Our first work-for-stay was a pretty good experience. We had to be up by about 6am, which I would’ve been anyway, then we got fed pancakes and eggs, then our only chores were to sweep up the dining room and bunk rooms then check that all the beds had 3 blankets and a pillow, and re-fold the blankets if necessary. Three of us got it done pretty quickly and we were back hiking by 9:30.
In under an hour we summited Mount Washington. It was a steep and rocky 1.4 mile climb, but we had nice clear skies and almost no wind,which is pretty rare on Mount Washington. The summit can be reached by both road and Cog railway, so there were quite a few people on top, even on a Tuesday morning. It made sense though, because we had about 75 miles of visibility, which would naturally bring people up the mountain. We feel pretty lucky to have gotten a nice morning to be up there. We didn’t hang out for too long though… we took our picture at the summit sign, got a few snacks from the cafeteria, and pushed on as there was rain in the forecast for the later afternoon, and we didn’t want to get caught in it on the ridge.
From Mount Washington, the trail continues along the Presidential ridge, going past, but not over the summits of Mount Clay, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Adams, and it’s all above the treeline. It was pretty slow going as the trail was a lot of loose rock, which made it difficult to get solid footing. As we passed Mount Adams, the clouds started to roll in, and out began misting a bit. We reached the Madison Spring Hut around 2. It was only 6 miles, but took us about 3 hours. We took a very short break at the hut and decided it would be best to push on before the weather got any worse.
We only had about 3 miles to get to the Osgood Tent Site, but the first half-mile brought us up over the summit of Mount Madison. Again it was a very steep and rocky climb to a completely bare summit. In fact, we didn’t hit the treeline again until about 1.5 miles after leaving the hut. The descent from Madison was made a bit more treacherous by the drizzle, making the rocks slippery. It was very slow going as we had to be sure of each step to make sure we wouldn’t slip. We were very lucky that it never started really raining while we were up on the exposed ridge.
It took about 2 hours to go that last three miles, which was mostly steeply downhill. As we reached the tent platforms the actual rain started, forcing us to set up quickly. We made a bunch of food and ate quickly in the rain, then climbed into the tent at 5:30. This is easily the earliest we’ve ever been in the tent, but at least we’re dry.
You still have smiles on your faces! That’s a good sign! Sorry I missed you guys the other night.