Date: 2013-07-11
From: Hikers Welcome Hostel, Glencliff, NH

To: Eliza Brook Shelter, mi 1,804.0
Miles today: 16.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I snuck out of the Hostel a few minutes after 6am, trying hard to not wake everyone in the bunks around me. Two young women named Pancakes and Cricket (who were sisters from New York) and their hound, who slept across from me, were stirring. I grabbed my gear loosely and headed down the steep flight of deck stairs to the common area, where I packed my gear. I had learned the previous day that Pancakes and Cricket would be leaving the trail for a week to attend a Wedding in NY. I was hiking under overcast skies along NH25 at rapid pace for about 0.5 miles. I had looked back a couple of times, wondering if Analog and FoxTrot would be following me. My first obstacle was fording a knee-high brook parallel to the highway. The brook had cut waste-high vertical banks, requiring me to hike along them until I could find a safe place to drop into the channel. I decided to hike through with my shoes, and wring out my socks on the other side. After crossing several paved roads, I finally arrived at the base of Moosilauke. I took a photo of the mileage sign, grabbed a snack, and began my 3,500-ft ascent to the summit. The trail began at a steady, moderate grade along mostly soil, quickly transforming to a talus field on the upper two thirds. When I reached the rock, a heavy rain started, making everything slippery. A few minutes later, FoxTrot passed me, wearing his usual tattered Chako sandals with socks, shorts and a soaked cotton T-shirt. At the first summit, where the AT dog-legged left, Fox Trot was looking at a sign that pointed to the south summit. After he headed down this trail, I turned the opposite way, hiking through large puddles and rocky terrain under dense cloud and rain. In the distance, I could see large pyramids of stacked rock (cairns), along the trail, leading to the summit. I made it to the top of Mousilauke, the first significant peak of the Whites (EL 4,628-ft), hiking most of it in the rain. At the summit, the sign was barely visible. Analog had caught up and arrived before Fox Trot realized he had taken the wrong turn earlier. I set my camera on timer, and took a couple group photos of us standing drenched in the dense clouds. FoxTrot and Analog hiked ahead, through the stacked rock walls of numerous bivy shelters, as I packed my camera away. The two of them vanished quickly into the forest canopy again, and I followed. According to AWOL's guide, we were to descend steeply about a third of the way down off the summit. In the back of my head, I was expecting to slow up considerably, to negotiate each step carefully over steep, slippery rock. We hiked a fast clip, down what seemed a moderate descent, not collectively wondering if this seemed right. Although it seemed wrong in the back of my head, I did not question our direction and hiked fast down a mix of soil, rock and root. At the base, I crossed a river at which point, Foxtrot caught up to me again. We made it to a sign that verified indeed that the AT was some 3.5 miles back up the trail we just came down! First lesson of the Whites learned! Look around you at all times for critical trail junctions and then stop at the junctions and interpret the signs carefully! In the Whites, most of the time, the AT shared the name of another trail, and was placed in brackets next to that name (AT). It also was always at the top of the sign, with other subsidiary trails beneath it. I hiked a pace back up the north side of Mousilauke so fast, it was almost jogging. In a little more than an hour, I made it to the critical trail junction about a 1/4 mi below the summit bald. I gazed at the sign and realized that I had foolishly missed it the first time. Distraction while hiking in a group has been a problem for me! Along the AT leading to the falls, a number of springs trickled directly from fractures in the rock. I filled my bottle directly without filtering, confident that it was safe to drink. The descent down the falls was steep, aided with wooden blocks doweled into the rock and occasional steel rail. I stopped a few times for snacks, rehydration, and to take a few photos. On the final descent into the narrow Kinsman Notch, near a trail spur to the parking area, a trail angel had left what appeared to be two cases of cold cokes. I sucked one down, followed by a roaring belch, then I was on my way on the steep climb out of the notch towards the Eliza Brook Shelter. It was near dusk, only a few tenths of mile from the shelter, when I saw my first moose standing not more than 30-feet off the trail in the dense understory. I arrived at the busy shelter just before dark. Pancackes and Cricket, two young ladies I had first met at the Welcome Hikers Hostel, whom I caught up to only a couple miles from the shelter, followed behind me and set up camp in the shelter. I set up my tent just in front of the shelter on the edge of a path. Numerous other hikers had set up tents all around me. As I cooked dinner, Analog and Foxtrot hiked in. We fell asleep shortly after dinner, exhausted from hiking up Mousilauke twice!