Date: 2014-08-25
From: Kinsman Notch, Lost River Rd., NH 112, mile 389.4

To: NH 25, Oliverian Brook, mile 398.7
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: few clouds

Since today¢s distance was shorter than yesterday¢s, May Louise and I took time to eat breakfast before I started. We stopped at a silver roadside diner where I had delicious Banana bread French toast.After letting me off May Louise provided taxi service to a group of grungy hikers heading for Lincoln to clean up and fill up.Today I slack packed Mt. Moosilauke. The trail up was a long hard and vertical three miles, but the path was well maintained. I felt I had a safe place to put my foot for almost every step of the climb. The climb was beautiful. The trail parallels a book that cascaded down in a series of waterfalls beside it. At the trail head there was an ominous sign warning that the climb was steep and dangerous and should only be attempted by experienced hikers. Climbing behind me was a family with two young girls, one only six. They made it to the summit shortly after me with the kids in high spirits and ready for more.Half way up the climb I accepted the invitation of some young hikers to help me across the slick rocks of the cascade to see a marvelous vista of the roadway and valley where I had started looking down the cascade. The image of a strong young fellow extending an arm to help me over a dangerous step may be the most enduring visual snapshot of my whole journey.As I approached the summit I met another northbound through hiker who recognized me. Unfortunately I did not register her name, but the lady we met in the smokies who delighted in my mouse eaten hat and who warned Nathan to recover his pack quickly because mice were crawling in and exploring it called out a greeting and commented on how much less there was of me than the last time we met.I did not remember until I saw some young hikers at the summit that one of the many silly traditions of the trail is that you are supposed to hike Mt. Moosilauke in a dress. I did not have a dress, but I am wearing feminine sanitary napkins taped on my shoulders to protect the raw spots my pack straps wore there until they heal; so maybe that counts.Northbound hikers have been reassuring me for weeks that once I was through the White Mountains I would have completed all of the hardest parts of the trail. Moosilauke is the last of the White Mountains and in support of the prophesy the trail became progressively easier as I descended it. The last couple of miles of today¢s hike was along some of the smoothest trail I had seen since I left Virginia. Several times over the last few weeks including today I passed a group of young people on a college orientation hike. Apparently it is now a common practice to offer an outdoors adventure as an orientation option for freshmen. Each group I have met was polite, fresh faced, and enthusiastic. The practice sure beats the beanie hats and kowtowing to Seniors that was the norm for college orientation when May Louise and I started school.As a reminder that the year is running out and that my time to complete a through hike this year is getting short, our son posted beautiful pictures of our five grandchildren returning to their first day of school.