Date: 2001-06-30
From: Mahoosuc Notch Trail, ME

To: Gentian Pond Shelter, NH
Miles today: 13.6

I got to the Gentian Pond Shelter sometime around 3:30 after walking in the rain for two hours. Its now 6:00 and I¢m cooking my second meal (the main course). I¢ll try to write and cook simultaneously (or at least between pot stirrings).    I woke up this morning in bed in Lincoln. The alarm went off at 4:15am. At that very moment I was dreaming that I was sitting at a computer singing a David Bowie song. I was listening to the Bowie album with ¢Diamond Dogs¢ and the song I was singing comes right after the title track. This is very odd because I don¢t own that album nor have I ever listened to it or know what song comes after ¢Diamond Dogs¢.But anyways¢¦   I left for Gorham at 5:15. Bruce from Hikers Paradise on Route 2 gave me a shuttle up Success Pond Road to the Mahoosuc Notch Trail. I left my car at Hikers Paradise. As he dropped me off Bruce told me it¢s a little known fact that the mountains of western Maine were once known as The Blue Mountains. I struck off, up The Notch Trail, at about 7:10. It was 68 degrees and partly clear. The Notch Trail was easy; A nice path, an easy climb. One of the reasons I chose to start this hike where I did is because the last time I hiked the Mahoosuc Range it was rainy and foggy. Today I got views from all the summits. The more distant peaks were hard to see, but I caught views of nearby mountains along the Range. Fulling Mill Mountain was gorgeous in the early morning mist.   I stopped at the Full Goose Shelter for a snack and water break.   There I met two thru-hikers; one hiking from Key West Florida to Gaspe Bay, Quebec. The Goose Eye Mountains were impressive. The peaks of this mountain practically stand on top of each other (they seem so close you could reach out from one and touch the other) but are separated by deep rocky cols. I forgot how varied the terrain in the Mahoosucs is. I hiked along easy wooded paths in spruce forests; across ridge top bogs through seas of Labrador Tea, suspended on bog bridges; over ledgy peaks of granite (in the howling wind); Up shear rocky walls using rock climbing techniques and of course over miles of rocky, rooty trail so typical for Maine and New Hampshire.    I stopped for lunch at the State Line, sometime around noon. When I stopped again a short time later because my stomach wouldn¢t allow me to walk while it digested my bagel and peanut butter lunch and I was dosing off, sitting on the dirt with my pack still on it was still partly clear. At 1:30 I was awakened by the sound of distant thunder. This morning Bruce had mentioned a change in the weather forecast to strong thunderstorms and possible hail this afternoon. I decided to put on my pack cover before the rains came, as it is a new pack cover and has relatively complicated attachment points. I had trouble making it fit; it seems smaller than when I tried it on at home. It finally went on right and I started up the trail, the sounds of thunder growing ever closer. Soon it started raining. I hurried across the exposed summit of Mount Success with the thunder very close and the skies dark enough to see the flashes of lightning. For the next two hours it rained, never very hard but consistently. The thunder and lightning was all around me, flashing and booming frequently for two hours. It got as close as one second between flash and boom. It was one of the longest sustained thunderstorms I¢ve seen in the White Mountains.    When I got to the shelter it was still raining lightly and thunder could be heard in the distance. In the shelter were two high school students from Hanover, New Hampshire. They¢ve been hiking north from Hanover since June 12. Tomorrow they¢ll finish their hike just over the Maine Stateline at the Carlo Col Trail. They¢ve been pleasant company.    The evening is winding down. Between the three of us I think we¢ve been eating 75% of the time since 4:00. Its now 7:40. The skies are now blue and I can see Mount Moriah across the Androscoggin River Valley. Gentian Pond is beautiful; the yellow lilies are starting to bloom and earlier I think I saw a beaver swimming along the far shore while I was filtering water. Well I think I¢ll put the pen down. There is an old novel here. I might read it a while. Goodnight.