Much of the walking early in the day was pretty moderate, without the straight up boulders of earlier. Lots of flat sections. Water was a bit of a challenge and required looking for any sign of a trickle along the trail.
My first stop of the day was Mizpah Spring Hut. I arrived around 12 and ordered my remaining freebies as a thru hiker with an AMC pass: a soup and a piece of blueberry cake. The huts also leave leftover breakfast out for thru hikers to eat, so I also had cold porridge and cold scrambled eggs. That was my lunch and it was delicious and very filling. At Muzpah I met two flip floppers who started in Harpers Ferry, men my age. One was Hemmingway because he looks very much like Ernest. I forget the other’s trailname but thru were going to stay at Lake of the Clouds as paying guests tonight.
My goal for the day was to reach Lake of the Clouds hut around 5pm since that’s supposed to be the time you can ask for a work stay. There were two side trails on the way up that are part of the Presidentials – mountains named after US presidents. I climbed Eisenhower but skipped Monroe because I was getting tired. I also did Jackson and Pierce earlier because the AT goes straight over the peaks.
I arrived at the hut around 5 and a staff member said I was welcome to work for stay and that the work would start around 8. Dinner would be leftovers, and I could sleep on the dining room floor as long as I’m fully packed up by 6:15. She said there was another thru hiker doing a work stay.
From 5 to 7 was mostly just waiting around. As the guests ate, I saw another man sitting at a table on the edge of the hall, and guessed this was the other work stay. I introduced myself. His name is Xenia and he’s going south. He has already done several work stays and said usually it’s something simple like sweeping the dining room floor, and only takes 20-30 minutes. He and I chatted about thru hiking and I got some tips from him on how to get through the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine – there’s a hostel that will let you leave a stash of food with them, and they’ll deliver it to a point partway along the hundred miles. Beats carrying 7-8 days of food.
While most of the staff were setting the tables for dinner, one staff member gave an overview of the hut, which is over 100 years old (but substantially expanded from the original. He explained how they get food and supplies up and garbage out. They have three helicopter drops for shelf stable food and propane, and wooden frames they wear on their backs to bring in fresh food (from the top of Mount Washington, since a road goes up there). The 0 bags get tied to the pavks. They do three pack runs a week.
The chores we were given were washing the dining room windows with rags and Windex (Xenia did that) and organizing the games box and bookshelf (I did the games box, then both of us sorted out the books). It was about 30 minutes of work. We had to wait for the guests to finish their dinner and for the staff to sort out leftovers, then we ate. There was lasagna, tomato chickpea soup, peas, salad, and peach cherry cobbler. I had two huge servings of everything except only one of cobbler.
Just after 9 a staff member turned off the dining room lights, and people left for their rooms. We set up out sleep systems at the far end of the dining hall and went to bed.
I thought this was a King Bolete but couldn’t get a positive ID.
Biggest American toad I’ve seen on trail so far. Most are only an inch long or less.
Hans Steffen says hi!