Date: 2011-09-04
From: Carlos Col Shelter

To: Gentian Pond Shelter
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: clear sky

Day 167 - I slept well except for every time I attempted to roll overonto my right side and would put pressure on my sore hip. I learnedfairly quickly that I did not want to sleep on my right side. I wasextremely lazy this morning, not getting up until 8:00am and not onthe trail until 9:35am. Believing the rock climbing was behind me andwanting clean clothes, I put on a clean shirt and my hiking shorts. Ihad hiked in long pants yesterday since I knew I would be crawlingaround in the notch and they were filthy with dirt, grime and driedblood from my elbow. I was only 10 minutes into the hike when I had toclimb up a 15 foot boulder. I stood there and studied it thinkingthere had to be a better way over it but determined there wasn't. Ihad to take my pack off and lift it over my head to a small shelf andthen climb on my belly to get to a small crevice in the rock so Icould pull myself up. I made it but again, I was filthy, sweaty butluckily no blood...yet. This was Maine's final swan song leaving thestate. For the north bounders, it was a foretaste for things to come.I was only a half mile away from the New Hampshire state line and Ithought I had missed it but finally I came upon a sign at 10:15am.Maine is beautiful, tough and really tested my endurance but I am gladto get into new state. 7 completed and 7 more to go.An hour into New Hampshire it dawned on me that I had not seen a white blaze since the state line. The path I was on was well traveled so Ithought I was okay but when you are huffing and puffing with your head down, a trail off to one side could easily be missed. Finally, Ipassed a NoBo and asked if he was north bound on the AT and he said"yes". I know he thought I was crazy but when I explained to him thatI had not seen a blaze he responded, "Welcome to New Hampshire.¢Evidently they have a thing about not wanting to waste white paint.I heard thunder around noon and a lot of static on my radio whilelistening to the Red Sox. Finally, at 2:55pm it hit, high winds, hardrain with lightning and thunder. It was right on top of me. The waterwas running down the trail, my boots were actually serving as a dam, every time I lifted them a surge of water would go before me. I nolonger worried about the water in my boots; it was over the top of my boots so I just acted like a little boy and walked right through the puddles. I arrived at Gentian Pond shelter at 3:20pm. It had stopped raining but everything was soaked. If I had gotten up earlier or if I had not stopped for lunch on Success Mountain I may have made it to the shelter prior to it raining. I was drained, my leg strength was shot and my neck and shoulders ached. I knew fairly quickly that I could not make it any further. There was a campground 4 miles away but it would be 8:00pm before I would arrive plus I would have to set up my tent, plus it was supposed to rain some more. As much as I wanted to get into Gorham early tomorrow, I decided to cut my loss, be thankful for the day and stay put.Bismark was there in the shelter. I had not seen him since the day we were at Roan Mountain when the Ponder's left us trail magic. It was good to catch up with him. Nitty and Gritty rolled in about 6:00pm and Gardner arrived at 7:15pm in the dark. We were all concerned about Medicare Pastor and hoping she was OK. It rained again hard around 9:00pm so I was pleased to be at least somewhat dry. I fell twice today, busted up my left shin, first time I had landed on my left side. But again, I was thankful because I could have really hurt myself several times. I only covered 5.2 miles today. These low mileage days are drastically impacting my schedule but if you can't go on you just have to be happy with what mileage you are able to get. My total is now 1,406.9 with 774.1 remaining.