Hiking Trail Journals

Appalachian Trail 2003 - Chelsea's Journals

Entry #131 - September 2, 2003

7:30 AM - We're having coffee now, but earlier Andy was in the bathroom & I was getting out of the tent. I looked across the road & there was a guy standing in front of the bathroom fence waving his arms at me. I was like…OK!? Then I saw something coming down the road. My first thought was it was a horse, since the guy was standing right next to it, but it was a moose with a calf! It was HUGE! It kept walking but then got a little spooked and he trotted off through the next campsite

8:40 PM - What a day! We were lucky enough to get a ride right away from the campground to the trailhead @ Crawford Notch. We had a big climb to start off with, and after about only about 2 miles, we climbed 2,000. From then on, the views were fabulous. There was quite a bit of cloud cover, though, so all the tall summits were socked in. We stopped for lunch @ Mizpah Hut & had the AYCE baked goods for $1.00. Yummy sweet bread - we ate a whole loaf.

From the hut we climbed again & were above treeline for the rest of the hike. It was awesome, walking along the ridges & rock. We could see mountains ahead disappearing & reappearing in the mist. There was almost no wind & we hiked in shorts and t-shirts all day. We never could see Mt Washington, though. A huge cloud hovered around it, cutting it off mid-section. We wished we could see it & how far up it went.

Got to Lake of the Clouds Hut around 4:00. It's the biggest, most popular Hut, just 1.4 miles from the summit of Washington. We finally hit a bunch of other NorthBounders here - Martha Graham, Chemo, Oreo & Buttercup and Freeway. We're able to get work for stay again, and actually get to sleep in a bunkroom. We cleaned another bunkroom for our work and chowed down on a great dinner. Glad we don't have to stay down in "The Dungeon," a basement shelter - $8.00 for hikers that don't work.

Up early tomorrow hopefully. Maybe we'll be able to see the mountain? Probably not, but we'll be there at least.

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