We woke up before 6am, and hit breakfast at 7am. Routine is hard to break.

We parted company around 8am and headed our separate ways. It might take a couple days to successfully reintegrate into society. I will probably follow up with a post-mortem once back in North Carolina.

We were blissfully ignorant of the hike ahead of us today.

The first .2 miles was downright delightful.

Then we were introduced to the Madison Gulf Trail.

It started with a steep downward slope of boulders. Then add a stream to the trail. Then add a touch of moss. Finally, a good dose of exhaustion. We motivated ourselves by visualizing the holy trinity of Shower, Pizza, and Beer.

Oh, that explains it. This was the DIRECT route.

We all learned about Harrison’s fear of collapsing structures. This one surprised me more than his fear of stolen carabiners. However, we all crossed without incident.

Originally I thought there would be an “after” photo to go with our “before” photo. But as we trickled into Pinkham Notch, each of us bolted to the showers. Dibble spent a few extra minutes “cherishing the trail” before joining the rest of us inside Joe Dodge Lodge.

We concluded the evening with a drive up to Cascade for Mary’s Pizza (epic!) and beer, back to Zealand trailhead to pick up Moe and Emily’s car, and to the trading post for gelato. Then lights out at the usual 9:30ish.

Dibble was taking the 9:30am cog railway up to the summit, so we left Lakes Hut at 8:30, aiming to meet up around 10am.

MacGyver built a radar installation here. It was weird to stumble across this in the middle of the alpine wilderness. It slowly rotates it’s death ray around.

Here’s one of the namesake lakes with Washington looming over us in the distance.

The line of sight between Lakes of the Clouds and the summit is deceptive. It looks like a half-hour scramble, but really takes about 3 times that long.

After reaching the summit and visiting the Tip Top House, Dibble’s train arrived, and he had a birthday cake in stow.

Happy birthday, Laurie!!

Before leaving the summit, we visited the 9/11 Memorial Geocache and dropped off a rock decorated by Dibble’s son, Sawyer.

On the way down, Maurice decides to end it all.

Luckily the cog train only goes 5 MPH and I was able to talk him down in time.

It was a pretty serious hike from Washington to Clay to Jefferson to Adams. Doesn’t Harrison look serious?

The rain finally caught up with us before reaching Madison. But the wind dried us off pretty well as we picked carefully over the minefield of boulders that constituted a “trail.” The fun ended at the front door of Madison Spring Hut aka the Mad House.

We ended our night at Madison Hut with one of the Young Marines beating Moe, Emily, and Harrison at Scrabble. It’s nice to be humbled once in a while!

We have reached the summit of Mt. Washington. After hanging around for a bit, Dibble’s train arrived. Onward to Madison!

My signal seems good enough here at Lakes Hut to afford some more photo uploading. While Lakes is the most beautiful hut locale, such that my photos could never do it justice, Zealand was by far the most fun. Here’s another 2-day-old dose of fun. Starting with yet another waterfall picture. Do these ever get old? (Yes.)

This is symbolic of how Maurice is about to take the plunge with Emily.

This is the aftermath of the cold plunge shot I posted a couple days back.

I wasted no time getting out.

Believe it or not, I maintained an impressive level of personal hygiene on this trip. I washed my hair and my laundry in the falls.

Josh built a cairn in the falls.

And then stationed army men there.

Another of Josh’s masterpieces, this one from his minimalist period.

Lounging by the falls with Judy, Josh, Greg, and our designated boy scout liaison.

There are never too many waterfall pictures. This one has a flower.

Today we left Mitzpah at 9am and headed up the hill. We were in the clouds, or right under them, the whole way up, including at the summit of Mt. Pierce.

We found a geocache In a cave on the far side of Mt. Eisenhower.

There was a lot of up. So much so that they even provided ladders. We’re still waiting for the escalators to be installed.

Anyone know where I can get a cairn?

This view looking down from Mt. Franklin was breathtaking. You’ll have to take my word for it.

At the top of Monroe we saw this coming our way. We increased our pace, but a minute later it was raining hard enough that I had to put my camera away. Then it changed to driving rain, and then to hail.

It started clearing and we realized the hut — and Mt. Washington — were right in front of us!

Maurice and Emily emerged from the fog close behind the rest of us.

I just ate 3 bowls of corn chowder, and am blogging away while the others play Scrabble.

This is the best hut ever. I visited with Dad many years ago, and we stopped in for soup or hot chocolate or something on our way down from the summit. I’ve wanted to come back ever since. ~20 years later, here I am!

I had the volume all the way up with the white noise and could still hear the snoring. Every time I woke up, I tried taking out the deafening earbuds, and there was the snoring. It seemed to be getting closer to me in the room. Those who perpetrated the snoring early on were annoyed with the snorers who joined in later. I feel bad for everyone else who didn’t have an escape!

Today we head up to our base camp just an hour or two short of the Washington summit. Again, no idea if there will be cell signal, but maybe there’s a tower up there?