Mountains Under Foot

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 105: August 22, 2009
Travel:
From: Pinkham Notch; Gorham, NH
To: US 2; Gorham, NH
Beginning: 9:30am
Ending: 6:00pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 21.1
b) other – .2 to and from Carter Hut
c) AT Mile Marker – 1880.4 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Overcast in the morning with the sun poking through occasionally.
PM: The sky opened up and I got drenched for a good couple of hours.
People: Hitch to White Birches, Hostel folk?, two hitches,
Animals: a Poor dog
Money: $6 breakfast, $10 for pizza, $13 hostel stay, $4 Ben & Jerry’s, $3 laundry, $1909 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Rolled off the top bunk and went down to the office with the guys to get breakfast. In addition to running a motel, the owners operate a restaurant to serve guests in the morning. It’s open to the public, but if you stay at the motel you get some minor discount on your meal. We needed to get out of town, but also wanted to find a better place to stay because this was no Hiker Paradise. We received a recommendation for the White Birches Campground Hostel on the other side of town so I gave them a call to see if they had room for us tonight. The owner said to come on down, but they couldn’t offer us a ride so we had to walk. Luckily we needed to hit the post office so Nick could get his mail drop of food. We packed our still slightly moist gear up and headed down the main street of Gorham to the post office. While Nick was getting his package, a hippie looking guy in a beat up pick-up truck pulled up and attended to some business inside. Nick came out with his package and started sorting through it and ate a few things. He was still recovering from Lyme disease which meant he was taking antibiotics that required him to not eat before taking them and not eat for a certain time afterwards. This made it so that almost every breakfast and dinner Spoon, Crocstar, and I were scarfing food while Nick had to sit and watch miserably. When the hippie fellow came back out of the post office we asked if he could give us a ride down to the hostel and he told us to hop in the bed of the truck. At the hostel we were told that they offered a slackpack, which we definitely wanted to take advantage of today since it was forecast to rain this afternoon. Only hitch was that they needed to find a driver and and they were missing one of the small day packs and I didn’t want to carry around my own pack with only water in it. I found out that some girls that slackpacked yesterday and had come back to camp at 11pm still had not returned their packs so I found out where they were camping and went to go fetch the pack. By the time I got back, someone staying at the camp volunteered to give us a ride granted we were ready to go immediately. I grabbed my Camelbak and some snacks and jumped into the Jeep with the guys. The hostel owner’s main concern was that it takes the average hiker 10-12 hours to complete the difficult trail over Wildcat and the Carter range and we were getting a really late start. We all agreed that it would be in our best interest to just hike non-stop once we got to the trail and not have any kind of formal breaks or lunch. Once we got dropped off at Pinkham Notch, it would be the last time I see them all day. The trail had maybe a quarter mile of flat following the road and then turned sharply straight up the mountain and for the next couple of miles I would hit peak after peak on the way up to the highest most point at Wildcat Mtn. Peak A. From there we lost over 1000′ in less than a mile to reach Carter Notch Hut. I decided to take the short detour to the hut in anticipation of meeting back up with the rest of the crew, but was surprised to find that none of them were there or had checked in. I filled my water inside the hut and pulled out a few snacks to eat on the trail before continued on my way. If the trail coming down into the notch wasn’t steep enough, the trail coming out of the notch surely was. A 1500′ climb just over a mile to the top of Carter Dome was really tough, requiring a lot of rock climbing and endurance. A five minute breather and a snack was well deserved at the summit. The sky had been nasty all morning with the clouds rolling over the mountain tops and I occasionally got a clear look at the top of Mt. Washington. A clear view on the day before and after Washington – just our luck.

PM: Besides not being able to find the trail for a good 10 minutes on top of High Mtn, the afternoon was just one mountain peak after the other. South Carter, across the saddle to Middle Carter, across another saddle to North Carter and all the while the weather churned in the sky foreshadowing the mess on its way. As I made my way down North Carter towards Imp Shelter the sky opened up and the weather proceeded to piss all over my fun. The trail coming down the mountain was already treacherous with long sheets of rock coupled with jagged steps. Add in the rain and you have great conditions for a slip or a fall, which is exactly what I did. My feet just came out from under me and I landed square on a protruding piece of rock with my tailbone. I writhed around on the ground in pain for a minute before realizing there was no comfortable way to sit while I waited for the pain to go away, so I stood up and propped myself up on my trekking pole dizzy and feeling the urge to vomit. After a few minutes I felt well enough to continue walking. Every step I took reminded me of the fall and when I almost took another dive after stepping on a wet boardwalk I yelled out in frustration, “Come on!” Needless to say, while tromping through the late afternoon downpour I was not having a good time. By the time I crossed the Rattle River I just wanted to get the day over with so I did what most wet and tired hikers do – I started to run. Granted running along an uneven trail in the rain with water logged boots wasn’t the best idea in the world, but it did get me to my destination a lot faster. When I ran up to the Rattle River Shelter situated in the middle of the trail, the two guys taking refuge inside were really surprised to see me run up and ask which way the trail went. I ran all the way to US 2, probably close to a 3 mile run in total and found that no one was waiting at the road so I assumed they all got a hitch on their own in some form or another. I walked up the road to an intersection and basically stood in the road in the pounding rain trying to flag down any car I saw in traffic that was surprisingly light. Finally a girl in a compact sedan rolled up and I told her I was a thru-hiker and needed to get in town. She was very hesitant but eventually agreed right as a pickup truck pulled up from the opposite direction and also offered me a ride. I had never been in a situation where I had to choose between two hitches, so I saved the poor girl from having a wet and nasty hiker in her car and jumped into the bed of the pickup truck. When I got back to the hostel I found Crocstar and Nick lounging around, but Spoon was nowhere in sight. I asked them where he was and they hadn’t seen him and were surprised I made it back before he did. Somewhere on the trail I managed to get in front of Spoon without either of us knowing. Thankfully, he showed up not too long afterwords having had no trouble getting a hitch back to town. I got a shower, did laundry, and we ordered two massive pizzas to share amongst Crocstar, Spoon, and I. After dinner, we sat around watching Batman Begins while I scarfed Ben & Jerry’s with some other hikers until a grumpy old man yelled at them to turn the volume down. Unable to compromise they just turned it off and I went to sleep.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 104: August 21, 2009
Travel:
From: Mizpah Hut, NH
To: Pinkham Notch; Gorham, NH
Beginning: 6:15am
Ending: 6:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 19.6
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 1859.3 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Misty this morning, when we got up on in the alpine zone it seemed the sun would burn off the clouds but it got denser the closer we got to Washington.
PM: Between Jefferson and Madison Spring Hut, the day was looking like every other day this week. While sitting in the hut eating lunch things got much worse. Just after starting our decent down Mt. Madison it got dark and a huge thunderstorm broke out with lighting striking everywhere and intense rains.
People: Crocstar’s Birthday! UCOC (Nick), Don’t Panic & Wing it, Hammock, plus many more for the party hats.
Animals: Just party animals.
Money: $6 for chocolate cake square, M&Ms ice cream sandwich, and nachos on Mt. Washington, $2 shuttle, $20 hostel stay, $10 for Mr. Pizza, $1873 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up with a mist fogging the windows and the sun struggling to pierce the air. The Croo had left a pot of water on the stove for us, so all I had to do was crank the heat to get it hot for breakfast. The other guys slowly crawled out of their bags and we ate breakfast excited because today we get to climb Mt. Washington and it was Crocstar’s 23rd birthday. Croc pulled out the party hats that he had been carrying since Lincoln and placed one proudly on his head. I took a party hat and tried to somehow combine it with my own hat without any success so I affixed it to the top of my pack such that it poked out behind my head like a steeple. Spoon followed suit. We had hoped for good weather going over top of Mt. Washington, but as we left Mizpah Hut the skies were looking pretty uncooperative. We were hiking what is called the Presidential Range which extends from Crawford Notch to Pinkham Notch. As the party posse cruised over Mt. Pierce, around Mt. Eisenhower, over Mt. Franklin, and around Mt. Monroe the sun danced in and out of the clouds repeatedly giving us hope and then worry. The clouds hammered the mountain range giving us more and more cloud cover, eventually blotting out the sun completely. By the time we reached Lakes of the Clouds Hut, we were walking in a thick cloudy mist with visibility reduced to 50 feet or less. We got there so early that the hikers from last night were still hanging around including our old friend Nick (UCOC). We sat around and caught up with him and met some new hikers Don’t Panic, Wing it, and many others. They were all waiting around for the left- over food from breakfast, but there wasn’t much left so the Croo made them a big pot of oatmeal which Spoon and I were offered. After second breakfast the newly dubbed team consisting of Spoon, Croc, Nick, and I called “The May-ers”, having started in the month of May, began our hike to the summit of Mt. Washington. The mile long stretch of trail from the hut to the top of Washington is a grueling climb up a rocky slope where the trail is not defined by the ground but by traveling between rock cairns. The visibility was so low at this point that I could barely make out each cairn as I hopped from rock to slick rock. The closer we got to the top the more the wind picked up such that by the time we came up to the peak I was practically getting knocked over. Supposedly there were a couple of buildings on top of Washington but when we got there we couldn’t see a thing and had no idea where the summit sign was. It was like fumbling around in the dark, except the dark was a cold and wet wind tunnel. Yelling back and forth to each other we found the summit and got some awesome pictures next to the sign and then found our way to the visitor center for the impromptu birthday party. We got a bunch of snacks from the cafe and Crocstar made an announcement to the growing crowds that today was his birthday and he needed volunteers to wear a party hat for a big group photo. After the festivities died down we gathered ourselves to try and find the trail down the mountain with little luck. Good thing there was a Park Ranger in the visitor center who was able to orient us in the right direction. As we came down the backside of Washington the wind pounded us so hard that it was moving my feet on each step. The fog and water collecting on my glasses made it even harder to see the cairns and I think I felt a hint of sleet at the start of our descent. All in all the weather was pure insanity and the wind gusts made hiking over the rocky ridges dangerous.

PM: We hiked across the appropriately named Thunderstorm Junction making our way in between Mt. Clay, Jefferson, and three different Adams. I was quite thankful we didn’t have to go over all of those peaks and that the weather seemed to be making a turn for the better. The clouds drifted off the top of the mountains and the sun shined brightly again. As I rounded the last Mt. Adams, I could see Madison Spring Hut at the base of Mt. Madison and the near vertical trail leading to its summit. When I entered the hut, Spoon and Crocstar were feasting on some soup and fresh bread which they coaxed out of the Croo because it was Croc’s birthday. I pulled out some food and gave Catherine a call but it got cut short as those nasty clouds came blowing back in killing my cell signal and bringing the rain. We were all feeling pretty apathetic about hiking onward since it was so warm and dry inside the hut but the weather broke just long enough to convince us to get back on the trail. This would prove to be a poor decision. By the time we got to the summit of Mt. Madison, the weather was getting really hairy. The wind had picked back up and the rain got heavier. Coming down the mountain we got in a human traffic jam with some other thru-hikers right about the time lightning started to strike all around us. It was a mad scramble to get out of the alpine zone and below treeline. The torrent of water coming out of the sky turned the trail into a shin deep stream of water, everything was soaked within minutes. The rest of the day on the trail was pretty miserable hiking in the pouring rain, sometimes not knowing exactly where the trail went at trail intersections, and going over what felt like one of the most pointless uphills to Low’s Bald Spot. When we finally reached Pinkham Notch myself and others were spent and ready to call it a day. We sat on a bench trying to figure out our next move as the other group of hikers came off the trail. Nick made a call inside Joe Dodge Lodge to Hikers Paradise Hostel at Colonial Fort Inn where the owner agreed to pick us up for a fee. When he showed up we packed 7 hikers plus their gear into a Honda CRV and drove into the town of Gorham. The hostel was four small rooms with bunk beds for four people in each room, one shared bathroom, and a common room/kitchen. I got cleaned up and tried to dry my gear out by hanging things off every inch of my bed. Then Spoon and I ordered a giant pizza from Mr. Pizza and I stuffed myself while I talked to my mom on the phone. I told her it would be a good idea to put the blog on hold while we concentrated on finishing the trip and that my camera lens won’t open (after getting wet today) so I couldn’t take any pictures until she sent my another camera from home. It was a rough day so I went to sleep as soon as I could get off the phone with my mom.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 103: August 20, 2009
Travel:
From: Galehead Hut, NH
To: Mizpah Hut, NH
Beginning: 6:15am
Ending: 4:30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 21.1
b) other
c) AT Mile Marker – 1839.7 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Brisk and crisp morning.
PM: Sunny and hot, just perfect.
People: Rockdancer, Annie, Hammock, Gates, Chomp, Half-full
Animals: Not a lot at this elevation. Some buzzards and birds of prey.
Money: $0, $1835 cumulative
Notes of the day:
AM: Woke up before the sun and tried to quietly pack up so not to disturb the other hikers. I noticed that the Croo had not removed anything from the table for old guys last night and there was still a hunk of bread and butter remaining. Ravenous, I sliced a chunk off and indulged while I drug my stuff out into the porch. I figured it would be quieter than packing my backpack inside on the loud hardwood. Soon the Croo were stirring and someone heated some water on the stove for us so we could have hot Carnation Instant Breakfast this morning. Spoon and I were the first ones ready to go and since Croc still needed his morning smoke we had a little head start. Yet, in true Croc fashion, he had caught up to us before we got to the summit of South Twin. It was early enough that the sun was still creeping over the mountains and blasted us in the face as we came over the peak. From there we walked north along the ridge, just below treeline, before heading east toward Mt. Guyot. We almost missed a turn and walked for a minute down the Bondcliff trail before realizing we had come off the AT. While you are in the Whites, the AT isn’t labeled as the AT on most of the signs. The trail goes by the local name such as the Franconia Ridge Trail but on most of the signs hikers have come through carved the AT symbol next to the trail the AT follows. After navigating some funky trail intersections and poor blaze marking we made it to Zealand Falls Hut. It was still really early in the day, so much so that some of the thru hikers who stayed here last night were still hanging around. We had a third of the day finished by mid-morning so we were making great time. After a quick snack and water resupply, we headed back out. The next 8 miles were the easiest miles we encountered in the Whites where the trail was virtually flat until it descended into Crawford Notch.

From Hazard’s notes:
Day 102: August 19, 2009
Travel:
From: Lincoln, NH
To: Galehead Hut, NH
Beginning: 9:00am
Ending: 4;30pm
Number of miles hiked:
a) Trail – 13
b) other – .8 lead in trail
c) AT Mile Marker – 1818.6 cumulative
Weather:
AM: Sunny but starting to cool off. Clouds came through on the way up Little Haystack and continued through to Lafayette.
PM: From Garfield to the hut it was clear, but after sitting at the hut for a couple hours rain clouds rolled in and it drizzled for a little bit then cleared up before sundown.
People: Ali (Hitch), Crocstar, Luke (Hut Croo), Wizpee, Jellybean, Solar System & dad, about four other thru-hikers. The old guys crew.
Animals:
Money: $0, $1835 cumulative.
Notes of the day:
AM: Rolled off the couch shortly after the sun came up and scrounged around for some food.  The only thing I had to eat was my left over Ben & Jerry’s ice cream which had plenty of calories to start me off for the day.  I sat on the back porch scarfing my food. Spoon came out and joined me with his ice cream and Crocstar came out with his watermelon and talked about how we were going to get back to the trail.  We could all throw in $5 bucks for a shuttle again or try our luck on the street corner.  Instead of making a decision we went ahead and pursued both options.  After we got our packs ready we set off for the main street through town while I called the shuttle service to see how long it would take to get a ride to us which was about 25-30 minutes.  We had our thumbs out for no more than five minutes when a woman in a VW Beetle pulled to the side of the road.  Her name was Ali and her car was small, but that is rarely an issue for hikers appreciative of any kind of ride . We smashed ourselves into the car and I gave the shuttle company a call to let them know we didn’t need a ride.  While talking with Ali we found out that her son is working at one of the huts this season as a Croo member and she felt obligated to give us a ride.  This was about as lucky as Crocstar’s hitch yesterday who was actually a relative of Chet West and also felt obligated to pick up a thru-hiker. Once we were back on the trail I realized that I really needed something more than just ice cream to sustain me for the next couple of hours, so I pounded one of the many protein bars we got at the last resupply to keep us at our peak through the brutal Whites. I knew we had about 3500′ of elevation gain to the top of Mt. Lincoln, but the trail was really easy for the first mile which always worries me because that means the trail has to be much steeper down the line. After we crossed a dry creek bed, the trail pitched sharply to the sky.  A tough climb brought us to Liberty Springs Tentsite where we all took a break and chatted with the caretaker about the trail and what it was like working for the AMC.  From there we had to get to the top of Little Haystack Mountain but for some reason I forgot about that and was under the assumption I was climbing Mt. Lincoln.  So, by the time I broke treeline and made my way to what I thought was Mt. Lafayette I was surprised to find the real Lafayette hidden behind Lincoln. Having another mile across the exposed ridge line to the next summit we all took a break and had lunch.  There were a lot of people on the trail today and for good reason.  The weather was clear and the views were spectacular.  Croc finished up eating and started off with Spoon and I following a few minutes behind him.  Almost exactly 20 minutes later we stood together on top of Mt. Lafayette getting our picture taken by the local day hikers.

PM: However, we didn’t stay up there long as some dark clouds appeared to be rolling in and we didn’t want to get caught in any kind of weather at that elevation.  From the top and on the way down we could see our next big mountain Mt. Garfield in the distance and Galehead Hut nestled in the woods beyond that.  After a long and steep descent back into the woods Croc stopped for a smoke break and Spoon and I passed him.  I imagine it was too windy the past couple of miles to light up and he was jumping on the opportunity. Shortly before we got to Garfield we heard a man take a fall on some slick rock and the commotion that came afterwords.  When we got to the incident site we saw a group of elder gentlemen gathered around the one that took the fall making sure he was alright. We asked if everything was “ok” and if we could help in any way but they said they had it covered. While sitting on top of Mt. Garfield absorbing the phenomenal views, Crocstar mentioned that he saw the old gentleman vomit while he passed him. Just past the summit we took a quick stop at Garfield Ridge Shelter to use the privy and resupply on water.  The water pouring out of the side of the mountain flowed down a series of wooden troughs like some sort of fancy garden fountain. The water was so pure and crisp that I probably didn’t even need to add any chlorine. So I wondered how could something so good one moment be so dangerous the next? It happens when that constant stream of water flows down the same rocks as the trail turning our path into a slippery slide down a jagged waterfall. After surviving that section it was a fairly easy walk across the ridge to Galehead Hut. The hut sat in a cleared field nestled between Galehead Mtn and South Twin. This was our first experience staying at a hut so we dropped our packs outside and went in to find someone in charge.  The hut Croo master’s name was Luke and he was hesitant to let us do work-for-stay since they had some people there already, but after some convincing he agreed and told us to wait outside until he found some work. The guidebook states that these huts only allow 2 thru-hikers a night with a max of 4 at Lakes of the Clouds Hut, but due to the high traffic of hikers at this time of year I have a feeling the Croo are a little more lenient with the rules. Luke let 6 people stay for work, but as more hikers came later in the afternoon he could only offer them “pay-for-stay” where they could cough up $15 to sleep on the tables and get a shot at whatever food scraps the work-for-stay crew left them. All of the hikers loitered on the front porch watching the ominous clouds sweep past the hut and collide with the mountains. For a while it looked like conditions were going to get pretty bad, but just as fast as it came, the skies cleared. Luke came out and said he had work for two people and a mystery job for two others.  The “known” job was walking around the hut and picking up trash, an easy job that Spoon snatched up with some other hiker, that left Crocstar and me with the super secret work.  The big surprise was spreading compost inside a chain link cage. To explain, I shoveled all the composted material (mostly food and other organic material) from a large four-walled container onto a metal grate raised above the ground by some wooden supports.  Crocstar would take his rake and scrape the compost until it fell through the holes therefore loosening the material or something. It really wasn’t bad considering all that we got in return for a little bit of work. When we were done, it was back to sitting on the porch like a bunch of dogs waiting on table scraps as the Croo went through their scripts during dinner.  A little introduction of the rules for dinner, introduction of the crew, and other various announcements drawing out the whole process so that the hungry hikers grew impatient. When all of the paying guests had cleared out, the Croo ushered in the work-for-stay hikers and presented a feast of ham, mashed potatoes, pasta salad, corn, and some kind of brownie for dessert. We went about filling our plates in a courteous smash-and-grab like fashion all while grunting like animals that hadn’t eaten in days. After about 5 minutes they let in the pay-for-stayers to get dibs on what we left behind.  All of the food was wiped out by the hungry mob. Later that evening one of the Croo members gathered some of the kids to tell ghost stories. Not having anything better to do Spoon and I sat in on the tales. During dinner the Croo realized that some of their guests still had not returned from their hike. As it got closer to the time when the power in the hut is shut off, the only thing they could do was leave some food out on one of the tables and hope they returned soon.  Around 9pm after the lights were out, the old guys we had met earlier in the day finally stumbled into the hut. They looked  exhausted and really relieved to be back at the hut. All of the hikers had gone to bed at this point, so you have to imagine a room of picnic tables with hikers sleeping on top and beside them.  When the old guys finally had their stuff settled they asked, “What’s on the table?” referring to the food left out for them and one of the Croo responded, “Thru-hikers”. Everyone that was awake in the room died laughing and someone begged from their sleeping bag, “Don’t eat me!” So despite their huge ordeal, the old guys were still able to end their evening with full bellies and a good laugh.