Date: 2017-06-28
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Pinkham Notch, then Lincoln
Miles today: 6.1
Weather: broken clouds

We sat down to breakfast here at Carter Notch Hut and they brought out a heaping platter of ¢¦ No, Scout, enough about food! They¢re tired of it.In 6.1 miles more I will see Frodo again ¢¦ No, Scout, enough about Frodo; they¢ve had their fill of how besotten you are with her.So I¢ll tempt fate and talk about trail instead. We love trail out here, as sensitive to it as a cat is with its whiskers, as a bat is with the sonar it uses to find bugs. So, since we¢ve crossed the border into New Hampshire, all our senses have turned to the question ¢ is there any difference in the trail? Yes. (This better not come back to bite me.) First, New Hampshire must have a scarcity of white paint. The ever-present white blazes we see on trees and rocks ¢ literally every 100 to 200 feet, every change of trail direction marked with two AT white blazes, one on top of the other ¢ they now are spaced out a few hundred yards or more. Wooden junction signs use other trail names. Are they ashamed of the AT? But the biggest difference is oh-so-subtle. The worst parts of the trail, those steep, near-vertical-feeling rises and falling-off-a-cliff descents, are ever-so-slightly less devilish and severe. (Frodo: NOOOO!!!! Now you¢ve done it. I¢m certain that as you wrote this the trail for the rest of New Hampshire has re-arranged itself and is now much more steep and difficult than it was a few days ago. You jinxed yourself, I¢m sure.) In Maine there would be a series of places where you would need all four appendages and you¢d wish for a fifth, like a monkey¢s tail, to pull yourself up. Here the ascent is as steep, but they have painstakingly put in steps. Yes, irregular and gut-busting, but steps. And when this trail carries you over slanted open granite slabs, so prone to causing falls when wet, here the slabs are slightly less canted, a smidgen safer. Maybe climbing Mt. Washington and the Presidentials (sounds like an old rock & roll band) will blow my New Hampshire trail theory to smithereens. We¢ll see.Frodo¢s hair is like spun silk, her hazel eyes like jewels in a display case¢¦. Enough! (Frodo: Pretty funny, typing this up. Ha!)What¢s 6.1 miles? It¢s the distance from Carter Notch Hut to Pinkham Notch. It¢s a 10K. Didn¢t I once do a 10K race in 39 minutes and 42 seconds? We¢ll be hiking up and over the Wildcats. The map calls them Wildcat A, Wildcat B, through Wildcat E. A roller coaster of wildcats. The names re reminiscent of Dr. Seuaa. Remember The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, and little cats A, B, C, D, etc.? And they were bad hombres (Frodo: Um¢¦ I think that was Thing 1 and Thing 2, but I could be wrong. It¢s been a while) These Wildcats, with their ups and downs and rocky steps, were poised to slap us. But Stringbean, a just-out-of-college SOBO, had attached himself as our caboose and we chatted (rather we talked between huffing breaths) and the first half passed nicely before he pushed ahead. Here's me appreciating the scenery before the rain started: http://www.trailjournals.com/j...Imagine a 10K race with a 1700-foot vertical drop in only a mile. We were able to see below us the visitor center and cafeteria at Pinkham Notch for quite a while.Finally, with a mile left as we negotiated big wet rocks on the last of the vertical drop, a voice called up, ¢Be careful.¢ Frodo. At last.My newly-torn pants - yes, one more fall, my first face-forward, hands-out-in-front, downhill one ¢ and the associated cuts and bruises don¢t matter.We have lunch in the spacious AMC Visitor Center and watch the downpour (we had good timing for once!) drown the parking lot. I write three postcards to the princesses.(Frodo: I planned to hike more than that first mile, but when in the spattery rain I saw that steep rocky uphill I thought, ¢Good lord, I would be so slow going down those slippery rocks!¢ and decided that discretion was the better part of valor under the circumstances.  Here is what it looked like, though the photo doesn't do justice to the steepness: http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  SoI just leaned against a tree (the rocks were all covered with wet moss) and waited for about 45 minutes. It was VERY good to see the two of them. As for Scout writing to the princesses while he ate lunch: I saw how little he ate as he wrote the first one (and how hard it would be for the poor girl to read) and I took over the writing while he dictated and ate more efficiently.)A nearo day (a day in which you hike less than ten miles) and then a zero.Rest, Scout, rest.