Date: 2014-07-24
From: frye notch lean to

To: south arm rd
Miles today: 14.6

I woke up at the frye notch shelter thinking i had @ 22 miles to meet cindy at rt 17. I knew i had two big climbs in the afternoon so i had hoped to get ten miles in by noon and that would leave me plenty of time to do the next twelve by eight that night. I was on the trail by 7 and had a short little hill to get over before a long downhill. The initial hill had me begging for a bit of air, some mornings its hard to get going. 3.5 miles in i got to dunn notch. There is a real neat waterfall there, it looks like somebody took a swipe out of the granite sides and left the rest. The falls are probly a hundred feet tall, pretty impressive. Then i crossed over eaat b hill rd that is one option to get into andover. From the east b i had a long gradual hill about two thousand feet up. Halfeay i came to a nice big beaver pond so i hung out for a bit to look for any wildlife and check out the scene. After i left the pond and roughly 3/4 of the way up the hill i caught up to a lady 'finishing her thru hike of four years ago. She had skipped 60 miles but still called herself a thru hiker. Hmmm im not too sure i can go along with that but its her story and she is sticking to it. At the top of wyman mt it was only a little over a mile to hall mt lean to where i planned on having lunch. I got there a little before noon and made some lunch. I was thrilled to be on schedule. I had done ten and a half miles already so i should be good for the rest of the day. After i ate i got out my guide and flipped the page to look at the rest of the day. I look ahead for elevation changes and how far between water sources. I bet my eyes popped out when i realized i had 17 miles to go not 12! This was bad, i had enough gas for twelve miles but seventeen was going to be too many. I took off quick like thinking maybe i could make it. That lasted not very long once i got to the descent of sawyer notch, a steep 1600' decline and a real steep 1000' climb on the other side. I had to come up with a new plan. When i got to the top of moody mtsat down to re evaluate my guide book. I could get off on yhe south arm rd, hitch to andover and meet cindy there. Then hike with her for two days to rt 17 and figure out how to get back to her car. I called her and told her about the new protocal. It was going to be a nine mile hitch hike on a not very busy road so i told her if she didnt hear from me to look for me on the south arm rd. So i made it to the road about 2 o clock, toon a minute to wash off in the creek so for to look respectable to the people that would hopefully give me a ride. The first two cars went by and waved, thanks. Then not five minutes into my begging for a ride a truck pulled up ready to get me to town. Leo and anna live right on the road and give hikers a ride whenever they can. How cool is that? They gave me the scoop on the town and some of the locals. They dropped me off by the local store where i could hang out till cindy got there. Leo handed me a little business card that says the only thing they want for the ride is a postcard from someplace along the trip. Consider it done my friend. I loitered at the store and ate food all afternoon. I got caught up on my journal and ate more food. I asked the lady running the store if it was ok for me to be at her picnic table for so long. Thats what its for she said. So i ate more food. Cindy got there about 9 o clock so we headed for the nearby town of bethel to get a room for the night. We got a dandy of a place and crashed figuring we could sort out everything tomorrow. The appalachian trail if nothing else teaches you to be flexible. Too many varuables to be in control of everything. I was truly going with the flow at this point. Take it as it comes. My tired self is going to take a zero tomorrow too. Now who has it better than me?