Date: 2008-07-19
From: The Carriage Motel - North Woodstock NH 

To: Liberty Springs Tent Site NH
Miles today: 2.6

Day 153 Saturday July 19 ¢ Liberty Springs Tent Site NH - Miles Today: 2.6 Total Miles: 1806.1We checked out of the motel around 10:30 and stood just past the motel office, per the suggestion of the owner, to begin our hitch. We were unable to get anyone in the motel to take us back to the trail. But not a problem, as we scored our hitch within 10 minutes - a lady in an Infinity Q45 that looked like it had a million and one miles on it. The leather seat was covered with an olive tape holding them together. In the backseat was a huge German Shepherd and a young boy about 6 years old eating Cheetos. Turns out that they are grandma and grandson and were passing through the area. We weren¢t quite sure where exactly to pick up the trail, as getting off the trail was quite confusing yesterday. But we told the lady we needed to pick up the trail again on US Rte 3. We all kept a look out for the brown trail signs. The lady was real laid back about finding where we needed to go. Very nice of her! We found the trail signs and talked to some hikers in the parking lot who confirmed we were in the right place to pick up the AT, however we had to walk on another trail for about .9 of a mile to get physically on to the AT again. None of this was in our literature but we did OK. We may not have walked every single white blaze in this area, but we walked the same distance or more, so we're calling it legal. We were expecting a much tougher climb up the hill this morning as we knew we had a couple thousand foot elevation gain in just 2.6 miles but it really wasn't too difficult. It may have been a case where our guidebook¢s ¢topo¢ map was a bit out of scale and looked more intimidating on paper than in reality.   Liberty Springs tent site has 7 single platforms and 3 double platforms according to the literature. It was jammed packed. We got there about 12:30 and grabbed the last single platform. As the afternoon progressed, people had to share the double platforms. It is Saturday and we've got every type of hiker out - section-hikers, weekend hikers and thru-hikers. Our timing for arriving to camp was just perfect, as the thunder arrived just when we did. We quickly set up the tent and got our water filtered. We've had 3 sets of showers and 3 different sets of thunder but nothing directly overhead, so at this point in time, it's really more of a nuisance than anything else. We still continue to have trouble pitching our tent on a wood platform because the rain splashes on the wood platform underneath our rain fly directly into our tent. It was actually sprinkling all the way inside the tent. Let's hope that we don't have rain all night long. Later in the afternoon, we figured out a way to make a barricade of rocks underneath our rain fly to give us more rain protection. The rain also seems to puddle on the platform boards, which of course, when you put any pressure on the floor of the tent, it pulls that water through to the inside. So we're not the happiest of campers - no pun intended - but we're dry enough and life is still good. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. It might bring some pretty wet hikers. We hung our bear rope on a scrawny pine tree, as there were no trees of any significant size at this elevation. When the AMC caretaker came by to collect our fees ($8 PP), he explained to us that we're above bear country so we don't need to hang our food. Oh. I guess we'll be sleeping with our food for the first time on this trip. He actually told us that where we hung our bear rope would probably be more of an issue in the wind than anything and that it may have come crashing down in a good wind. Listening to the hikers on the platform beside us, we learned that thru-hikers do not have to pay the $8 per person camping fee, so Brakeman headed to the AMC Caretakers tent to get our money back. Sweet!We're trying to figure out what our game plan is for tomorrow. I think the best thing we can do is wing it. We are hoping to stay at Galehead Hut. If we get there too early, they're going to try to push us on, but if we get there too late, we might not get the work for stay or we might get caught in the rain. The hut system really does bring on another layer of stress, especially in this weather. I think we'll do our normal 5:00 a.m. wakeup and just wing it. If the skies look clear and we think we've got 3.5 more miles in us, we'll go for Guyot Shelter. Otherwise we'll try to stay at Galehead Hut and beg and plead for work for stay.It's 4:45 and about 70 degrees. Guess what it's doing. Can you hear it? Yep, that's right. It¢s raining. Since we are above bear country and it¢s raining, we¢re going to eat in the tent ¢ chicken and garlic mashed potatoes, Pemmican Mealpac bar and Oreos. They're calling for afternoon storms this entire week, which is unfortunate because this week we're in the Whites and we were really hoping not to have one more burden in this extremely challenging terrain. Goodnight from the wet, rainy Whites, which we hope will soon be dry.