• Trip Duration – 4 days
• Trip Length – 19.7 miles

Started at the Appalachia parking lot and hiked south in T shirts to Madison Springs Hut. Dropped off our stuff and ran up Mt. Madison. Thursday was a complete rain out, we stayed at Madison Springs – a few who ventured out soon returned. Those coming in from the south said that storm was so bad on Mt. Washington that they had to hole up for a while and all were in bad condition. Friday we hiked 8 hours, crossing Adams and Jefferson, arriving at a very crowded Lakes of the Clouds Hut at 4:00 PM. Saturday we crossed Eisenhower and Pierce, stopped at Mizpah Hut for lunch and arrived back at Highland Center around 2:00. Got 5 more four thousand footers! Only 35 left.

The irony is that I had been looking for a book called “Where You’ll Find Me – Risks, Decisions and the Last Climb of Kate Matrosova” by Ty Gagne for over a year. I finally found it at Lahouts in Lincoln the night before this hike started. She was attempting a similar route we were about to follow, starting at Appalachia trailhead and ending at Mt Washington. Except that she was attempting to do it in one day in February. Even thought you know the outcome, the reconstruction of the event and analysis of the decisions made are fascinating. I would recommend this book to anyone.