Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 100: August 17, 2009
Travel:
From: Ore Hill Shelter, NH
To: Beaver Brook Shelter, NH
Beginning: 6:30am
Ending: 2:30pm
Number of the hiked:
a) Trail – 15.5
b) other -
c) AT Mile Marker – 1787.8 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and hot. Pretty clear day so we could see for miles.
People: Crocstar, Zipper, Bamboo Moves yoga crew, Joe Kickass, Rattlefoot,
Animals: NH seems to be full of Chipmunks and toads.
Money: $0, $1773 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up before the sun came up and shuffled around for food and packed up before anyone else but Croc was stirring. We had 8.7 miles of rolling hills and unnecessarily confusing road crossings before we got to the base of Mt. Moosilauke and our 3500′ climb. I actually spent 20 mins at NH 25C going up the road the wrong way then coming back down to a trail up near some power lines and then finally found the AT. I blame the sun because it was blasting me in the face where I should have been looking for the blazes. We all stopped at Jeffers Brook Shelter for an early lunch (10am) and Croc took off about an hour before we started our climb (11am) due to privy inspections and water acquisition. After a few tenths of a mile up the trail from the shelter we hit a short road walk that had a clear view of the monster we were about to face. We got to the sign where the trail turned back into the woods and it told us we had 4.1 miles to the summit so I settled into a good pace to get me to the top.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 99: August 16, 2009
Travel:
From: Trapper John Shelter, NH
To: Ore Hill Shelter, NH
Beginning: 7:30am
Ending: 4:45pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 19.1
b) other – .3 each way to Hexacuba for a look at the wild shelter, .1 to Ore Hill.
c) AT Mile Marker – 1772.3 culumlative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and hot yet again.
People: Crocstar, Joe Kickass, Rattlefoot, Carhop, Kermit.
Animals: Nothing special.
Money: $0, $1773 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: The guidebook simply says, “Privy uses old chair.” The book doesn’t lie and there was the remains of an old rocking chair nailed to the base of the privy. Sitting on the chair was quite relaxing, but it made wiping hard. It was another beautiful day and our first mountain was Smarts Mountain. We were climbing for what felt like a long time until we finally got to a rocky outcropping where Spoon stopped to hang is legs over the edge. We were both under the impression that this was the top of Smarts until we were scanning the skyline and realized that the mountain to our left had a fire tower on top and that there was supposed to be a fire tower on top of Smarts Mountain. That sinking feeling was felt by all of us that we weren’t even close to the top and that we were looking at it from far below. We trudged on, making our way to the top of the mountain climbing wooden ladders and steel steps drilled into the side of the rock. When I got to the tower I dropped my pack and joined Spoon who had already made it up the loud steep steps. Panoramic views surrounded us as we had a midday snack. The fire warden’s cabin below us was originally built by the NH forest service but was now maintained as a shelter by the DOC. At some point Spoon thought it would be a good idea to simply drop his snack bag full of crackers to the ground below instead of walking them down the stairs. Needless to say they were pulverized upon impact. Before we made our way back down I tried spotting Mt. Moosilauke without much luck because I realized I had no idea what the top of that mountain looked like. As the three of us were about to leave the tower, Joe Kickass and Rattlefoot were just arriving. The trail took us down the mountain to South Jacob’s Brook where I found Crocstar sitting up on the rocks taking a smoke break. I snapped a picture and then moved on.

PM: By the time I got to the side trail to Hexacuba Shelter, Crocstar was pulling out his lunch. Spoon had already walked up the .3 mile side trail to the shelter and I wanted to take a look at this unique shelter myself so I dropped my pack and made my way up. Hexacuba is the only hexagon shaped shelter on the trail which is also paired with a pentagon shaped privy. After I took some pictures, Spoon followed me back down to the trail where we had some lunch. Afterwords we filled up our water and headed up the short 1000′ climb to the summit of Mt. Cube which had us traverse over exposed, steep rock faces. The trail took us down to a road where we passed an older hiker that we recognized from passing a few days in a row. I had to know why we kept running into this guy the past few days and I learned that his name was Carhop and that he had been thru-hiking the trail by driving up the trail and hiking southbound to another car that he would then drive up to the next section of trail. He had not told his employer what he was doing and spent his mornings working remotely as if he was actually at home and then hike from 3pm until late into the night. He slept in hotel rooms every night and I can only imagine when he actually had time to sleep. It just goes to show you that anyone who wants to hike the trail bad enough can do it. Even if you have a job you can’t quit. We said goodbye and good luck and made our final approach to Ore Hill Shelter which was buggy enough for Spoon and I to pitch our tent just in case. One of the things Crocstar bought in Hanover was a bug bivy that allowed him to sleep in the shelter sans mosquitoes. None of us would be having a sleepless night again, especially the night before we were to enter the White Mountains. At the shelter we met an older hiker woman named Kermit, who had hiked in the White Mountains before and had her nephew hiking with her this week. We picked her brain about what to expect in the Whites while her nephew made a fire. Joe Kickass and Rattlefoot made it into the shelter that night as well. I would learn that Rattlefoot got his name from the time he accidentally stepped on a rattlesnake and somehow managed to not get bitten. Spoon and I retired to the tent early because we were going to start a new schedule of waking up at 5am to get ready for hiking through the Whites. The trail will be getting harder and we’ll need to end our day of hiking around 4:30pm to get a spot in the huts. I had a tough time relaxing in anticipation for climbing Mt. Moosilauke tomorrow.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 98: August 15, 2009
Travel:
From: Hanover, NH
To: Trapper John Shelter, NH
Beginning: 10:45am
Ending: 6:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 16.7
b) other – .2 each way to Moose Mtn Shelter, .3 to Trapper John Shelter.
c) AT Mile Marker – 1753.2 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Another sunny and hot day. We’re on a roll.
People: Short and Sweet & Greybeard, Crocstar!, Joe Kickass, Rattlefoot, Pooh & his daughter.
Animals: Nothing new.
Money: $25 resupply, $1773 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up around 7am and went upstairs where S&S and Greybeard were already stirring. We had promised to stack wood before breakfast in thanks for their hospitality so we laced up our boots and joined Greybeard outside. We worked for a good 30 minutes making a sizable dent in the wood pile before S&S called us in for breakfast. She had made a spread of pancakes and turkey sausage with orange juice. Spoon and I discussed our plans for the day including the need to get to the grocery store and where we were headed tonight. Shortly after breakfast Crocstar called me and he said that he had made it into town and was at the post office. We needed to get moving to make it out of town in a reasonable time so we asked Greybeard to take us to the grocery store. On the way we passed Dartmouth College and while sitting at a stoplight we spotted Crocstar on the side of the street. We pulled over and told him it was good to see him and what our plans were for the rest of the day. He had had a crazy last couple of days even pulling a 30 mile day through VT to try and make it to Hanover by today. Today he still needed to get some chores done and then was going to take in a cup of coffee somewhere and just have a breather from rushing down the trail the past few days. We said goodbye and hoped we would see him up the trail soon. The local grocery was actually a food co-op loaded with local and organic foods. Unfortunately we would be buying none of those things and resupplied with the usual. After we repackaged our food we headed out toward the soccer fields where the trail disappeared into the woods. The trail leaving Hanover was tough because it wasn’t marked very well, a lot of trees had fallen across the trail, and it was steep. It got so bad that we managed to get ourselves turned around and found ourselves back at a signpost we had past a few minutes ago. We actually were going in circles. How frustrating. The DOC (Dartmouth Outing Club) used to use orange and black blazes to mark the AT along their section but now that is no longer in practice. We saw some of the blazes while hiking but most have all but faded away.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 97: August 14, 2009
Travel:
From: Wintturi Shelter, VT
To: Hanover, NH
Beginning: 7:30am
Ending: 9:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 26.2
b) other – .2 back to trail, .2 each way to Cloudland farms.
c) AT Mile Marker – 1736.5 cumulative
Weather:
AM & PM: Sunny and hot all day. Just beautiful.
People: Tennessee Ed & Sis, Tim, “Short and Sweet” & Greybeard, Elizabeth.
Animals: Iron bridge jumpers.
Money: $6 for ice cream & soda at Cloudland, $7 for sandwich and lemonade at the deli, $10 burger at Molly’s. $1748 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Angry girl didn’t make eye contact with either one of us all morning. Since she was giving us the cold shoulder and we didn’t want to talk to her anyway, we turned our attention to Tennessee Ed and Sis who were also in the shelter last night. Ed was an old fellow who had been section hiking the AT for over 30 years and if it hadn’t had been for the rain earlier in the season he would be finishing the trail on this outing. His sister, who is from High Point, NC, has been joining him on these 1-2 week hikes for over 15 years. We set off down the trail towards VT 12 where Tim was starting his day hike this morning. We ran into him a couple miles down the trail and we were really stoked to see him. He greeted us and handed us a Gatorade and a bunch of snacks, including homemade cookies from his wife, so we sat down and had a snack. Sadly this was the last time we’d see Tim, but three days of him looking after us was really special and part of which makes hiking the trail so rewarding. So thank you Tim for all that you have done! The rest of the morning we waded through a couple of cow pastures and drifted over some hills, where I got stung by a bee, until we got to Cloudland Road.

PM: We had heard about how Cloudland Farms had the best Ice Cream in Vermont, so naturally we had to verify this statement for ourselves. We climbed up the hill, past the construction crews, to the little store attached to the stables. Spoon bought blackberry ice cream and a maple soda and I got strawberry ice cream with a raspberry rhubarb soda. All of it was insanely delicious as the ingredients were all organic and then we added some M&Ms and cookies to the pint from Tim’s goodie bag. Hanging between two trees was a hammock that I couldn’t resist taking advantage of on such a beautiful day. I called my dad to talk to him about our extraction from Maine since that was coming up in three weeks and then I called my mom. It would have been nice to just lay around talking on the phone all day but we needed to get into Hanover by tonight so we gathered our stuff and headed back to the trail. We continued on over the rolling hills of Vermont passing miles of rubber tubing attached to the trees to harvest syrup. It looked like an interconnected network of hose that would funnel the syrup downhill to the farmers below. We came out near VT 14 and started walking down the residential street toward the heart of West Hartford passing some nice homes and even a red barn with the words “Leslie Marry Me!!” painted on the side. As we walked down the hill towards the main street we saw a group of kids standing around the middle of Iron Bridge and then to our surprise one just jumped off plummeting towards the river below. As we walked by, commenting on how crazy they were to be jumping off this bridge, I couldn’t help to think how much fun it must be but at the same time how scary far it was to the water from this height. We turned the corner and found ourselves walking straight towards a deli called the West Hartford Village Store. I went inside and was soon in line ordering a sandwich called “The Woodstock” (menu description is in Photos section) and had a lemonade to go with it. Spoon ended up ordering the same thing and we both sat down and enjoyed the rare luxuries of a deli sandwich. By the time we were done it was getting late and we were risking another late night of hiking. We picked up the pace and were able to get to Norwich, VT shortly before dusk. As we walked down the quiet neighborhood street we noticed a cooler sitting outside someone’s house that looked to be trail magic. It was! Inside were slices of watermelon and chocolate cake. While we sat down taking in the delicious snack, the owners of the house were outside and came over to greet us. We came to learn that this was “The Brain’s House” who had thru-hiked a few years ago and his parents were Short & Sweet and Greybeard. We got to talking and I asked them if there was any cheap place to stay in Hanover and Greybeard gave me the short answer of “No” but if we wanted we could stay with them for the night. Wow! Spoon and I excitedly accepted their offer. They even said to just throw our packs in the garage if we wanted to finish our hike into town and get a burger at one of the restaurants and just give them a call when we wanted to get picked up and brought back to their place. This was an unreal offer and we couldn’t be happier to have a place to stay that night as we were worried we might have to hitch out of town just get a motel. Now we were walking pack-free into Hanover to look for a place with some burgers and after a couple of poor suggestions from college students we landed in Molly’s. We were seated in the back next to the kitchen as always, but got a server named Elizabeth that was really excited to hear about our journey on the AT so far spending close to 15 minutes chatting with us and ignoring her other customers. Spoon and I both ordered the meatiest and cheesiest burger on the menu which had different album artwork on the front and back that was really cool. Once we were satisfied from our dinner I called Greybeard and he picked us up and brought us back to Norwich. Showers were had in between telling stories of our recent travels. We got to see pictures from the Brain’s parent’s recent trip that summer through the White Mountains of which we were about to enter. They even took care of our laundry while they got us pumped for the trail ahead. Before too long it was after 11pm and we needed to get some sleep, so we retired to the downstairs where air mattresses awaited. When the lights went out, I was out.