I have just spent a few days in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. A friend and I backpacked to two Appalachian Mountain Club huts: Lakes of the Clouds and Mizpah. In the photo above, you can see the Lakes of the Clouds hut far down the mountain. You have to descend the highest part of Mt. Washington to get there.

They feed you and you get a bunk for the night, (with a bunch of strangers) but there’s no electricity in the rooms or any hot water, so you’re kind of roughing it. What’s cool about the experience, though, is that you can only get there by hiking up, and it’s tough, believe me.

This is what the paths are like. Rocks – many of them loose and wobbly. I was glad to have my trekking poles.

We lucked out with the weather. It was perfect the entire time. It got a bit cool at night, down into the 40s, but we were above 5,000 feet so I expected it.

Here is my intrepid hiking partner making her way down the slope. We are very insignificant indeed when we are on big mountains. I like that.

Now you can see the hut more clearly – and one of the lakes after which it is named.

Here’s a closer shot of the lake as we arrived at the hut.

Cocktail hour a bit closer to the top of the world.

In my next posts: onward to Mizpah, and the extraordinary plants of the alpine zone.