Date: 2008-07-25
From: Carter Notch Hut NH

To: Rattle River Shelter NH
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 159 Friday July 25 ¢ Rattle River Shelter NH - Miles Today: 13.3 Total Miles: 1876.4It rained really hard again last night.   An AMC caretaker that we talked to today guessed that we got 2" of rain yesterday. We're guessing that after 7 straight days of various degrees of rain, that the total accumulation is probably 4-5". It has just been a wet, soggy week. We could sum up today's events with one word - SUN - but, of course, as yesterday, we want to make sure Mrs. Grasshopper is doing her job typing so we'll expand upon the details of our day. We headed out of camp around 6:00 this morning and stopped by the dining room building to top off our water bottles. While there, we spotted the chocolate cake bin that they would set out for sale for the thru-hikers today. Of course, we had to raid it. We¢re not stupid, you know. What a great way to start a day - with a piece of chocolate cake each. As we headed down the trail, enjoying our chocolate cake, we were dressed in full raingear, as it looked quite gray. It was also a bit windy and it looked like it had the makings to be another wet day. We hiked to the top of Carter Dome and stopped to eat our breakfast. You see, the chocolate cake was just our appetizer for breakfast. It was 6:30 as we sat eating our oatmeal, overlooking the mountains. Low and behold we looked up and noticed that the skies were becoming more and more blue. It was a sight we had not seen for a long time. It was delightful. It turned out to be a beautiful day, all day long. We did have some white clouds and some gray clouds, but nothing fell in the way of precipitation. Wow.The trail conditions today were much better. Not good. Just better. Everything is relative. There weren't a ton of streams flowing down the trail. The frequency of the 4-6¢ puddles was less. We still had tons of mud and bogs and our shoes remained wet and soggy all day. But, overall, it was a whole lot better day than yesterday when, of course, we were walking in the rain all day. With the blue skies sticking around all day and the few ridges providing open views, it was a gorgeous day for hiking. It was great to see all of the Presidents that we've hiked over the last few days. We could see Mt. Washington in the clear, which is unusual as it is typically fogged in. It was quite sad in some ways, especially for Grasshopper, to have to wave goodbye to our beautiful vistas.   She kept pausing, turning around and waving goodbye to the view with a sad face. It¢s not every day or year that we get to come to the Whites! It¢ll soon be back to the green tunnel. We tried a lot of times today as we have over the last several days to get cell phone reception to call Grasshopper¢s family, who is gathered at the lake for the family reunion. We still have not been able to get through, so it's a complete bummer. By the time we get to Gorham tomorrow morning, some of the family members will have already left. We¢re not even sure if we will have cell phone reception in Gorham, as it¢s in the valley.We¢re in our tent tonight ¢ no more huts! We actually have a dry rain fly as we¢ve had the tent set up for a couple hours airing. Our raingear is still wet and smelly. We had it strapped to the back of our packs today, but there is really not enough space for it to fully air and dry. Socks and shoes are still totally drenched. We¢re looking forward to getting in our motel room and sticking our wet gear on the fan to dry and air.Brakeman's feet today, for the first time, look really, really bad. Despite being at camp for 2 hours, they are still very wrinkled. He says they are very tender. He¢s probably at a stage where if he doesn't get them dried out for a significant period, he could easily get trench foot or foot rot as we call it. Let¢s hope not!We're looking forward to our trip to Gorham tomorrow. Brakeman has been talking about Burger King for quite some time. There is also a Mexican Buffet in town, so I'm thinking that life could be quite good for our nero and zero in Gorham. The big news today is that we have less than 300 miles to go - officially 299.8 miles left. WOO HOO!It's 7:17 and we're pretty dog-tired. We climbed 5,830 feet today, per Upload and Stitches¢ 2006 AT journal. Our knees and feet are ready for a nap so I think we're going to call it a night. Despite our tiredness, we are feeling that we had a very triumphant day ¢ we can actually say that we have completed the Whites, which is one major obstacle for this trail! We are totally psyched but yet saddened a bit to have lost our open views (not that we had many). But, on our second day out of Gorham, we enter Maine! And on our third day out of Gorham, we enter the infamous Mahoosuc Notch, the slowest mile on the trail. So despite finishing the Whites, we have many more adventures ahead of us. Goodnight.