a while.
I've been trying to think of a way to describe how tiring these uphill rock climbs are. This is the best I can come up with and you'll need to use your imagination.
For those old enough, remember the steps used in step aerobics classes. Imagine a step set on its highest setting, around 12 inches/1 foot. Then imagine continually just doing the stepping up action onto the step, slowly we don't go very fast. Imagine that the step is not always equal in height though either, sometimes it's shorter sometimes maybe double the height or more, plus your step is rarely just flat, most of the time it's uneven, on a steep angle or even wet and slippery. Sometimes your arms get exercised too, pushing up on rocks or pulling on trees to pull yourself up. Every now and then just walk on the spot briefly to mimic an occasional smoother section. Then imagine doing these various height step ups continuously for two hours or longer with a 28/30lb backpack on your back. Imagine this in reverse, stepping down off the step continuously for the rocky downhill/descents. It's tiring!
For those old enough, remember the steps used in step aerobics classes. Imagine a step set on its highest setting, around 12 inches/1 foot. Then imagine continually just doing the stepping up action onto the step, slowly we don't go very fast. Imagine that the step is not always equal in height though either, sometimes it's shorter sometimes maybe double the height or more, plus your step is rarely just flat, most of the time it's uneven, on a steep angle or even wet and slippery. Sometimes your arms get exercised too, pushing up on rocks or pulling on trees to pull yourself up. Every now and then just walk on the spot briefly to mimic an occasional smoother section. Then imagine doing these various height step ups continuously for two hours or longer with a 28/30lb backpack on your back. Imagine this in reverse, stepping down off the step continuously for the rocky downhill/descents. It's tiring!
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