New Hampshire + Maine

Hello out there! I write this to you quickly in Stratton, Maine. I am currently two weeks out of Katahdin. I will have one more opportunity to write in a few days from Monson. Monson is the town just before the 100 Mile Wilderness, so that will be my last chance to give y'all some posts.

So I guess I promised to talk about New Hampshire. I will start at the beginning in Hanover. The state border is on a beautiful bridge over top the Connecticut River. Just before crossing, the trail has a rather long road walk. I passed a house with a cooler under the mail box and a sign that read Trail Magic. This was the house of a thru-hiker from years past. There was banana bread and a rare treat, watermelon! Hanover is a nice little town. Home of Dartmouth-- very classy Ivy League sort of place. My first hour in town was spent hopping from business to business to reap in the swag. The coffee shop gives free coffee, there was free pizza, bagels, snickers, donuts, sandwiches! The day was enjoyed on the campus green tossing the frisbee and playing it cool.

The trail becomes much harder once it leaves Hanover. I got a taste of the Whites climbing atop Smarts Mtn. and Mt. Cube. I had done this section before last summer with NP. I didn't remember it being so challenging. It might have been the 90 degree weather, but I could not be sure. I was able to visit the Ice Cream Man, a fellow who lives 50 ft off the trail. He has been giving ice cream and water to hikers for over a decade. The last summer I met him, it was a Saturday evening and he and his wife were listening to the Prairie Home Companion. He told me and NP that is what he called his wife, his "Home Companion". Sadly though, his wife had passed on since the previous summer. I spent a half hour on his front porch chatting with him over coffee and ice cream about the trail resemblance to the epic journeys of the past-- recalling Homer's Illiad and the travels endured by merchants on the Silk Road. He is a wise man and I hope to see him in the future.

I climbed my first White Mtn. of the trip and the end of my day-- Moosilauke. The heat had been so unbearable that I had stopped at 4 o'clock at the Hikers Welcome Hostel in Glencliff to sip on soda and water to wait for the heat of the day to pass. I climbed up with Gingersnap and Grasshopper. We slept on top of the mountain in these small stone enclaves that some past hikers had built to shield against the wind. The sunset was amazing. In the middle of the night it started to rain. I did not want to hike out, so I just rolled over and pulled my ground tarp over top of my sleeping bag. The rain kept me up, drizzling on my face, so when I saw the sun peaking over the eastern ridge, I was ready to roll on out. The sunrise was a vivid red. I turned around to look to the west and I saw a bolt of lightning. I was ready to head down into the valley.

The descent on the northern face of Moosilauke is notoriously steep and dangerous in the wet. I made it down and waiting for me in the parking lot was trail magic! A fellow thru-hiker Hermes has summited earlier that week and came back to cook up some hot dogs and drink some coke. Yummy! North and South Kinsman were the next day, providing stunning views of the Franconia Ridge and Lafayette. I stayed in Lincoln and a hostel run by a fellow named Chet.

The Franconia Ridge! The morning before I hitched out, I was told there was a chance of afternoon showers but that wasn't going to stop me hiking. The ridge is the first extended hike above treeline. Trees stop growing at about 4200 ft in New Hampshire, due to the roughness of the elements at that level. As I approached Lafayette, the first 5000 footer in NH, I watched the storm clouds swirl around both sides of the ridge. When I got on the other side, the wind hit. I would reckon around 50 mph. Almost fast enough to knock me off of my feet. The rain started to come in side ways. It began to mix with hail. I knew I had to get below tree line fast! As I was making my way back down towards Garfield, it began to snow! July 25th! I called it Christmas in July. I survived and did a work for stay and the Galehead Hut on the other side of Mount Garfield. Chicken and Rice for dinner with coconut brownies and pancakes in the morning was well worth the hour of work.

I feel like I could just go on and on. The next highlight was the Presidential Range. I stayed the day before in Bartlett, with a friend from school who grew up there. As I was climbing up out of the Crawford Notch, I found a pair of eyeglasses on a particularly difficult rock scramble. I recognized them as my friend's, Stanley Thermos. I got to Mitzpah Hut, just before the trail breaks out of tree line, and asked if they saw Stanley. They said he was here about an hour ago, but left quickly. It was raining quite hard and I had some intention of staying at Mitzpah, but I knew I couldn't leave a brother without eye sight, so I pressed on the famous Lakes of the Clouds. This 4.5 miles stretch was nothing but cold, wet, windy white out. I could see maybe 20 feet in front of me, just enough to make out the next cairn (a pile of rocks to indicate where the trail goes). I made it to Lakes of the Clouds and returned the glasses to Stanley. We were the only two thru-hikers there that night. We ate well!

The next day was unbelievable. I left Lakes of the Clouds in the best of weather. I was atop Mount Washington in 75 degree weather, 5 mph winds, and 100 mile visibility. It was as if the whole world was laid out before me. I spent a very leisurely slow day waltzing across the Presidential Range. I kept finding myself twirling around to look back at Washington, to look back at the trail that I had already done. All the rocks made perfect benches. I happily ate ginger bread as I looked at Maine and Vermont. I caught up with Stanely at the Madison Hut. We ate not a few bowls of soup for lunch. Despite the pleasure of the soul the day provided, the trail was still physically demanding, and we found ourselves very tired as we descended into Pinkham Notch. We found a small body of water, Lost Pond, as the sun was setting and we set up tent.

I was lying in my tent reading Don Quixote when Stanely asks me do I hear that. There was a crashing coming through the woods towards our tents. It sounded as if a small bulldozer was clearing out a stretch, with logs cracking and trees falling over. I got out of my tent and look puzzled into the woods with our headlamps trying to catch a view of this thing. The sound was coming from only ten feet away, and with both of our headlamps on, we couldn't see it. Then I saw a pair of eyes reflecting back at me, 3 feet from the ground. I said to Stanley, "I think it is a bear! Time to be brave!" We started making loud noises and throwing rocks and logs in its direction. But then the eyes rose to my eye level and only then could I make out the antlers. "Stanley! Its a moose! We gotta get out of here!" We ran back in the direction of our tents and let the moose amble on by. Obviously it was either unaware or apathetic of our attempts at intimidation. It continued walking into the pond and then we got a good look at it. The sun had just set, so the water was still giving off some light, and I saw a massive silhouette of a bull-moose standing knee deep in the water. My heart was beating fast and the bull ambled on away.

This is all I can write for now. Forgive my errors, I do not have time to edit, as I must get back on the trail. Until next time!