Date: 2017-07-10
From: Rattle River Shelter, NH

To: Carlo Col Shelter and Campsite, ME
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: few clouds

I will miss New Hampshire. For a while, I will have constant reminders of her; every time I look at my hands or elbows or legs and see the scabs healing from all the scratches and scrapes, I will remember her. But the gorgeous mountaintop vistas, the kindness of its people, the effectiveness of its hut system, and the outrageously good spell of weather in the Whites, all combined to make this state my favorite so far.But to recap the day: I set out at 7:44. The day was overcast. The humidity was 100%. The trail continued for a while to be almost flat. It was a day of milestones. Within ten minutes of starting out, I had breached the 300-miles-remaining mark. I walked on a road for a while, passing a hydroelectric power plant on a river. Then the road tilted upwards as the climb to the top of Mt Hayes began. It was a net 1700 feet, but felt like more. There were no (or almost no) technical sections; it harked back to the tough climbs in Georgia and North Carolina, where all you needed was strength and endurance. It felt like honest effort and no unreasonable demands. Just step, push up; step, push up. In total today, I climbed about 6,400 feet.In the humidity, I sweated buckets. There were many springs and streams today, though, and I drank at every one and kept one bottle filled for the stretches between water sources. The conquest of Mt Hayes at 2,555 feet was followed by those of Cascade Mountain, Trident Col (2020), and a few unnamed minor peaks scattered along a ridge. I stopped along the way when I saw I had service and updated my trail journal for the previous two days. I got a text from Rooster who is close behind me. There was another milestone in the early afternoon when I hit mile 1,900. I saw no sign signaling it.I ran into 60/40, a flip-flopper who says we met when he was doing Georgia and North Carolina with his sister-in-law. I have no recollection of meeting him. His male companion now, he said, was exhausted by the trail. As we were talking, his friend passed us without a word, and from the state of his shorts (muddy streaks, one back pocket almost ripped off), you could see he'd been scrambling on his butt down some descents). He found a flat rock a few yards past us and lay down on it.The net 1,400-foot climb to the top of Mt Success (3565) had some tricky stretches but, like Hayes, felt fair. The drop down and the climb up to the border with Maine was, however, challenging in many places. There was one outrageous section where I stopped and yelled "Mammy!" And the final stinger, a vicious little section of massive boulders reminiscent of the Lemon Squeezer way back when, saw me pull out the twelve feet of rope my friend Tom had helped me buy near Squam Lake just over a week ago and use it to lower my backpack over a ledge and follow it gingerly. That section, a small preparation for the monster that is Mahoosuc Notch tomorrow, occurred within feet of the sign for the Carlo Col Shelter, where I pulled in for the night. There were tent platforms (which I am now adept at using sans stakes). I took the one furthest away from the shelter, past a group of three tents filled with giggling teenage girls. In the shelter were Tuff Broad and Bear Sweatz, whom I last saw several weeks ago. I cooked Idahoan potatoes for dinner, accidentally dumping in twice the amount of turmeric I usually administer. If it has the healing properties it is credited with, sure I'll be Superman tomorrow. Tipperary