The agreement for staying at Madison Spring Hut was that we had to be gone by 7:00 a.m. The SOBOs weren't moving to fast, but we had no problems getting out the door in time.
Our climb up Mount Madison for exhausting. Gusts of 50 mph with every step. I clung on, dreading to go higher. Once we reached as far up as I could see, we'd turn the corner to see Madison stretching up higher. Finally we were at the top. Now we had to go down with the same gusts.
I longed for tree line. Closer and closer it came, but not before the wind sucked all the life out of me.
The trail went through the "Great Gulf Wilderness" a section where they removed all the blazes, signs and foot bridges so hikers can have a "total wilderness experience". I've never heard such malarkey; if you want a total wilderness experience, go bushwhack. Thankfully, we had no problems navigating through it; all the day-hikers kind of killed our wilderness experience through it though.
The trail evened out and we made it to Pinkham Notch and the visitor center. I was totally wiped. My brother and sister-in-law sent us a care package of baked goods and we dug through it like kids at Christmas. Thank you Matt and Steph!
The goodies helped restore our energy and we began our climb up to the Wildcats (no, the range was not named after Willie the Wildcat). A gnarly climb, but with good weather and no wind, we had no problems getting up.
Tired, we stopped short of our goal. We found a stealth spot with a view on Wildcat Mountain Peak A. Ate dinner then slept like babies through the night.
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