Date: 2016-08-30
From: NH, NH25 in Glencliff, 1790.2

To: NH, Kinsman Notch at NH 112, 1799.7
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: clear sky

This morning, after waking up, we did one last pack shake down (ditched Sherpa's beloved anti monkey butt powder to save an ounce), enjoyed a simple oatmeal breakfast, borrowed a daypack from our hotel (mount Liberty lodging, such awesome friendly people), and drove over to the home of a family that we met Sunday at church who graciously offered to babysit our chariot for the next month as we continue with just backpacks. We visited with them, and headed to the trail, all before 10am! What did you do with your morning? Today we are officially at the starting point of the white mountains, although we slack packed the next section yesterday for logistics reasons with our car.Today's hike was short, less than 10 miles. We are planning to do fairly short days they the whites until Porter finds her trail legs. We took our time on the way up, and during a break, we stopped and chatted with "Scavenger", a young thruhiker who was sitting on the trail reading a Harry Potter book. When we told him about Porters ankle injury, he in turn shared with us that he had to take 26 days off to nurse an injury. During that time, he lived with a communal Christian group called 12 tribes. These are the same folks who gave out soup early in Georgia to thruhikers. Apparently, they have a commune near Harper's Ferry. It was fascinating to hear about life with them. They sound a lot like a messianic Jewish kabbitz. They have all things in common, start and end their days at 6 with a gathering of songs about yeshua, dancing, stories, and bible lessons. In between gatherings, they work an organic farm where they grow most of their own food and raise their livestock. The people live together in shared houses. One was a cabin called a hostel and was for people passing through such as hikers. The others had a room for the single brothers, sisters, and the families. He described the people as always trying to be better, apologizing for wrongs, very open about their pasts (for instance some were ex heroin addicts). Many are former thru hikers or failed thru hikers. We are not about to go join fringe church movements, but it sounds like a more positive place for many of them searching in comparison to alternatives offered by the world.Today was Sherpa's first day sporting his new shoes. He got the same exact ones he had put over a 1000 miles on. Porter, on the other hand, has roughly 150 miles on her Vasque hiking boots, is starting to have some minor wear and tear including tread separation. She also has some incipient blisters forming. Perhaps she will be trading hers in for the la Sportiva wildcats as well. As we continued our casual stride, we met some nature enthusiast day hikers with the biggest camera lense we had ever seen. They were taking a picture of the bitter blue berries, aka blue beaded lilies. Don't eat them! They were kind enough to give us some vitamin I (ibuprofen) which Porter gladly accepted, still sore from yesterday.At the top of 4800 ft mt moosilauke, we sat down for lunch with Thor and Rocket! They were excited to see Sherpa and finally meet Porter. Since we last saw them, their friend school bag got off the trail, and Rockets girlfriend, Harpoon, had joined them for several long days. Even she couldn't keep up with them and had to say "see ya later" after a 22 mile day and a 17 mile day. Sad we missed her. They told us the secret to their speed, they don't carry a tent. Actually, rocket broke down and got one because of the bugs. Thor is toughing it out still! The top of the mountain was wind swept and had no trees. It looked like something in Colorado but with plenty of air... We started our 4.5 mile downhill trek to the trailhead at 3:45pm. The trail down was pretty steep. It followed a beautiful waterfall for about a mile.. Thankfully, our shuttle arrangements today are more flexible than yesterday when we hitched back after missing the pickup window. The owners of the hotel came and picked us up when we called. After heating up dinner, they gave us a ride to get ice cream at a local joint. Such nice people. They keep probably the nicest and most organized hiker box along the trail. We secretly wonder if they stock it. The best find was some shoe glue! We would recommend Mount Liberty Lodge to anyone. Nice rooms and nice ownners!