Date: 2015-08-10
From: Before Brackett Brook

To: Bill Ackerly's Place
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: overcast clouds

The noticeable change of trail near the bottom of Mt Mousilauke must be one of the special joys for SOBOs. Not that there weren't some rocks today; but soft Trail predominates. That little rain yesterday afternoon had left a lot of mud, but it has mostly dried out over night. I sat for a while & ate on top of Mt Cube. It was cloudy enough that the sun didn't annoy me on the open rocks. When coming up mtns, sometimes I think, "Why am I doing this?", but when I get to the top & enjoy the view & the feeling of being above all the world out here, & in touch with so much of God's creation, it seems worth it. This Mtn has a few rocks, but fewer than I remembered NOBO; it could provide a test for shoes for NOBOs ¢ if they don't slip here, you're on good shape (although there IS some pretty quartz on this Mtn that's more slippery than any rocks I've seen). Over all, after the Whites, it scarcely seems rocky at all! After Mt cube comes Smarts Mtn, but not right away. In fact , it seemed like a long time because Smarts has such gentle slopes that you don't get to see the summit ahead of you for the whole last 5 miles. Actually, part of that time the Trail was going back North to cross Eastman Ledges (it's called Kodak Trail there, of course).When I did get to the top, I found the fire tower closed for repairs, but I got a brief phone call to Susan. Smarts Mtn also has an enclosed shelter, "Fire Warden's Cabin", & one of the nicest privies on the AT. There were some ledges to the South also, but mostly a very long downhill slope. My knee had been bothering me on the way up, so I took a couple of Ibuprofen, which helped on the way down. I began to feel slow, but I'll have to admit that I spent a lot of time talking with people I met (Several seemed like people I'd like to spend more time with, but we only get to meet in passing), & I spent almost a half hour on trail work. In the course of the day, I met no SOBOs, but there must have been a record number of NOBOs, including Finn, The Aristocrats, Quatro, Harken, Wonderland & D   , Blade, Click, Couscous, Powers, Science, Rusty, Zen, Pacer, Pom-Pom, Big Sky, Taco & Shell, 2 Bad Dogs , Burl & Treebeard, Tough-Little-Biscuit & Optimist, Lightning, Ruah, Wheaties, another spec-hiker, Quahog, + 2 who refused to give names + 6 at a stream (busy getting water) + 2 slack-packers (moving too fast). In addition, there were 5 NOBO section-hikers. All together, there were 5 married couples hiking together, tho no honeymooners. A total of 43 NOBOs! At that rate, it might seem a bit crowded out here; yet there are lots of spaces between them, & one hiker even claimed to be unaware that there was anyone near in front or behind her. As I got toward the end of the day, I could see I wasn't going to get much farther. I could camp at Bill Ackerly's place or go another mile up the hill to Trapper John Shelter [which is 0.3 off the Trail]. Bill is known for giving an ice cream bar to each hiker who stops & challenging them to a game of croquet. I was told he is a Trail maintainer & takes a particular interest in older hikers. He insisted on looking up in his book to see when I was there last time [August, 2013]. He hadn't been home then, but Ashley ad been in charge. She soon came back from running, & we all talked about people we knew from the Trail. I was the only one camping there this time, & it was threatening to rain. No croquet.