Date: 2014-08-15
From: Congdon Shelter

To: Goddard Shelter
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: overcast clouds

The rain made a quick appearance last night but the cold decided to stay around for a bit. My idea of waiting to get my winter gear when I get closer to New Hampshire is quickly being changed to getting my gear as soon as possible. At this point I'm comfortable in my tent and my quilt keeps me super warm, the worry comes in when it's cold and raining and when sitting around camp. The weather this trip hasn't been normal with winter hanging around longer than usual and the summer has been pretty mild for us and now the weather is feeling like fall weather.    I didn't get out of bed until little after seven this morning, back hike I jump out of bed when my alarm goes off but lately out here, I sleep in a little. I have to change this because with daylight hours getting shorter need to take advantage of all of it and put in some miles. After some warm breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate we broke camp around nine. We had two options for the day-a fourteen miler or a nineteen miler, dependent on the time we got to the first shelter would determine if we would venture on to the second shelter. It was a cold,blustery day and to top it off the rain started up again, it fluctuated between a light rain to a mist. This was one of those days that if you were on the fence about quitting the trail, you would drop out,there was nothing pretty about it. We hiked out with rain above our heads and muddy trail below our feet aiming to get to a shelter to take a lunch break and warm up. I'm an advocate for listening to music on the trail and it's times like these that they can out you in a good mood despite your surroundings so we all put the headphones in and hiked on.    We got the to the shelter and put on our long sleeves and actually made some hot coffee to try to warm up. The rain was on and off but the wind kept blowing so the rain from the trees constantly spilled onto us. There were a few chipmunks scavenging for some snacks and I obliged and threw out some Chex Mix to them and got them wired off the sugar because they running around like banshees.    Atlas and I accepted the fact that we needed to keep going and begrudgingly put the packs back on and ventured forth to the next shelter which we all decided would be as far as we would be going. We got the shelter and Cactus and Aroo were there bundled up in their bags,they zeroed there for the day. We were higher up in elevation so it was colder than when we started and hid in the shelter and set up our stuff for the night. While we were cooking dinner Delaware showed up and who was with her-James! He left the trail a few weeks ago beside he broke some bones in his hand and went home for a bit. He's now sporting a cast on his right hand so they'll he's going to have to get used to doing things lefty which could get interesting. I was worried he wasn't coming back and I was thinking about texting him when all of a sudden he shows up at the shelter, this trail works in mysterious ways. I'm glad he's back, I always wanted to hike the New Hampshire part with him as that's his home state and he's always talking about how awesome it is and his enthusiasm is infectious so I'm looking forward to it. Luckily that was all the people who stayed in the shelter, it held sixteen people so we all had plenty of room.   After dinner, we all retreated to our sleeping bags and bundled up for the night. It's suppose to be a nice day tomorrow so we're going to try to do a big day so we can get into town Sunday and resupply. Hoping for sun skies and warm temperature tomorrow, see what happens.