Day 1

Day 2

As it’s been all year, the forecast for day 3, as we fell asleep on day 2, was not great. When we woke up on day 3, not much had changed. Forecast included wind, rain, and chance of thunderstorms. What a surprise! As you can imagine in a hut full of wet hikers with wet gear and 100% humidity, much of our stuff was still wet from the day before.

The original plan was to hike up the 2 miles to the summit of Mt. Washington, meet up with friends and family, celebrate, then hike back out via the Jewell Trail. Given the forecast and how drained we were both mentally and physically, we decided to hike up to the summit and get a ride back down. (For the AMC 4000 footer purists, we will take the cog up on a nice day and hike back out to “finish” the hike.)

Here we are, ready to start day 3. Notice I’m not wearing my rain jacket because it was soaked inside and out. I pulled out the cheap rain poncho, which actually provides a bit more coverage, but does blow around a lot more.

I’ve been trying to get photos of all the huts since I enjoy painting them. It was hard to get a photo this time. If I backed up much further, all you would see is fog.

Once again, we were rushing a bit. The wind was VERY strong, almost knocking me over a few times. I was grateful to have my hiking poles to keep me upright. Rainbow grabbed these photos as we ascended.

Under two miles to go to reach the summit of Mt. Washington and the culmination of my NH48 pursuit. I alternated between needing to focus on the trail, the boulders, and ascending safely, and getting emotional that this was finally happening. I’d start to tear up and think, “There’s no crying in hiking!”. It’s very hard to watch your step when there are tears in your eyes.

Not far ahead of us was a couple and their child. The child was probably 8 or 10. And another dad and his daughter, maybe 8 years old. I did have to laugh that I was struggling to get to the summit, and these kids were going to pop up over the top. I kept imagining our friends waiting at the top, expecting to see us, and instead some children pop over like it was nothing. Then behind them would be me, panting and sweating, and struggling to balance on the rocks through tears. Ha!

I didn’t want to check and see how close we were, I just wanted to power through. Several people were coming down, and one said “You’re almost there”. Which in hiker terms means I could be 0.1 miles from the summit or I could be a mile from the summit. I refused to look or believe him. Just keep hiking. And stop crying.

I saw someone in a USFS jacket coming down. They stopped and talked to the dad/daughter duo. I wondered if we’d be getting a lecture about being out in these conditions. Or if they’d ask our plans and we’d have to explain that it’s ok, we were getting a ride. I called out “hello”. Then I realized, I KNOW THIS PERSON! I squealed with delight as I recognized my friend Ruth, a fellow trailhead steward (hence the jacket!). I was so happy to see her! I immediately burst into tears and gave her a big hug. It was such a boost to see her and know we had to be actually close not just “almost there” close.

One more steep bit on slippery, moving rocks, again trying to see them through tears and trying not to be blown over by the wind. Then I saw my boyfriend. I honestly couldn’t even look at him. I sobbed. He knows what I’ve been through to get to this point. He’s supported me through bailing and bad weather and told me it would all be okay. He’s also not a hiker, so I knew if he was on the trail, we were really fucking close. Haha! My friend Steve was also there, both of them standing in the stupid wind and fog, getting soaked. Just for me. I had to shut off my mind, so I could finish getting up the rest of the way.

I was going to go into the main building first before the actual final summit, but since they were all out here anyway, we went for it.

The very surreal thing about Mt. Washington is that people can drive up (obviously, my friends just did that). And they are tourists. Families. Little kids. People in shorts and flip flops. People in no rush. People who have no idea that you have been hiking for two and a quarter days to get here. People who have no idea that this is the culmination of FIVE YEARS of hiking and planning. People who don’t know that ascending hikers have the right of way. In other words, it took all of my patience not to scream “GET OUT OF MY WAY FUCKERS” on my way to the summit sign.

Also lots of people who didn’t understand why I was sobbing. Whatever.

A photo five years in the making. The look on my face makes me laugh every single time. My outfit is pretty great, though, right? Photo credit: the world’s best boyfriend.

Me and Rainbow at the summit! You can definitely tell I’ve been crying in this photo. You’d never guess from this photo that it’s AUGUST. But yeah, August on Mt. Washington, that’s about right. Photo credit: again, the world’s best boyfriend.

We went inside and caught up with Right Turn! She’s got an injury, which is why she hasn’t been on some of these hikes. Also why she wasn’t outside at the summit. Despite all of that, she still drove up the mountain (which she said she’d never do before she hiked it, but made an exception for us!) and met up with us!

Photo credit: Right Turn

We had some champagne, more tears, lots of hugs, and not enough photos!

• Distance: 1.5 miles
• Elevation gain: 1,400 feet
• Total time: a little under two hours (I forgot to turn off my tracking in all the excitement)
• Moving time: slightly less than the total time, again, I forgot to turn off tracking

Total for the traverse:

• Distance: 13 miles
• Elevation gain: 8,100 feet
• Total time: around 50 hours
• Total hiking time: 21 hours