Date: 2008-07-30
From: Campsite past Mahoosuc Notch ME

To: Frye Notch Lean-to ME
Miles today: 12.9

Day 164 Wednesday July 30 ¢Frye Notch Lean-to ME - Miles Today: 12.9 Total Miles: 1915.2We realized last night when we set up the tent that there were moose prints around our campsite. During the night Brakeman listened for the moose to stop by and sure enough they did. I don't think they were too terribly close to the tent, as there are no additional footprints right next to our sleeping area. The other thing that dawned on us this morning was the reason for the trampled ferns near our tent area. Perhaps, the moose trample them for their bedding. And if that theory is correct, we¢re lucky a moose did not sleep on our tent last night, as we had pitched it on the downed ferns. Having a moose crash on our tent would not have been a cool thing, but it would have made a good story, if we survived. We woke around 5:00 and were on the trail by 6:00. The infamous Mahoosuc Arm was the first item on our agenda ¢ a 1600-foot climb in just 1.5 miles. But it was really no more difficult rock wise or anything else wise than the climbs that we have already done; perhaps just a tad bit longer. By 8:30 we were up and over the mountain. Just past the Arm was Speck Pond Shelter, where lo and behold, we found Floyd and Segue. The last time we saw them was July 23rd at the Madison Hut in the Whites, where we left them eating the $2 all you can eat leftover breakfast items. We got ahead of them when they zeroed during the rainy day - the day we pushed on through the difficult Wild Cat Mountains in bad weather to the gracious croo at Carter Notch Hut, who provided us with our own private bunkroom. Our zero in Gorham put the four of us back together again.   West Peak and East Peak of Baldpate Mountain provided us some lovely 360 panoramic views. It was sweet to once again see all the wonderful mountain ranges and all the cloud formations. We believe that the one mountain range in the distance was the White Mountains. So very cool. On one of those mountaintops looking down in the valley, we saw huge satellite dishes. Even from the top of the mountain, they looked huge. I can¢t imagine what they looked like up close in person. Could they be military related?We tried on both of those peaks to get cell phone reception to call home for the family reunion, but although we had ¢bars¢, we had no luck on getting it to dial. With the tons and tons of mountain ranges, I don¢t think there are too many towns, and thus cell phone towers.The terrain today was our normal mixture of lovely (sarcasm) rock slabs and delightful trail beds of soil. We actually had several miles of great trail where we could open our gait to a normal hiking stride. Oh how we yearn to be able to have a normal hiking stride for a full day. We believe that the rocks in this area appear around 2800', so we¢ll try to keep it in mind to mentally prepare for our hiking speed over the next few days.Please let the record be noted that Brakeman fell again. I wish we had kept better track of the number of falls because I think that the score must surely be 15-14, with Grasshopper in the lead still. He's closing the gap. He does not like those wet, sloped, slippery rocks.We¢ve decided that we are not needing or desiring a zero day in Andover. So we're going to attempt to hitch into Andover tomorrow, resupply, pick up our food box and hitch back to the trail and hike 6 more miles to a lean-to. But we'll wing it. We¢ve heard that there is a 70% chance of rain tomorrow, so perhaps if it is pouring down rain, we may just pay for a spot in the Andover Guest House bunkroom for the outrageously ridiculous price of $25 each. All of their private rooms are booked due to a festival in town.Our knees continue to ache a bit on the down hills. However, I don't think that our knees feel as bad at the end of the day today as they did yesterday. Brakeman took Motrin last night for his knees for the second time on the trip. He's skipping the drugs tonight though. We're just hoping that our sleep continues to heal them. Looking at the schedule, we have another week of terrain that could be a bit slow and challenging. Soon we¢ll be back into terrain that will enable us to hike at our lightening speed of 2 mph. We're looking forward to it. We're still missing the family reunion. Today, every time we had a hard hill to climb or a descent that killed our knees, we thought, "Mmm, we could have been at the family reunion. Sitting around looking at the lake, watching the boats and eating and eating and eating. So sad."   But we're at Frye Notch Lean-to continuing to make progress.    We arrived at camp at 4:15. It¢s now 6:30 and we have not seen Segue or Floyd since this morning. They were still breaking camp at 8:30 when we walked by them at the shelter. We have finally found someone that hikes slower than us! We heard that they were headed into Andover today, which is 4.5 miles past here. So if they are going to make it to Andover today, they better be boogieing by us here pretty soon.It¢s a nice cool evening again - about 74 in the tent with the doors wide open. Not as cool as yesterday, but still very comfortable. We have our rain jackets and rain pack covers hanging in a tree drying from yesterday afternoon's brief shower. We¢d really like to avoid the stinky smell that comes from articles being wet for days on end. The rain gear is just too bulky to be able to completely dry during the day, despite the fact that we hang them on the outside of our packs. The air is damp too, which hinders drying.The rainy weather is playing havoc with Brakeman¢s backpack. The inside lining of his pack, which is the water barrier liner, has rotted and is pulling away from the fabric of the pack. This water barrier liner is located in the upper hood compartment as well as the little storage/food compartment. And to add insult to injury, his fall today put another hole in the mesh pocket that holds the water bottle. His pack has taken a beating both from poor quality as well as from his falls. It's just past 6:30 and the shelter is filling up. In addition, another tent dweller has joined us in the tenting area. I think we're going to relax and go to sleep soon. Tomorrow we need to be ready for a 10+ mile day with a couple hitches and a resupply. Goodnight from just shy of Andover.