Date: 2016-08-25
From: Speck Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 5.1

I woke early. The campsite was full, so the bear box was full of food bags. The food bag for Colby was very heavy.I did my usual morning ritual with eye drops, facial wipes and new Poise pad. Then I had breakfast of quinoa, sunflower seeds and dried blueberries. I packed up my things. I waited while Red Squirrel packed. We got started at 7:30 am. Speck Pond was still beautiful. We started the hike with wooden steps without a railing. At the top, we had cell service. I told Red Squirrel there were two places I wanted to call. Since we had stopped at Speck Pond instead of continuing according to the itinerary, I was concerned we would not make our AMC reservations at Carter Notch Hut, Madison Hut, Lake of the Clouds and Mizpah Hut. I pulled out the printed reservations. The phone number to change reservations did not open until 9 am and it was now 8:30 am. I did not know the date and was very uneasy that we had made so many changes to the original itinerary. It was not until days later that I realized the date appears on the main screen of my phone.We met a pair of north bounders. They wanted to go to the outfitter in Bethel to get new shoes. I showed him my print out of Maine and New Hampshire shuttle drivers from www.appalachiantrail.org > Explore the Trail > Transportation Options > scroll down AT Shuttles. They took a picture of the print out on their smart phone. We recommended Ken Hoyt, our driver from Portland to Rangeley. We hiked on.There were beautiful views as we descended Mahoosuc Arm. It was steep and rough on the knees, as we had heard.We had lunch at the campsite just north of Mahoosuc Notch. In hindsight, I wish we had hiked to this campsite yesterday. Yesterday I thought there was no place to camp before going through Mahoosuc Notch. As we rested, we met a muscular man in his 30s with a light day pack. He had gone thru the Notch and come back. Amazing! The Colby kids arrived and rested. They had a little trouble finding the path back to the trail, but figured it out in time. We followed them. Soon they were far ahead of us.Mahoosuc Notch is the base of two steep mountains, that bolders have rolled down. The Appalachian Trail winds over and under these bolders, marked by occassional white blazes. I did not take many pictures due to the difficulty. My caving skills helped here. I led the way and showed Red Squirrel where I put my feet and how I moved, any place that was challenging, which was all of it. We were passed by the hard of hearing man, rock hopping with grace and balance, from pointed edge to pointed edge, on 4-5 foot high boulders. Another man our age came from the opposite direction, doing similar maneuvers. We came to a spot where I stood at the bottom of a boulder with a white arrow pointing to the left (from where we had come) and a white arrow pointing up the rock. I could not figure out how to do this. Two young men appeared. They took our packs up the boulder. One held Red Squirrel's wrist and helped pulled her up. The other one pointed to a hand hold. I stretched to the hand hold and stretched some more. Got it. I pulled my body up the boulder using this hand hold. Later, I got off the "trail". I eventually found my way back. We met some people using their poles. We assumed we were almost finished. The terrain got better and we were hiking on ground. Yeah! We started using our hiking poles. Oops! We were back in boulders. This was discouraging. We asked some north bounders how long til we were finished. 20 minutes they said. As Red Squirrel was climbing up a boulder, she grabbed a smooth wood branch. The branch looked familiar. The branch was held by Walnut. Red Squirrel had hiked with Walnut in Virginia in April. So cool to run into Walnut. We were tired. Red Squirrel took off her pack with difficult boulders. The heavy pack made everything more difficult. Taking off the pack and putting it back on, made the going slower. The "20 minutes" for us was an hour.In hindsight, people with confidence in their balance and rock hopping above possible 4 foot falls, move through the Notch in 2 hours or so. People who are afraid of falling and their knees hurt take longer. We took over four hours.We got to the sign for Mahoosuc Notch a little after 4 pm. We were tired and Red Squirrel's knees felt like bone on bone. I had a few swallows of water left. I needed water to make dinner. So we hiked the 1.0 miles uphill, then across bog bridges on the summit of Fulling Mill Mountain and then down to Full Goose Shelter and Campsite.The Colby kids were here, along with the GI surgeon and his buddy. One of the Colby kids offered to get us water. We gave him our bottles. The Colby kids set up Red Squirrel's tent. Later, she heard that rain was predicted that night. So the Colby kids took down her tent and she moved into the shelter, with me, the GI surgeon and his buddy. After dinner, I went and got more water. I tried to call my husband but there was no cell service.