August 26 Zealand Falls Hut 1835 Miles

August 22.  Hiker Welcome Hostel.    1791 miles

Today I planned to slackpack Mount Mooslouke, the mountain that Whistler and many others said was a bitch. However, I had a different experience and actually enjoyed the 3.8 mile climb to the summit.
I and a few others shuttled to the mountain from Hiker Welcome at 8:30 and along the way saw a moose in full rack standing by the road. I hope to see more in NH or in ME. 
We came to the parking lot and I got out of the van with Purple Rain, a nice girl with purple hair. We came across a sign that said "take special care at the cascades to avoid tragic results." A little melodramatic I thought after all I had been through, but we will see. 
We  walked up the mountain along a beautiful Falls and had to do some no pole climbing over very steep 10 foot boulders.  Thank God it was a clear day and only partly slick from the rain the night before. Wood steps were bolted to about fifteen yards of the rock slides which helped immensely. A thirty foot fall from the side of the rock would have hurt.
We arrived at the top, 4802 Ft. elevation, around 12:30 and witnessed a rocky hazy Bald with a Stonehenge-like area where broken boulders were scattered about in a jagged circle. It was a little chilly up there but I like that and heat up easily when moving.

We had lunch up there and as we were leaving I ran into Whistler who was slack packing North. He seemed very intense and focused on that climb we had just made.
He should be. It would definitely be more dangerous going down the North face than up as we had done. We agreed to meet up later at Chet's in Lincoln.
Purple Rain and I left the summit and walked the five miles down the South face which was moderately difficult, and long, but not nearly as challenging as the North face.
We got into the Welcome and a wonderful country boy named Tricks took us in his car into the local burg for a burger and ice cream, listening to the Grateful Dead on his CD, and laughing at his funny jokes. I have to share one:

Tricks was walking the trail one afternoon and saw a bird running quickly across the trail a few yards in front of him. It was a chicken. But he saw that something was wrong with it. Then a minute later another chicken ran like the blazes across the trail and Tricks said "By God that chicken's got three legs!"

Tricks kept on walking and came across a house near the trail and sitting on the porch was an old man smoking a pipe and a woman knitting. There were these three legged birds running like speed demons all over the yard and around the house.
Tricks called out to these folks. "Are these your chickens? They have three legs!"
The farmer nodded, "Yep. We raise them that way."
"You raise three legged chickens?" Tricks asked. "What for?"
"Folks around here,"the farmer said, "like the dark leg meat."
"So you raise them for the extra meat? Really? How do they taste?"
"Don't reckon I know" said the farmer, "hadn't been able to catch one."


August 23 Eliza Brook Shelter 
This morning we were shuttled to the parking lot where we started yesterday and Purple Rain and I walked North. After a few minutes she was gone and I didn't see her again that day. It had rained last night and the climb up Wolf mountain was no fun: it was full of mud puddles  that you had to skirt the edges of,and rough terrain, or technically difficult trail as some hikers say. I, personally, would rather climb boulders than have the constant banging of rocks on the soles of your feet.
After seven miles of muddy slogging I was ready for the shelter.

August 24 Chet's Place Lincoln NH. 1800 miles

I met up with Whistler at Eliza Brook and we made a long walk over South and North Kinsman Mtn, 2300 to 4300 feet. Beautiful views of the New Hampshire mountain range and a very challenging climb as well. 
After 12 miles we came near a State Park and a freeway. We met a guy with long hair and a beard tented beneath the expressway and offered us some donuts somebody had left under the bridge. He seemed like a happy sort. He said his name was Forest Fly. I couldn't tell if he was a through hiker or a homeless guy. Or both. 

At the State Park we hitched a ride into North Woodstock to get my wife's Care Package (where I had planned to stay) then the nice fellow drove us to Chet's Place in Lincoln. Chet's place was famous for being unknown to most hikers. Contradiction I know. But Chet, a wheelchair bound person caused by an exploded hiking stove, wanted to keep some anonymity and his digs were donation based. Another trail angel. He had opened his garage and his yard to hikers. 
Whistler and I had a nice meal in Lincoln and we went to sleep in the garage early. We had a big day tomorrow. The Whites!!

August 25 Garfield Ridge Shelter 1825 Miles
What can I say about today but to say that I saw the most breathtaking views of the Appalachian Trail to date and had one of the most challenging and exhausting hikes ever.

Whistler and I caught a shuttle out of Lincoln about 10:30 after saying goodbye to Chet and hanging too long at the hostel and the grocery store really. I also sent back my tent and poles. After studying the guidebook I figured I could do shelters all the way to the end. It was risky, but I could save some pack weight.
.
We went back to the State Park and walked to Little Haystack mountain on a nice clear day with a slight haze. Nice weather overall. And the these Amazing range views going up. I mean fantastic, incredible. I was really pumped up by the enormous mountains folding behind each other for miles and miles into the distance.
Then I climbed up another 1000 feet to 5000 feet to Mt. Lincoln and the Franconia Ridge. This was like heaven. Like being in the Tibetan mountains that I had seen in the movies, walking along the summit on a well worn path looking out into mountainous infinity. Breathtaking really. 
Then a climb up 200 feet to Mt. Lafayette along the summit, seeing huge black Crows circling around me and dayhikers in small groups traversing the rocky trail. I was up there about an hour taking it all in and climbing ever higher peaks it seemed.

Then it was time to descend. I had to make a steep 1500 ft. drop down and then a steep 2000 ft climb up Mt. Garfield. It was getting dark (because we had left so late!) and I practically ran and jumped down and over rocks to Garfield Pond.
Now going up Garfield was difficult. It was boulder climbing and I was pooped but at the same time I was moving quite fast.
You are in the zone, Curly said as I passed him. I was.
The shelter was up and over Garfield, descending 1000 feet over climbing rocks to the Garfield Ridge Shelter.
I was happy when I  got there, put my bag under a platform, and got to sleep next to ten others in the shelter. I didn't even need earplugs that night.  Hard to believe I had only walked 10 miles that day but it was a terribly beautiful day.

August 26  Zealand Falls Hut  1835 Miles
Whistler had come in the night before and I left without him because he was tired, having come in late.
I walked up South Twin Mtn, about 2000 ft. and then a long 6 mile descent to Zealand Falls Hut.
Along the way I met Cricket, the guy Whistler and I had met under the bridge near Lincoln, NH, who called himself Forest Fly then. He seemed like a nice guy and an interesting one. He knew the names and properties of many of the plants and mushrooms along the trail and pointed them out to me as we walked.
He said he was raised in his teens in a foster home in Virginia his mother an alcoholic and his father long gone when he was growing up. He was estranged from his older sister who, he said, was not a nice person.
He was in and out of jail for drinking and drugs on the street, as he kept running away from the foster home and after hitching his way to California and Las Vegas he came back to Virginia and cut his wrist in a water-filled bathtub. His mother, he said, surprisingly showed up at the hospital.
He stayed in a Buddhist Retreat Center for awhile and with a friend and then went to Michigan and worked for a heroin addicted chiropractor who was quite the con artist.
After traveling West, he returned to Virginia and started walking the AT. He was 39 and had been walking the trail north and south for a few years. He loved it and wanted to go to Kathadin and near the end of September return to Georgia in the winter. He was wondering what winter gear he would need. He was a mountain man indeed.

Huts in New Hampshire and Maine are different than shelters. They are places where people pay up to 125 dollars a night to sleep and eat and hike from a place without line electricity or showers. Water and light is created hydroelectrically. Hikers sometimes do a work for stay at these huts and because I had no tent, I needed to stay at this hut.
I walked in to Zealand Hut with Cricket and I told the caretaker about my situation and he said ok I'll help. When Whistler came in the young caretaker  agreed to allow him a WFS. After the guests had eaten, we ate some wonderful chicken and pie dishes and then washed dishes. We slept under and beside the dining tables that night and ate breakfast there in the morning.