Date: 2017-08-03
From: Grafton Notch

To: Hall Mt Lean-to
Miles today: 16.3

I woke up this morning a pretty stuffed up... about the same as I had one previous mornings, but at least the sore throat was gone. Hopefully this bodes well for hiking today. We got up at around 630 and lazily packed up in time for our 730 shuttle back to town. Lost didn't sleep well and her knees are still really bothering her, so she's going to zero today. We'll grab breakfast in town before I catch a shuttle back to Grafton to pick up where we left off yesterday.We went back to the Little Red Hen for breakfast because it was the only place in town that had cars in front of it (all 3 food venues/stores in town are across the street from eachother). I got the Hungry Hiker, which it seems that every trail town has a version of, but was a little disappointed by the food which I can only describe as ok. After breakfast I had to head back to the hostel to catch my ride to trail while Lost stayed in town. We didn't say goodbye, but rather she promised to catch up and I agreed that I'd see her up the trail. Its hard to tell with how fluid the trail is, but I'm pretty sure that those statements are true, but only time will tell.The shuttle back to Grafton Notch took the better part of 45min and wound over miles and miles of back roads and I was back on trail by about 945am. I crossed Rt26 and started heading up Baldpate Mt. The fact that I was climbing a mountain was immediately obvious as the trail climbed higher and higher. Today, as opposed to the past couple days, the exertion and heavy breathing seemed to help to clear my nose, drying out the remaining mucus, and my throat didn't worsen as I breathed through my mouth... maybe I am getting better! The trail followed stone steps up the side of the mountain in many places which must've taken an immense amount of effort by the trail crews to build. Personally I'm not a huge fan of steps... the trail crews do their best but when using the local materials the steps tend to come out pretty uneven, some requiring a huge leg lift to mount and some causing studder steps to hit, which breaks up the rhythm of hiking. I can understand that they help prevent erosion, which is definitely an advantage, and they're there, so I climbed them.Eventually the endless staircase left behind the deciduous trees and ascended through the conifers, which gradually became shorter and shorter until I could see above them. The trail popped up onto the summit of the west peak and ahead of me I could see the rocky summit of the east peak, my next destination, and a couple of tiny figures working their way up its face. I passed a group of younger kids and chatted with them for a few minutes while I picked and ate some blueberries before continuing on. I climbed down a ladder and a bit of steep trail and emerged onto the large rocky faces which comprised the saddle between the two peaks and followed the rocks as they bent upward towards the east peak. The entire eastern side of the easter peak was a singe large slab of rock, inclined at at least 45deg, which I was able to scramble/climb up, but I was sure glad it wasn't wet otherwise this would've been seriously tough and alot more dangerous. At the summit I passed a couple of hikers enjoying a break and I took a couple minutes myself to take in the views. On their way past I finally made the connection as to why one of the hikers looked familiar at the same time she did... it was Marshmallow! I had first met her in the Shenendoah's where she had saved the day with some Pepto Bismol during my food poisoning and I had last seen her in southern PA. We chatted for a while, she had decided to flip up to Maine and hike south when she got to CT and had found someone to key swap with which meant that she got to choose which direction to do each section of trail and could slackpack every day.Finally she had to move on to catch up with her hiking buddies and I lingered on the summit for a few additional minutes before a low rumble of thunder convinced me that it was probably a good idea to get moving. The descent involved many sloping rock faces, but since these were eastward facing and hadn't gotten the sun's warmth, were still wet. I slipped multiple times coming down even while taking this section slow and carefully, thankfully never bad enough to do any damage, but there were some slabs which simply didn't have anything to hang onto. Eventually the trail mellowed out and I came to Frye Notch Shelter where I took a couple minutes to snack and chatted with Dishes. She was doing the vehicle slackpack with Marshmallow but was thinking about quitting the trail, even though she had already done 1500+ miles. She just wasn't enjoying the hiking and this certainly isn't an activity for someone who doesn't enjoy hiking. I honestly found it hard to relate... all of the scenery up here is so stunning and even the terrain is more interesting and exciting that your average hiking trail. But I had also noticed that she hiked with 2 earbuds in and had kinda sped past Marshmallow and I at the summit of the mountain, so I could definitely understand how you could not enjoy hiking if you choose to block out everything that you're hiking through. To each their own... Hopefully she figures out what's best for her.I continued down the mountain, and by that I mean that I climbed the next hill, at the top of which the thunder really started to rumble. Not long after a light rain began to fall and so I started to double time off the mountain as best I could as the storm rolled in. The rain intensified, but I already wasn't wearing a shirt and my pack cover was already on, so there wasn't really much the rain could do to me. Small puddles on the trail grew into bigger puddles, some several inches deep, and some sneakily camoflaged under a layer of leaves or pine needles to better blend in with the trail and trick an unsuspecting hiker into stepping there.As the thunder rumbled all around the sun actually started to come out and I found myself hiking behind an ever-advancing rainbow, which was pretty magical. What interesting weather! My second sun shower in two days.Just then a huge crack blindsided me from the left side and I dropped low to the ground out of instinct. I don't know where exactly it hit, but the ringing in my left ear indicated that it was much much too close for comfort. Being off this mountain had instantly become my top priority and so I started booking it down the mountain fueled with adrenaline. Even the summit of this smaller mountain had been wooded, and I had descended quite a bit since then, but I guess lightning can strike anywhere in a storm, and so I once again found myself running down a mountain in a thunderstorm (something that I honestly haven't had to do in a while given how often it had happened in the first couple hundred miles of my hike).The streams were all swollen with the recent rain but by this point my shoes were soaked through anyways, so I just walked straight through them and after a few more ups and downs found myself at one of the trailheads for Andover. There I found Marshmallow and her car and I hung out for a while to dry myself and my gear off in the warm sun. I hung out for about an hour, occasionally rotating my gear to get it all dry, before finally getting moving again at ~4pm. The next couple miles of trail were a gradual climb over pretty easy terrain, which passed relatively quickly. Even so, I got rained on again, quickly re-wetting my shoes, pack cover, and me, but by the time I made it to the shelter the weather had passed. I arrived to find no one else here at 630pm, a likely sign that I'd be spending tonight alone. This shelter, being located between the two trailheads for Andover, does't seem to see much use. I debated moving on since I prefer to camp with at least a couple people around, but the next campsite was 4mi farther and involved a 1600ft descent, 1400ft climb, and another 1000ft descent. With the late hour and the upcoming terrain, I wasn't sure I could do those miles in the ~2hr of good daylight I had left and I had no desire to do it in the dark. The log book didn't indicate any problems with the area, so for tonight, this was home. For someone who started "in the bubble" with hundreds of other people around for the first couple weeks, it really is amazing to end up sleeping alone at a shelter.I made dinner and did my camp chores while listening to a podcast. While I'm a fan of solitude, I found too much of the utter silence caused by the lack of wind, water, animals, or people a little unnerving. At dusk the local shelter mouse, which I had seen reference to in the log, came out. I really didn't feel like dealing with a mouse all night (or the bugs for that matter), so I managed to setup my tent in the shelter to give me a little privacy from them for the night.