[Hiking to Mt. Washington, elev. 6,288 ft., Aug. 21, 2009]
When I reached the summit, big objects began materializing out of the wall of white. A radio tower here, an ancient stone building there; I found my way into the crowded summit building. While I was walking around, Early Bear and Lil Dipper walked in through the front door. They'd gotten a mile down the trail when they realized they'd left Dip's camera battery charger plugged into the wall.
I had some food, two slices of pizza, a chili dog and an ice cream sandwich. It started raining:
[Wet entrance to the summit building]
The fog clung to the windows. On the computer screens they have set up showing the weather radar, a big patch of green, yellow and red rushed our way at 40 mph. We waited for it in safety. Sure enough, while I browsed the gift shop lightning bolts started illuminating the fog.
[Lil' Dipper, Early Bear and me, stranded on the summit of Mt. Washington]
Two former hikers calling themselves "The Brothers" approached us, bought us coffee and snack cakes and were very interested to hear about our hikes. The Brothers, two young dudes from Mass., started the trail southbound last September, which is a late start for southbounders, and finished in February this year. They saw hardly a soul along the way, they said, and they took Sundays off to watch Pats football games.
The trail magic gave Early Bear a chance to retell his skunk attack story. The story is without a doubt the most compelling trail tale of the year, and I heard it again, in greater detail. You'll either have to wait for it to come out in his book or maybe I can get it on the record here. In a nutshell, it involves a night of camping in Virginia with Prairie Dog and Angry Beaver that goes awry because of a rabid skunk :)
The Brothers were impressed.
EB also retold his bee sting rescue op story from Vermont, which I blog here.
My contribution was about a double trail magic that happened to me last Thursday. After a long, flat hike from Zealand Falls hut, I had a leiserely lunch in the parking lot with a veteran hiker named Rock Dancer, who said he's been doing trail magic there for 8 years. He had folding chairs and bologna sandwiches. Then I got my pack on, put my hands through the wrist straps on my trekking poles and was headed out when a car pulled in and the driver, a young guy, goes, "You a thru hiker?" as he's parking. I said I was, and he said, "Want a beer? Of course you do." So he popped his trunk and I had a lunchtime beer not 20 steps away from my most recent trail magic. And it had been a while since I'd received any trail magic before that!
So because the park rangers at the summit building are unfriendly to hikers, having been accustomed to dealing with far too many ignorant city-slicker types, and they don't let people stay in the building when it storms, I was convinced to join Early Bear and Dip in taking the shuttle off the mountain. It cost $29 - a ransomly price.
The long shuttle ride down was interesting. Two weekenders said they'd thrown off their packs and run for it once the lightning started, and they had no plans to go back and get them. Two other weekenders said their response to the lightning was to cower, in the cold, driving rain, for 30 minutes before making a run for shelter.
No wonder rangers charge an arm and a leg for mountaintop rescues these days.
When we reached the bottom of the hill we decided to hike about two miles back up the mountain and stay at Hermit Lake shelter, resuming the walk in the morning in order to start over at the summit.
No comments:
Post a Comment