Date: 2013-08-26
From: Hanover, NH

To: Garfield Pond
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I've been so slack about updating my journal lately! In a nutshell, this week has been pretty spectacular. I got to stay at some really cool places and saw some of the most beautiful sections of trail. I slack-packed Mt. Moosilauke with Starfail. It was incredible! It was the first big mountain we've climbed in a while. I stayed at a hostel called Hikers Welcome. A guy named Legion was in charge. I have to admit, I was a little freaked out by his name. He even had the bible verse in Mark tattooed on his arm about the demon. I guess I was the only one who knew about the story behind the name, because nobody else seemed to mind. After an epic day on Moosilauke, we stayed at a guy named Chet's house. He lets hikers camp there. He was getting ready for his thru-hike 10 years ago. A freak accident happened with his camp stove. It blew up and paralyzed him from the waist down! He's confined to a wheelchair. His story was so sad. We left Chet's place in Lincoln, NH and decided to take a blue-blaze trail to Franconia Falls. There were about 15 of us in all. It was so much fun! We all took turns jumping off the rocks into the water. It was frigid cold, but the sun was warm. There is no camping allowed. So we had to stealth camp. A bunch of us just slept on the rocks in the middle of the river. It was amazingly beautiful.The next day, yesterday, we went back into town to get back on the AT. We hiked up to Liberty Springs and camped. We were technically at a pay campsite, but my tent was very well hidden. There were a few people in our group who weren't so lucky. They ended up having to hike on further to find a stealth campsite off the trail. This morning, I found out a bear had attacked them while they were sleeping! It came into camp and slashed a big hole in the side of Avocado's tent! Then it ripped open his food bag and helped himself to its contents. Avocado said he heard something scratching outside his tent. Then, looked down and saw a bear snout right next to his sleeping pad! Everybody in camp started freaking out and making all kinds of noise. Olive Oyl was banging her pot, Starfail was playing dub-step music, and the rest were yelling at the bear. It was chaotic!I'm glad I wasn't camping with them! However, a bear did come into camp where I was at. It tried to get I to the bear box where everybody stored their food. It knocked the box down the hill. I'm glad it wasn't smart enough to actually open the box! We suspect it was the same bear that hit their camp later that night. Tonight, we are stealth camping. I am NOT sleeping with my food in my tent. We hung our food. We also made a huge fire. I'm praying it will keep the bears away. We'll find out in the morning. The hike today was probably the hardest and most dangerous yet. We climbed Franconia Ridge. The weather was horrendous! It was rainy, foggy, and the wind gusts were 60 mph! I fell 3 times and rolled my ankle. It was so steep and rocky. I might as well had socks on hiking today. The rocks were so wet and slippery that my shoes has no grip whatsoever. We only did 6.5 miles today and I'm exhausted. I hope my ankle feels better tomorrow. Starfail got lost today in the fog. She took the wrong trail. I almost did too, but stopped and went back to double check the direction I was heading. She went a mile off trail and ended up at a hut. She decided to stay there for the night instead of heading back to where we were. It was the safest thing to do. Hiking the trail alone would've been way too dangerous in these weather conditions.