Date: 2013-09-04
From: Mahoosuc Notch (West End)

To: Grafton Notch
Miles today: 8.2
Weather: few clouds

When I met a SOBO hiker yesterday who said she had taken 4 hours to go thru the notch ("because I'm pokey"), I thought, "I should do better than that, since it only took me a little over 2 hours 6 years ago." Well, I'm 6 years older, tired from 1900 miles of hiking, & have an ankle that I'm still being careful of. I thought I started off well; in fact, I felt I was going right along all the way, while still being careful. Some of the rocks did seem more difficult than last time. Another difference was that I saw no signs left of the moose at the beginning of the notch (It had been alive but fatally injured when I came thru 6 years ago). I only took my backpack off once, to get thru a tight cavelike spot. The annoying thing about that is that it wasn't necessary. Approaching that area, I saw a side trail that looked like it went around the tight spot. I declined because the last one of those I had tried had led nowhere. The blazes seemed clear. Yet when I got to the other side & looked back, there were blazes sending a hiker up over the top, avoiding that cave. I felt deceived! Well, it took 4.2 hours altogether this time. To rub it in, another NOBO finished at the same time & said it had taken him 1.75 hours! I stopped at the end to fix lunch & found some deadfalls to cut. That took a little time, but mostly I did it during the cooking. People talk a lot about the difficulty of climbing Mahoosuc Arm. I didn't think it was too bad, even with a sore ankle, but that doesn't mean I went very fast. It did involve a lot of climbing up rock faces, many of them wet. Then at the top there were alpine bogs with some interesting board walks & wood steps (mostly in better shape than those on Goose Eye Mtn). By mid-afternoon, I had gotten to Speck Pond shelter & fixed supper. Before then, Big Spoon & Brain Damage had passed me, & we were joined at the shelter by Honeysuckle, Gravy, Persistent, & a couple of other thru-hikers. I took off ahead of them because I wanted to get to Grafton Notch before dark. I thought I was making good time, but they all passed me before we got to the first ridge of Old Speck. Most of them were headed for the top, thinking to camp near the look-out tower. There was a strong, cold wind up there on the bare rocks; so it was nice to get up higher into the wooded top. When I got to the turn-off to the tower, it started to rain, but only for a little while. I started right down what I thought was an easy trail.On a day like this, I have lots of time to think about how various body parts are working. My right knee bothered me a little bit before the hike & has done pretty well, but it does complain a little. So the left knee is more dependable for lifts up over rocks [more than a foot high], but the right CAN do it [especially, if I can relax it before it has to move]. For descending rocks, where I want to let down gradually, neither one seems really good. They let down fast, which is a bit hard on the feet landing flat-footed [usually on rock]. That's more problematic with the right knee, because I'm still trying to baby the left ankle sometimes. I guess it seems that neither foot is real good at sticking the landings, partly because the bottoms of my feet are just so tender. I'm hoping to find some inserts that will provide more cushioning. Both legs work much better on gradual rises or even 8-inch steps.   As it got darker, I moved slower. The rocky trail was hard on my feet, the AT was poorly marked in lots of places, & my headlamp wasn't very bright. I remembered that the Trail followed a creek near the bottom, & that there was a ford near a waterfall. When I got near the creek, I tried to cross when I couldn't find any blazes, but that led nowhere. Finally, I got back on the Trail & made it down to the right waterfall. I had seen a flashlight down the Trail before that ¢ apparently, it was Susan coming up to look for me. When I got to the trailhead, I didn't see her car. After looking around the parking lot, I went out by the highway. She had left a note for me at the bulletin board, but I didn't think to look before she came back down the road. She had another supper for me, which I ate as we drove to a motel in Rumford (a pretty place along the river, she said, but I couldn't tell in the dark). The reason the other hikers didn't want to stop at Speck Pond shelter, preferring to camp in the rain on top of the Mtn, is that the Appalachian Mtn Club charges $8.00 to stay there, like they do at many of the other campsites in the White Mtns. Many hikers have a strong aversion to that & do all kinds of things to avoid staying at those places, all the while cursing the AMC.I have just made it thru the Whites, stopping at only one pay site, not because I'm cheap but because I often couldn't get as far as I wanted on a given day. I found that there are plenty of workable camping places, except above tree line. It did appear that hammockers had some advantage, because the forest floor is so uneven. Last I heard, Osgood is still a free site, as are Eliza Brook & Rattle River.Yes, the AMC does appear to be a bunch of greedy control freaks (though I haven't met an individual member who is that way). I don't mind paying, though, when I think of all the generations of effort the AMC and other clubs have put into building & maintaining the Trail thru some difficult terrain. I encourage hikers to find some way to contribute, not just to the ATC, but to some of the trail clubs like AMC that do the boots-on-the-ground work. If you don't like the big clubs, then help support some of the smaller ones, e.g., in NC, TN, Southern VA, & PA.Sometimes I think "Trail Magic" is a bad thing because it gets hikers into thinking everything about the hike should be free, no matter what it cost someone else. There's much more joy in receiving things as gifts that surprise us rather than entitlements we get to grumbling about.