(Daily Mi: 9.7) Did the notorious Madison Loop today. 5 1/2 miles of skree strewn alpine moonscape. Worst weather on Earth (actually a nice but typically gusty day 50-70 mph).

Stayed for breakfast at Lake of the Crowds but made it out by 7:00 am and up the last 1500' to the top of Mt Washington (6542 ft)before 8:00 a.m. Nothing open yet (and not really in the mood for a burger yet)

One family was already up by the Autoroad and they kindly took my picture by the summit sign.

Windy but otherwise perfect weather. The stretch between Mt. Washington and Mt. Madison (5366 ft) is mostly a high altitude ridge walk.

Conditions change markedly on the section of the Presidentials north of Mt. Washington (which shields the southern half of the ridge from the brunt of the Canadian north winds).

Blasted regularly by these icy winds, timberline on the northern half of the ridge drops to under 3000 ft. The waist high spruce of yesterday's alpine valley is replaced by an empty boulder strewn wilderness that looks like nothing so much as an image beamed back from a Martian rover.

I cross over the cog railway about 1/4 mile past the Washington summit. The train was just in sight crawling slowly up the hill with same towering white column of smoke climbing a half mile into the sky. There are chunks of coal scattered around the tracks where the AT crosses.

It is a tradition for thru hikers to moon the train if it happens to be passing when they reach the crossing. There is a rumor, appparently confirmed by the scene, that the engineer is a former minor league pitcher and a dead aim with a chunk of anthricite.

Do a lot of my walking with or near Hank today. He sure can move in those Wal-mart velcro things he wears.

Many people out with day packs, up from side trails and walking south on the loop. Backwoods Yankee snob that he is, Hank calls them -- probably with some accuracy: Boston hikers.

Have been reading a book about people that died in the White Mountains (Not Without Peril) -- that the AMC kindly stocks in every hut. Pass pretty much all of the big death hot (cold) spots in the course of my morning.

Reach the AMC Hut at the foot of the Madison summit cone a little past noon and stop for lunch. There is a hiker I fleetingly met in Delaware Water Gap, PA named Dale America who has come in just a bit ahead of me. He is a brash retired West Pointer, and he and I talk the talk rather too loudly in a generally successful effort to impress all the civillians in for lunch or the night. (The Madison croo, by reputation, hates thru hikers. Perhaps this is why).

Mainframe comes in just before I leave. Says he left Choo Choo at Mizpah this a.m. That she was still in bad shape but would make it to Lake of the Clouds.

Dale and I climb at a dead run 1500 ft hand-over-hand to the boulder tipped summit of Mt Madison (5366 ft). Madison drops almost 3000' into Pinkham Notch in a little over a mile. The first 1500 odd feet of the descent are above the foreshortened timberline and over a series of wind blasted, exposed granite ledges. Dale, carrying a day pack loses me about five minutes into the climb down. When the wind is really gusting I can literally lean into it without tipping.

I stop at campsite more or less at the base of descent. I could travel another 5 miles or so fairly easy trail to a festival of services available at the AMC's Lodge in the heart of the notch. But frankly I am sick of people. There are several adjoining areas at the site, but they are nicely screened from one another. It is pleasant to just pitch my tarp and cook my dinner.