Date: 2013-08-13
From: lake of the clouds hut 

To: route 2 gorham
Miles today: 35.5

Well, for the third time in as many days I twisted my left ankle and am starting to believe I've weakened it. Thank you God for this reality check as I was feeling unstoppable for a while. It's humbling to remember I'm only human at times up here and it takes just one serious injury to put you in harms way. I woke up at 5:45am and packed up my stuff so all the money paying customers could get there breakfast. We didn't stay to eat because we have a lot of miles to do and Daylight is burning. We summited Washington as the cloud blew off and it was awesome!! We stayed on top for an hour or so and had breakfast when the restaurant opened and had yogurt for the first time in like forever. After leaving the summit we hiked down and over the sides of mt. Clay, mt. Jefferson, through thunderstorm junction and over mt. Madison before the long and steep descent to the Pinkham notch visitor center for a total of 14.8 miles. Did I mention that I twisted my left ankle for the third time?! I also tore open the whole side of my trail runners and am sure this was a sign from above that its time to put some boots back on. We hiked for a total of 12 hours and reached the visitors center at 7:00pm where Jet Lag took us to the motel after we had eaten. It felt good to kick the shist out of the presidentials and are now talking about the 36 or so miles to the Maine border and the hardest mile on the AT, the Mahoosuc notch! People said that you won't hike more than 7 to 8 miles a day going through the presidentials but, how about a total of 70 miles in 5 days for an average of 14 miles per day?! I'm feeling pretty tired and real accomplished at the same time. We're taking a zero day today to rest and resupply. I also had to buy new boots and the only boot at the outfitter is Merrill so guess what?, I'm wearing Merrill's again! These boots are MOAB breathable mid hikers which should dry out when they get wet but also give a little more ankle support than my trail runners. I hope they work because I have to ford (cross) several rivers in Maine and can not afford to be stuck in the 100 mile wilderness in a dangerous situation because of gear malfunctions. Gee, now that I think about it, I didn't even think about that till just now!! WOW!!! 7 to 10 days in the bush with only a logging road or two between 114 miles of Gods country! I gues we'll see what we'll see won't we?! :-/Staying at the town and country inn tonight and slack packing 20.7 miles tomorrow from Pinkham notch to route 2 in Gorham and back to the town and country inn. We have a rough trip up the wild cats and over the Carter's and mt. Moriah before coming back down to earth in Gorham. Alison was introduced to hiking when we were about seventeen when I took her up mt. Moriah with my friend Neal and had blisters the size of quarters on her feet. I think we stayed at Imp shelter and actually had a good time, except for the blisters, right baby? Anyway, tomorrow we'll have about 13 or so miles of rough terrain and a soft run downhill at the end. The cool thing is I'll only carry about five or six pounds instead of thirty five, a huge enlightening experience and am looking forward to the challenge. I got a new pair of boots today that hopefully won't have many break-in issues as it could slow me down. At dinner tonight I met a fella whose brother was Steve Longly. Steve ran the boat that brought hikers across the kennenbeck river for thru hikers or hikers going to Caratunk, me. Steve recently passed but his brother told some great stories about him and I will think about him as the new guy helps me across the river.