Date: 2004-07-24
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Baldpate Lean-to
Miles today: 12.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Today was definitely one of my toughest days ever-- and we only did 12 miles! The major reason for the day's difficulty was Mahoosuc Notch, a mile-long stretch and trail that winds around, over, under and through a massive pile of boulders that, over thousands of years, have fallen from the steep mountainsides above. The boulders ranged in size from the usual three feet to the size of a small house, and the pile was deep; very rarely could we see the actual ground under the boulders, they were stacked so high. We could, however, frequently look down through the gaps in the boulders and see large patches of year-round ice. This was without a doubt the most difficult, and most dangerous, section we have done yet-- a slip or a fall could very well mean a broken leg or worse if you fell off a boulder or into one of the myriad crevices we stepped over.The Notch was only one mile long, but it took us three hours to scramble across it. It was absolutely nerve-wracking, although in retrospect it was also fun-- it would be a fun section to do as a day-hike, with just a small pack and no worries about making it to the campsite before dark.Skyline, Sundance and I wanted to do twelve miles, but at 12:30 we found ourselves, after four and a half hours of hiking, have done only three miles. So, feeling despondent, we stopped for a brief lunch and then headed over the Mahoosuc Arm, another steep and rocky climb of the sort with which we have become so familiar. But we did see something unusual when we got to the summit-- an actual clear view! Recently it's been foggy or rainy so much that we've had pretty much no views, but today the views are excellent. We can see all the way back to the Presidential Range in the Whites, whose tops are shrouded in cloud. We can also see Gorham, lying in a now-distant valley.We reach Speck Pond Campsite about 3 pm-- this is our five-mile mark for the day. Five miles in seven hours. We could stop for the day (we're certainly tired enough), but we decide to push on. If we don't make the next shelter, we can always pitch tents somewhere, or if worse comes to worse there's a road crossing five miles away that will take us into the town of Bethel.So we push on, over another mountain called Old Speck. The climb is hard, the views are superb-- it's always so much better when you can see, which we haven't been able to recently.The climb down is rocky and difficult, and we reach the road to Bethel at a little before 7. Skyline and Sundance are beat-- they decide to head into town. I decide to keep going, either for the final two miles to the shelter or maybe just stopping when I find somewhere to pitch my tent. Anyway, I plan to head into the town of Andover tomorrow, and it's a quiet road here, so hitching will probably be difficult. No townstop for me tonight.The road is significant in another way, though. It marks the end of the section of trail maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club, which has maintained the stretch from the Whites to here and also runs the hut system in the Whites. From here on out, the trail is maintained by the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, and walking across the road I immediately see a difference in the trail-- it's dirt, not rocks! There are no fifteen foot vertical rock faces interrupting the trail every fifty yards! I can actually walk on this trail!This discovery is enough to give me a second wind, and I virtually race up the trail, even though it's all uphill. At first I keep an eye out for somewhere to pitch my tent, but as I realize what good time I'm making I decide to head for the shelter. I almost miss it entirely-- the turn-off is hard to see, but thankfully I meet some Southbound thru-hikers a minute later who turn me around. I covered the last 2.3 miles in just over an hour-- this is after doing just five miles in seven hours in the first half or the day! What a change... it's definitely a psychological boost, and a much-needed one in this difficult section of the trail.