Date: 2020-09-11
From: Hanover Co-op

To: Smarts Mountain Fire Wardens Cabin
Miles today: 22.6

I took the first shuttle back to trail, leaving Sunrise, Yard Sale, Stitch, Big Dog, Travis and Jason. Stopped at the post office to mail a couple more things home I don't need, like my summer silk sleeping bag liner. Then headed to the Hanover Co-op to resupply. The Co-op has bulk food dispensers. A lot of them. Hanover has some interesting contrasts with my suburban Pennsylvania home town. There, the supermarkets removed bulk dispensers, because of Covid they said. And our schools are all virtual. But I walked by Hanover High School several times and it is swarming with kids. Yet you must wear a mask everywhere, even if you're the only person on the Green.Hiking out of town I passed Bill, who I'd gotten Indian food with. He was finishing a few miles southbound that he'd missed yesterday. He's headed north to Moosilauke to do more sections so we may cross paths again. Seems to have a busy vacation schedule in his early retirement. He needs to meet his wife in Cape Cod for a couple of days first.Easy trail the first eight miles, then some 1000-1500 foot climbs up Moose Mountain and Holt's Ledge. Cool weather and low humidity made it easier than the Vermont rollercoaster.Numerous road crossings like the last part of Vermont, but no nearby stores or delis. (sad face)More stone walls, and long abandoned dirt roads. Some were named by wooden signs as if some old farmer were going to direct you down them ("ya con't get theah from heah"). Passed a track signed "Logging Road" that looked narrower than the AT.Pines, firs, and spruces dominated, with maples and oaks still plentiful. A few maples are beginning to turn, with fluffs of red dotting the hillsides.I came across three sixtyish guys lunching on boulders. They had just started a section to Moosilauke. At the Moose Mountain summit a lady asked if I was dayhiking or thruhiking. I smiled. My pack is bigger and heavier with my winter quilt, clothes, and stove, but I guess it doesn't look quite big enough.Two women resting there were southbounding. Water Worm and Bambi took two months to get here. Bambi thrued NOBO three years ago. They marveled that I might get to Katahdin before it closes in a month. I said the Kennebec ferry shutting down September 30th is my more pressing deadline. They think the Kennebec is easily fordable.I stopped at Trapper John Shelter for dinner, not realizing it was a quarter mile off trail. Felix and Irish were there, having camped near Hanover last night. They already had a fire going. Irish had lugged the equivalent of four bottles of wine from town in a 3L water bag, intending to celebrate with his buddies. A father and son came in looking for a tent spot. Irish was blasting music, which he told me was to deter them from using the shelter, but turned it off a few minutes later. I mentioned Big Dog and Stitch weren't on the morning shuttle so might not make it here. This seemed to throw a wrench in their plans, but Irish was intent on getting a little crazy. I asked him to be considerate of the nearby tenters. Felix got the message without being asked. On the way out I chatted with the father and son. They were doing several sections of Vermont and New Hampshire, currently headed to Kinsman Notch north of Moosilauke. With his 12-year-old son I identified closely with them, and suggested they may want to choose a spot further from the shelter if they wanted a quiet night. Later I passed a SOBO headed to that shelter. I hope he helped keep things contained.I hiked over six miles into the evening, including a 2100 foot climb up Smarts Mountain, to reach the old fire warden cabin now used as a shelter. It was already dusk and at first I couldn't find the cabin, only the summit's firetower. A SOBO walked past, hadn't seen any cabin, and went looking for a tentsite. But with my map and compass I found the cabin in the dark by dead reckoning. It was just fifty yards due east of the firetower. I was the only one there. But I had plenty of water, it was enclosed and out of the wind, and I was just happy to have made it this far. It was a good day. Before I turned in I climbed the firetower to catch a rainbow of fading light on the western horizon and the first stars making an appearance.