Night and Day

    An unplanned opportunity that I grabbed as best I could, on a recent work trip. Enjoy. 

   
 

Lake of the Clouds – The Return

      After a nights sleep, which was preceeded by consternation over someone claiming the floor bunk Alexei thought he claimed, and Mischka being willing to let Alexei have his floor bunk, but upset that there were no other bunks available until I checked and confirmed there were 2 top
bunks, 1 for each of us, and a familiar breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal, Alexei felt his legs weren’t going to work. I reviewed our options, including an easier, longer trail down, or hike back up to the summit of Mt. Washington and take the hiker shuttle to Pinkham Notch. 

    Alexei wanted to rest more, so I decided to summit Mt. Monroe, which turned out to be a quick 20 minutes up, and the same back. Alexei still didn’t think his legs would work, so we decided to hike back up to the summit of Mt. Washington. The weather had cleared, and we had lovely views the whole way, as well as interesting conversations. Seemed like a different hike going back up. Mischka did his own pace, and was pretty visible with his orange shirt. 

    Once Alexei and I arrived we settled in and I went to get the scoop on the hiker’s shuttle to Pinkham. The next shuttle was at 1:30p, with the next at 3p. I got us tickets for the 1:30p, which gave us just 20 minutes for a quick bite. I hustled back to the boys, and we made our way through the snack bar as quick as we could. I took out some of the Ingress portals, claimed 4 with 2 link amps each. We headed for the shuttle, with Mischka still working on his mac n cheese. Turns out the driver was OK with drinks, but not the mac n cheese, and the nearest trash was back at the visitor building. Off I went, and got back as they were loading up. I took out the rest of the portals on our way out, and we got an overview of the area history, as the driver was a tour guide filling in as a driver. 

    On our way home from Pinkham, were we made a bathroom break, we stopped off to visit my Aunt and dad at her summer cottage. We got home just before 7. Time to start planning next year’s hikes. ^_^

Lake of the Clouds day 2

    We are about half way up to Mt. Washington, taking a break. standing here off the side of the trail in a drainage gully, I notice some fertive movement in the rocks. A moment layer a tiny vole dashes out to my shoe and back. While I switch to my camera app, he does it again, then dashes off into under some over hanging roots, never to return. 

    We stopped for lunch at the Hermit Shelter custodian cabin, and the trail lunches we got at AMC Pinkham Notch were great, with huge sandwiches, and lots of snacks. They have a hand pump well for water, and it was wonderfully cold and refreshing. From there on out we saw some great views, and eventually got to the never ending rock trails from cairn to cairn. It got kinda tricky at that point since clouds moved in making it hard to see very far, and the blazes are harder to spot. 

    Breakfast at Joe Dodge Lodge, as I guess most meals there, was similar to what you get in the huts. This morning it was pancakes, scrambled eggs, and home fries. There was also sausage patties and bacon, and they were out of blueberry muffins by the time we got there.  We dropped off our dirty clothes at the car, and hit the trail. They have a scale at the start, and Mischka’s pack weighed in at about 20 lbs. 

    Back to the never ending rock trail. We made it to the Tuckerman Junction, and had to decide if we had time to summit Mt Washington, and then make it to the Lake of the Clouds hut for dinner. It would be tight based on my estimates, as we seemed to be behind a slow pace, and as we continued towards the summit it was clear the terrain was tougher, the weather conditions slowing us down, and we were tired. Two tenths of a mile later we needed to decide is we should go back to Tuckerman Crossover. Mischka wanted to summit, so we pushed on. By the time we made the summit, the clouds began raining, and it was 5pm. We took a break, then put on some wet weather gear and headed off for the Lake of the Clouds. Alexei was really getting tired, so I let Mischka go at his own pace, as the trail is pretty open and visible to the hut. 

    Mischka got there and let the crew know we were coming. Alexei was concerned about how late we would be, and we would surely miss dinner, and he persevered anyway. Dinner was just finishing up when Alexei and I arrived, and Mischka had come out to let us know everything was set. Alexei was understandably grumpy, but we ate and settled in for the night. 

    A tough end to the day, and this amazing sunset helped us appreciate the value of hikes. 

  

Family hike to Lake of the Clouds hut

  
    Last year I planned a 3 day AMC Hut hiking trip for the family, which 2 huts, going to one on the first day, then down and up to the other hut on the second day, and finally down and home on the 3rd day. we all did the first hut, but only 2 made tfe 2nd hut.
    This year I split hut hikes into 2 trips. The first 2 day trip was to Mitzpah Springs Hut in July, for my boys snd I. we had fun, and I think it was a bit of a wake up call to
my oldest to get more exercise. We are now at the AMC Joe Dodge Lodge for the night, before we hike up Tuckerman Ravine to the summit of Mt. Washington, and then to Lake of the Clouds hut for the night. Then Monday we hike back down, and head home.

    Both boys had some new experiences at the buffet dinner at the lodge. Mischka mistook the ore-served bowls of banana pudding as gravy for the mashed potatoes, hence I got to the table to find him scraping mashed potato back into the pudding bowl. Later Alexei mistook some packets as hot chocolate, only to end up with a cup of hot water with honey and large crystaled sugar that was too hot to drink. Otherwise our dinner of bread, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, a wild rice mixture, and of course banana pudding, was fine. 

    I took the local Ingress portal, and found the local geocache. I feel less stressed about being responsible for everyone this trip, and I think it shows. The kids have commented on how goofy I’ve been so far. I hope it helps us all have fun and stay safe. 

^_^