Today was one to remember. We climbed Mt. Washington in 55* sunshine and only a slight breeze. Being above tree line almost the whole day gave us 50 mile views across some of the most magnificent terrain on the east coast.

Hikers who summit Mt. Washington are constantly reminded that the mountain gets hit with some of the coldest temperatures and strongest winds in the world. The list of people who have died in the Presidentials is tragically long. My own history with the Washington is a bit different. I’ve hiked it in the summer a few times and had great weather each time. In fact I took a guided mountaineering class and climbed the mountain on February 1st one year and summited wearing only a shirt and pants, even though I had seven layers of clothes in my backpack!

So, when the clouds started rolling in as we left the summit, we took it seriously. Thunderstorms hit us while crossing Mt. Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

Paul was super-strong today, managing the extremely rough trail north of Washington in rain and wind with a full pack. Not bad for 61 years old, eh? We’d been thinking about pushing on to a tent site tonight, but the bad conditions forced us into Madison Hut instead.

Rockhound and I were disappointed in our timing as we walked near the Cog Railway. We didn’t see any of the railway cars up close. That meant we couldn’t properly moon ’em as per thru-hiker tradition. Oh well…

We passed a slow moving group of seven hikers at the Edmund Col and were a bit surprised when they didn’t show up at the hut 1.5 hours after us. Rockhound, Einstein and I offered to go look for them and 30 minutes before dark, the AMC Croo accepted our offer. We moved fast up the trail with one of the Croo members and found the group within ¼ mile of the hut. Members within their party were paralyzed by the wet rocks and slippery footing in the gathering darkness. We took their packs and escorted them to the hut. That counted as our work-for-stay!

What an exciting day! The biggest mountains, some awesome views, rain, wind, thunder, tons of people and some good miles. The hut Croo here is awesome (great soup and bread) we are with in 8 miles of Pinkham Notch and the end of Paul’s hike.