August 27 Yellow Deli 1843 Miles
Whistler and Cricket and I woke up beside and under the breakfast tables and after the guests were served, we had breakfast at the Zealand Hut; then we washed dishes and swept up for our work-for-stay.
Whistler was slow today so Cricket and I walked the eight miles to Crawford Notch under nice weather, Cricket pointing all kinds of edible and non-edible plants and mushrooms.
He told me the story of how he had stayed with a guy who had been poisoned by mushrooms and how he finally got him out of the wilderness after three days.
After eight hours we made it to Crawford Notch where a lady and guy were providing some nice trail magic. We ate and drank awhile and then went down the road and called the folks at the Yellow Deli, New Hampshire.
They came and picked us up and in the town of Lancaster, NH we ate some pizza, resupplied and hit the bunk. The cost was a donation to the "church." Great folks.
August 28 mizpah hut 1850 Miles
Today we were hitting the famous Presidential Mountains. After being shuttled back to the trailhead by the nice folks at the Deli, Cricket and I headed up toward the Webster cliffs and the summit to 3910 ft. It was a steep climb but there was some beautiful mountain ranges to behold.
Cricket carries a stick that he found and carved up nicely. I asked about one and after dropping behind me about 40 minutes back, he caught up with me and presented me with a nice hardwood stick to carve into later. I have to admit that Cricket and his knowledge of the mountains and plants amazed me. If a stick worked for him than it might work for me too.
We came down Mt. Webster and then walked another mile up Mt. Jackson at 4052 ft. and saw some very glorious views. After a while I ditched the stick. I was crawling over rock and throwing the stick ahead of me all the time. Why have it then? I was used to walking without poles. I liked the freedom and was used to it.
Cricket got ahead of me on the trail and by the time I got to Mitzpah Spring Hut he had told Tom, the caretaker there, about my no tent situation and Tom allowed me a WFS.
Cricket though wanted to be outside and decided to stealth camp somewhere toward Mt. Washington. It would be difficult I thought with all the scrub brush along the trail and few open spaces at all.
But Cricket is resourceful. I sure do appreciate his lining up at the Hut. He wanted to party on the trail once we got to Gorman and out of the Presidentials. I don't know if I would be up to it though. Sleep and relaxing sounded better.What an old fart I am!
August 29 white mtn hostel NH 1870 miles
I slept on the floor of the "library" at the Hut and helped do dinner dishes for my WFS. This was a nice clean hut and amazing how the hydo-electricity ran the place.
I skipped breakfast at the hut and left about 6:30. Today I would climb the famous Mt. Washington, the 2nd highest mountain on the Appalachian Trail. I wondered if I would see Cricket along the way
I did a 500ft scramble up Mt. Pierce (Mt. Clinton) and then another 500 ft up to Mt. Eisenhower. Most AT hikers skip the two miles going over the summit but I decided to do it: and I was rewarded with some very beautiful 360 views.
Coming down the summit I saw Smiles on the AT ridge and she said she was surpised I had the energy to do Mt. Eisenhower. I caught up with her after an hour and we walked Mt. Franklin and Mt. Monroe together and to Lake of the Clouds Hut at 5047 ft.
Lake of the Clouds is famous for allowing hikers Work for Stay before they head up Mt. Washington. I am a warm walker and can usually outlast most people in shorts and short sleeves hiking at these altitudes, but today was different. I must have been around 35 with the wind and I put on my wind jacket and long pants at the Hut.
This was a particularly nice Hut. It looked like a resort area with beautiful views out of the "cafeteria room" windows. There were people outside the hut digging a ditch to extend the sewage pipe. Sewage was helicoptered out because it was above tree line.
After some hot coffee and a couple of donuts, I headed out and up 1000 ft. to Mt. Washington at 6288 ft. It was a rock scramble that had been gone up and down many times I could tell. Groups of day hikers passed me. I came across a sign that said if the weather conditions are bad, then do not attempt climbing Mt. Washington.
For good reason. At least a hundred people in the past fifty years have died climbing Mt. Washington in the winter. It has been said to be as dangerous as Mt. Everest in its changeable weather patterns.
The climate is every erratic and can go to sub-freezing in a matter of hours. Last year a professional hiker was hiking it in December and was found frozen, back down and facing up, a few days later.
It took me another three hours to climb Mt. Washington and when I got to the top I saw a parking lot where people came up for the day, a large cafeteria and a video theatre of the history of Mt. Washington, and a souvenir shop.
I got my picture taken at the Summit sign by one of the tourists and made an executive decision to skip Jefferson and Madison and to shuttle down to Pinkham Notch. It was a long walk to Madison Hut and I had no guarantee that I could stay there. And I would have to. I sure was not going to cowboy sleep, without a tent, in freezing weather. Also I had (inadvertently) done the Long Trail and so I would make up 12 of those 25 miles here.
In the Shuttle I got a history of the horses and mules that slogged their way up and over this mountain. Quite a feat.
When I got to Pinkham Notch Resort I found out they had no cell service. Most hostels that I have been have none or very poor service. But someone told me that I could stand under the flagpole and I might get some. I did so and called White Mountain Hostel who came to pick me up a few hours later.
August 30 IMP Shelter, NH
I decided to slackpack out of the Hostel. Some were going to do a 21 mile day. I would break it up into two days.
The hostel shuttle dropped me off back at Pinkham Notch at 7:30AM. I saw Tyler, the infamous pink blazer of Reroute and Wolfie fame, and he was sitting at a table with Papa Bear, an AT purist and hiker snob IMO; and a couple of other fellow young hikers. I brought my all you can eat breakfast and sat with them for some unknown reason. Then I told them about my Long Trail mishap and how I was making up for it by skipping some AT trail.
They immediately began making teasing me. I had walked with Tyler, also called Blue Deer, several weeks ago and he was the one that both Wolfie and Reroute had said screwed over both of them, literally. Being a guy, I was not real sympathetic honestly.
Any more falls? South Carolina Toady Tyler says. Taking a shuttle around the AT says Mr. Hiker? And they kept on.
I wanted to say f.... off but held it and felt the red rising in my face and another hiker says, hey leave him be man. That's not right.
I said never mind them and went to taking notes on my phone from yesterdays walk.
This greaseball Tyler, I was thinking,with his patched up knee and scarecrow frame was making of MY falls? One day he is your buddy and then a few weeks later he picks up off of Mr. Purist and follows his lead. What a sycophant! A toady follower. A Leach. No wonder those girls hated him. I got it now.
I picked up my plate and went off to a table of my own. A few minutes later Whistler came in and we talked about the upcoming hike.
I grabbed my pack outside and passed the Mr. Hiker group. The two kids wished me a good hike. You too I said. And I headed to the Gondola where I would skip three miles of the crappy Wildcat climb that has no views or redeeming value.
I heard the Toad tell Mr. Hiker that they should take the gondola too.
Mr. Purist ain't gonna do that I knew... and for the next few hours hiking I stewed over what I should have said and could have said. Finally, after a number of miles, I realized that I didn't even know these people and these people didn't know me or what I had or had not done. I may never see them again. Who the f.... cares what they think?
I am hiking my hike my way and I have to be happy with that. Period. Then slowly I began to see that I had been walking a nice walk over Wildcat Mountain and began to enjoy stretching my legs.
I came across 28 year old Dylan, a laid-back guy, eating lunch and looking out at a view. I joined him and then we walked down to Carter Hut. We discussed his Libertarian Live-free-or-die New Hampshire views and how not to pay taxes and use Bitcoin, some kind of alternate money used on the Net to replace the Dollar.
I left Dylan at Carter, he wanted to take his time, and I had a great walk up Carter's Dome, 4832 ft., and a great 360 at Mt. Hight, and then two climbs up north, middle and south Carter Mountain (not named after the President.) Then I came into IMP shelter with my one day's food, sleeping bag, and mattress, and toothbrush.
August 31 White mountain Hostel NH 1890 Miles
Today was a short day. I awoke at sunrise and walked across Mt. Moriah and saw the wind power being generated on a mountain to the West, propellers spinning calmly on the summit.
New Hampshire really does not follow other states. I like that independence that this state and Vermont projects.
The Hostel is just off the Appalachian Trail and so I just walked right back to the Hostel around noon and did my usual chores to get ready for a full 35 pound pack out of there. Nice place, this hostel. Clean and organized. They do need to get WIFI though.
September 1 Gentian Shelter 1902 Miles
I walked across the street and down a dirt road to the AT and on with a German named Claus. He was much slower and I left him behind.
I was beginning to see the first colors of Fall, my favorite season. I walked over Cascade Mountain and at Page Pond I ran into a tall thin woman who had lost the trail, as I have done numerous times. She had walked around the pond but couldn't find the white blaze. I pulled out Guthook, my GPS tracker, and made sure we were on the trail and we had a good walk along a rollercoaster of hills to the shelter.
There she met her old friend, Jumanji, that she used to hike with in Connecticut, where she had started her walk: her name was Magnut and she was 67 years old, a section hiker, a parachutist with over 2000jumps and still jumping and planning to end her hike in Rangeley Maine.
Very interesting person I thought.
September 2 Full Goose Shelter 1912 Miles
Magnutn and Jumanji wanted to walk together. I left later, at about 7:30 AM and climbed Mt Success and then the Goose Eye peaks. At 1907 miles I crossed into Maine and took some pictures with fellow hikers. Maine was known to be rough in the south-west and then less rough toward the north.
As I was walking up Goose Peak I met Magnut and Jumanji and we walked together over some nice ridges to the shelter.
September 3 Chapman Inn 1922 Miles
Today promised to be a big day! We were going to do the famous or infamous Mahoosuc Notch that Whistler had been saying was a terrible ordeal and that AWOL guidebook said was the most difficult or the most fun mile of the AT.
We came across a jumbled pit of boulders thirty feet high, some of them, that were thrown willy-nilly across the AT.
We had to jump across some rock; go backward and crawl down some rock; and then take off our packs and push them through a couple of small tunnels formed by these big boulders to get through to the other side. It was like a giant puzzle and required some forethought about how to get across them. I found it quite challenging and enjoyed it thoroughly. We took some great pictures of us squeezing under these boulders.
Later, I found out that one of our former shelter-mates brokehis ankle at the Notch and was taken off the trail. It could be dangerous. We went very slowly and methodically.
Going up Mahoosuc Arm I picked up speed and left the other two behind. I was feeling very good and happy. I stopped at Speck Pond Shelter where we said we would meet. It was a good time to stop because rain was in the forecast that afternoon and it was 11:30AM.
In the shelter a guy was playing a small bagpipe and another guy was playing a flute. There were about ten of us crammed into the shelter. The caretaker came by and asked who was going to stay and pay and who was leaving. I, having had a couple of P and J's and not seeing my comrades, decided to press on.
I booked it up Speck Mountain, trying to avoid the rain, and two hours later came to Grafton Notch and tried to called a hostel. No service. Great. I stuck out my thumb and immediately got a ride to a nearby town, not the one I planned on going to, but I didn't care at this point. Anyplace would do.
I choose the Chapman Inn in Bethel, ME because they had cheap bunks and a Guthook review said it was nice,
I checked in, put my pack on a bunk, went down and was offered some chicken soup by a hiker and downed a number of bowls.
Then who should walk in but Magnut and Jumanji! Apparently they skipped Speck Pond Shelter and got ahead of me and just by good luck we ended up at the same place!
No comments:
Post a Comment