Where do I start for today... Waited for the rain to stop before leaving Lakes of the Clouds. It was quite cold which was why we didn't want to leave. Finally, we made a break for it and climbed up to Mt. Washington. The highest windspeed on record there is something like 230 mph or something crazy like that. We stayed up at the top for awhile and I'm glad we did because the sun was shining and we were above the clouds. It was so beautiful there.
We left around 3 pm with 6.5 miles to go before the next hut. The first half of the hike was gorgeous, sunny, walking above the clouds. Then the weather turned nasty and the winds kicked up and the sun was obscured by clouds... they spilled through gaps between the mountains. It reminded me of Stephen King novels - which one... The Fog... maybe. Creepy. The winds had to be gusting above 50 mph and they were knocking us around. Mickey and Mallory were still hiking in shorts and only Dan had gloves on. The trail was 2.5 miles of boulder fields... which slows us down to 1 mph. We were very glad to see Madison Hut Round 6:30 pm.
There we saw a bunch of our hiker friends and met a few others. It was the last night of their season and they had about 40 guests - a full house. We sat like waifs in the back of the dining hall while the paying guests ate their dinners. At the end, the croo introduced themselves and then asked if the guests had questions for them. After a few rounds, Stephan stood up and said he had a question - but not for the croo.
He told everyone that he met me early on the trail and that he loved me (and then made me stand up at this point) and he wanted everyone in the room to encourage me to marry him. Then he kneeled and asked if I would marry him, and presented a beautiful ring. I said yes!
We don't have firm plans yet, but I can tell you this much; Stephan is moving to Florida after the trail and we are hoping to be married in late summer next year. We are both very excited!
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