August 24 Lake of the Clouds

This morning we started with a wonderful breakfast. Our trail angle, Dave, gave us a ride to the trailhead where we began our incline up to Mount Jackson. We met Stephen who shared he was taking care o a bucket list hike he had been wanting to do for years in this section of the AT.

Three miles in, Webster Cliffs. Breathtaking view with some camping available in a pine forest. A place we want to come back to someday. We always think of how we want to bring our family back to a place like this.

We met Jeff and Lynda from Ottawa Canada on the summit of Mt Jackson. We took a break and chatted as if we had already been friends. They shared grapes, dark chocolate almonds, an apple and some good peanut butter m & m's. It's hard to turn down offers for food that you don't have to carry. We shared stories and just had a wonderful time with them.

Passes another hut that had soup and chocolate cake scrapings where we ran into Yukon, Boomer, Squatch, hobo, and George. We were all heading to lake of the Clouds hit. I knew we would have a good time but was unsure if they would allow us all to stay. Mark and I headed out because we knew it would take us much longer than these guys to get there.

It was a long 5 miles. My legs were just burning from all the up we had done all day. We were above treeline most the way so I had this amazing feeling of being on top of the world seeing for miles in every direction.

We were the last ones to the hit but they would make room for all of us. I have been to the hits as a guest. This was different. There were 8 of us and we walked to the peaceful lake and laughed and watched the clouds in amazement. We had to stay out o the way until after dinner when they called us into the kitchen where we stood around eating all the leftovers. They have to carry all garbage out so they were cheering us on to finish everything. We do pretty good then we did odd jobs around the hut. At 10 pm they have lights out. The guests head to their bunks and the riff raff (that's us) bring our packs in and set ourselves up on the dining room floor for sleep.

All night I dreamt that I was a homeless person looking for a place to sleep. At least when I awoke I could remind myself I am not really homeless. We had to scoot quickly this morning so the guests could have breakfast.

We will see the CCC hikers from home today on the ridge. They are hiking south from the last hut.

Another incredible day. The weather has been perfect. We are thankful for all Gods blessings!!!!!!