flashback to 1972: Sep 2, 2014

Leave Madison hut after breakfast and immediately head the wrong way on the wrong trail. Loose a half hour sorting myself out. My goal is to have lunch on top of mt Washington . But I have to get across places like airline trail, thunderstorm junction and sphinx trail. It's going to be a 13 mile day with that big W. Bump rigt in the middle. As it turns out the trail is practically a super highway well worn into a mostly smooth track. Not at all like the Madison ascent. The AMC uses very few white blazes in this neck of the woods they have great cairns sometimes with white rocks at the top but sometimes standing 5 feet high. And there are sign posts at all the trail intersections- and there are a lot of intersections. Augusta rotaries got nothing on these intersections. As I come up to the cog I. Get to watch 3 different trains head down. Remind me of when we hiked up to lake of the clouds and took the cog down in the rain. I eventually have to cross the tracks. it's a great clear day some clouds blows thru but great views all around. I recharge my phone and sit for an hour at the summit. I had a piece of pizza and a cold chocholate milk, then I had another piece of pizza and a cold coke. The trail stays pretty level and I make good time. It feels good to stretch out. I keep meeting hikers headed north and they look scraggy enough to be thru hikers . I finally get to talk and there's a group of about 12. One of the fellows girlfriends has a car full of backpacks and is going to meet everyone on summit of mt Washington. That are all slack packing . But when I'm talking to them they are still 2 or 3 hours out and it's 4 pm. One of the guys confesses they are schemeing on stealth camping on top of W. Good luck with that. Mizpah but is about the same as the last. And surprise ! the after dinner program is one of the thru hikers giving a chat in the library. I get to bed at 8 pm . It rains like stink around midnight. I'm sure glad I'm not camping although there is a tent sites here at this hut. This morning it's cloudy and overcast it's going to be a wet slippery day and I have 14.3 miles to Zealand falls hut. I vaguely remember trying to hike to Zealand falls in the dead of winter in 1972. Finally I get to see what it looks like.
44.4742° N, 71.0265° W

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from Judd's Instagram

Can you get the video from Mt Washington:   http://instagram.com/p/sc8PGrpGQv/

or this in from Mt. Eisenhower:

from Sep 1, 2014 - pop tarts and snickers bars

West Branch Peabody River. In Maine we make you take your shoes off and wade across. On my way to Madison spring hut the first 3 miles take about an hour and a half. The next 3 miles take 6 hours. I had to cross the auto road. It looked and sounded like a race track. Madison is a brute of a hike: steep with loose boulders up and then a half mile down. If this is what it's going to be like tomorrow's 11.2 mile hike could be a workout. Arrived at the hut and found my bunk. The things I left in Pinkham in a box in their closet include my sleeping bag ( they give you three wool blankets and a pillow with your bunk) my stove , my hammock, the empty flask from my last hiking party and food. I am carrying a jug of pnut butter and a bag of tortillas for lunches in the trail but I just don't do pnut butter well ( kind of like instant oatmeal - although I was talking to a fellow at breakfast and he said walmart had instant cream of wheat , now if I could just find grits!) and I have pop tarts and snickers bars, energy bars and instant Gatorade. I'm not sure why I didn't bring jerky. Anyway my pack on the way out of Pinkham this morning weighed 25 pounds. This hut is newly remodeled and sparkling lots of nice bunk space new furniture and floors. When I got here, there was one thru hiker sitting In the corner. While I was buying lemonade ( no ice) 5 other thru hikers came and begged for work for stay. The crew said there was plenty of room and three of them could wash dishes, do floors, scrub toilets and sleep on the floor after the guests ( that's me) have gone to bed. I have no clue where the others are staying. Correction, I just saw the crew give some of them Headlights.
To be turned in where? Nope they were just going in the shed to get tools. But while this group was being put to work about ten other through hikers showed up. I think they were all sent lacking probably down to find a tent site I don't know where.
Supper was good at least there was a lot of it. No napkins and please take all your trash with you when you leave. Good cold water. I wonder how they dug a 90 foot well. Beautiful sunset-- the speaker tonight is one of the thru hikers telling their story. It doesn't start until 8. I'll be in my bunk. Thru hikers still showing up. My table mates at supper are all heading to Lake of the Clouds but. I don't know who I spoke to but they told me I could skip that one and go to the next hut mitzpa. Hence my 11 mile day and all of my new hut to hut weekend warrior friends are only going 6.
43.8235° N, 72.408° W

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Judd re: Aug 31, 2014

Carter Notch but with wildcat mountain behind
So we wake up before light to get a start. Everyone has been telling us that it's a bear (HA!) getting over Wildcat straight up and straight down hand over hand . And that it would be a full day if you were going to try it to get to Pinkham. We scout out a couple escape routes. There's a nice gentle slope down from Carter Hut to route 16 putting us about 4 miles from Pinkham where the car is. And then there's always the gondolas at wildcat ski area. The feeling is that if we get that far we might as well do the whole plan into Pinkham. We wouldn't have to ride the gondolas but we could walk down the ski trail. The biggest concern is being above tree line when thunder and lightening rolls through in the afternoon forecast. We'll decide when we get to carter notch hut. We push off and at daybreak moving pretty good. We plan on having lunch at carter notch. Lots of good stories and high school and career reminisce and we get to the hut at 1 . Lightening is still in the forecast so we choose the 19 mile stream escape to route 16. We congratulate our selves many time for making a good decision. No real lightening but showers dog us. When we walk into the parking lot a couple we had chatted with up on the trail walk right in behind us. They say they'd love to schlep us and our gear into Pinkham and off we go. I am checked into joe dodge lodge and the boys are in clean clothes by 530 pm. They head for Maine and I head for a hot shower and supper. We make plans to return and do wildcat with a stay at carter notch and get our AT miles sometime else on a return visit.
Beans Purchase, NH, United States.

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from Judd re : Aug 30, 2014, re-thinking

Imp shelter. There's a care taker and he gets 8 $ from each of us. It was a short hike but when we were on mt moriah we were talking to a bunch of people ( one was a trail graduate) and they were all collecting 4000 footers in the white mountains -there're 46. Mike and Steve think that might be something fun to do. I already have a project. We forgo the double decker leanto and opt for the last tent platform. The shelter filled to overflow. This is a busy place. We begin hearing ominous weather rumors about possible thunder showers tomorrow afternoon. The care take offers a couple escape routes if we need one-- One being the gondolas that run in the summer at wild at ski resort. He thinks  that it would be a very full day to try to get all the way to Pinkham. Grueling I think he said. We are having second thoughts about our planned 13 mile day.
54° Mostly Cloudy
Beans Purchase, NH, United States

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from Judd re: Aug 29, 2014

We are hiking a section of the AT Gorham to Pinkham notch. Mike gets up at 0430 in Ellsworth and picks up Steve and me. In Gorham we drop a box for me to pick up when I return to the Bigelows at Libby Barn hostel in a couple weeks. There's a bus from Hanover NH to Gorham NH.
Drop two boxes at Pinkham visitor Center, one for my Presidential circuit, and one for my SOBO to Vt. At 1040 we get the shuttle from Pinkham to AT trail head in Gorham except it not on their usual itinerary but
Shuttle driver makes exception to drop us off at the trail head. Seems odd the AMC shuttle doesn't make a stop at the AT. We take a nice leisurely two mile hike into Rattle River shelter. We could go on but it's a an the have a shakedown hike and we decide to stay. We head up onthe hill to pitch tent and hammock . Just as we get to our site Steve says there's a bear! Sure enough moving slowly from right to left not at all concerned about our presence is a black bear. We were a little rattled not especially at seeing the beast but for how long we watched it not 40 yards away and how he saw us and didn't run! We decided we'd hang the food tonight. We sort of had an afternoon to swim in the River and play hearts mostly. We swam in a kettle hole that must have been 10 feet deep, and cold! It was wonderful. At night it did get cold. Which concerned us a little as we had not really acquired any elevation.
46° Fog
44.3794° N, 71.1067° W

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An iPhone ap for trail widows

At a picnic yesterday, lobsters steamed over hot rocks on the Powell beach, a wheelbarrow ladened  with corn, potatoes, kielbasa and seaweed, someone asked where Judd was. I said I didn't know. But if his phone was on, I could find him.  His phone wasn't on, but  I get an alert when it HAS been found.  It doesn't say if he's snake-bit or conscious or not, or who is holding his phone, just that's it's turned on and where it is. His phoned turned up last evening at 8:09, about a centimeter from Pinkham Notch.