Date: 2016-07-17
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: White Mountain Hostel, Gorham NH
Miles today: 22.0

Woke up at 4 and out of my bag at 5:30. Ate the last of my oatmeal, some nuts and knocked down two Via coffees. Which got me flying. I was hiking by 6:30 with light persistent rain and cloud hovering over the mountain tops. I felt good and strong and I think that I was getting my hiking legs. The shelter that I started from sits in a knoll along a mountain ridge, and the morning would be a roller coaster going over Goose Eye Mtn north peak, east peak and Mt Carlo with a lot of rolling up and down. The ridge is a patch work of bare rock interspersed with bogs and some alpine forest (low stunted trees and bushes). I really loved this type of terrain and had a blast for the three hours it took me to hike the 4 1/2 miles to Carlo Col Shelter where I stopped for second breakfast. Let's talk gear for a bit. Hiking out west with groomed trails with switchbacks, I normally hike with one pole which is how I started out in Maine. Hiking in Maine though is a full body experience and somewhere along the way I started using two poles and also found that I slipped and fell down less. With two poles your arms become part of the hiking machine for powering up inclines and for maintaining balance. My backpack is a 20 year old Gregory which has been a great pack, but found that it is the wrong pack for the AT. Weight is key on long hikes like this and my pack is heavy and absorbs water staying damp for a long time. There are a new generation of lightweight packs that a lot of the Nobos were using and started to show up with the Sobos. I had come to realize that the extra weight that I was carrying was hard on my knees and ankles, and started to look at replacing my backpack. I also started to determine what I really needed in my pack and what I could send home. Somethings would be replaced with a lighter version of the same. Also my shoes. I wear Scarpa hiking boots. They have been great but the inside seam of my right boot delaminated and it leaks when I step in something wet, so I've been hiking with a slightly wet right foot for the last 100 miles. Back to the trail. Met the Ramen King and his crew by the Carlo Col shelter just before a really steep rock slab scramble that is a single file affair. There was a group of three 60-70 year old folks coming thru that area and we had to wait about ten minutes for them. As soon as they were through a went on. The Ramen King clan passed me after a while but I saw them again in a short while at the Maine/New Hampshire border sign. I was through Maine and had completed my first state, a milestone. After the border it was a 2 mile climb up to Mt Success. The weather was clearing and I had cell service at the top, so I called White Mountain Lodge and reserved 3 nights planning on a 21 mile slack pack through the Wild Cats and my first zero (day off). I had 15 miles left for the day, 2 1/2 miles to Gentian Pond Shelter which would be another food stop and where I would refill my water bladder. Since I lost my Nalgene, I had to borrow someone's Nalgene bottle to fill my water bladder. I left the shelter at 2:15 and had 12 miles left, but was getting tired. After the shelter there was rolling up and down over Wocket Ledge, down into Trident Col, up and over Cascade Mtn, up and over Mt Hayes which is a beautiful rocky knoll with 2 1/2 miles left. My legs were tired, my back was sore and the dogs were barking. From the ledge I could see the road for Gorham and it looked like I still had a lot of elevation to hike down. Also the sun was going down. Back in the forest it was getting dark and I waned to avoid having to use my headlamp going down a steep grade. I raced down the trail as fast as I could. Also, I hadn't had anything to eat in a while and feeling hunger pains. I broke out of the woods sometime after 8 pm to a dirt road. Which way do I go. Looked at my map, nothing conclusive there. A white blaze right, no. A white blaze left, no. Anything on the other side of the road, no. Ok, any clues here? The angle of the trailhead sign if I was going north was angled for people coming from the left, go that way, 1/4 mile down the dirt road, I saw a blaze, a quarter mile further, a sign at a road junction pointing to turn right. Straight up the road, passing the dam on the right I saw a house with a sign out front and the lights on, the White Mountain Hostel. It was 8:30, 14 hours after starting my hike for the day and I was home. Checked into the hostel, ate a left over slice of pizza and a breakfast burrito, showered and called it a day. I'm taking a zero tomorrow, my first day off.