Date: 2013-09-10
From: Gentian Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter
Miles today: 9.6

The shelter was astonishingly quiet last night. If anyone stirred, I didn't hear them. The packs were hanging from the rafters in the center of the shelter so I didn't have a great view out of the front, but the morning sky was a soft pink. No one really started moving until 6:30. My guess is that we were all awake but thought each other to be asleep. So no one moved until one persons started to move, and then like a flock of birds we were off!Our new Austrian friends chain-smoked inside and outside of the shelter. So instead of fresh morning mountain air, the shelter had more of a smoky bar feel. We were all annoyed, but I'm the only one who spoke up. And even I waited until one of their unattended cigarettes was left burning on the ledge of the shelter while its consumer went to use the privy. The cigarette burned down to the point that it was starting to burn the wood. I called attention to it, and the other hiker apologized and snuffed it out. When the consumer returned, he quickly lit again and started puffing away. We were on the trail by 8:08. We were feeling good and energetic. There was a climb right away, but with fresh legs it didn't seem too tough. We stopped to fill water at a stream because our pond water tasted beavery. Or maybe I was just biased after seeing the beaver dam in the middle of the pond. We got to the top of Mt Success without too much trouble. There were veins of stark white quartz and mica-flecked gray stones. There were plenty of marshes and lots of boardwalks. It drizzled a bit on us. As we were coming down Mt Success we passed a Sobo. He said that New Hampshire still had a few 'laughs' for us. Uh-oh. We encountered Dr. Who at one of these 'laughs.'it was as if the trail just stopped and suddenly we had to descend a steep slope of giant car-sized boulders. I booty-scooted and gingerly picked my way through. The rocks raised to one side as if they were about to take a big bite. We climbed a wooden-log ladder, and I heard Dr. Who shout out, This is the border! We'd arrived at our 14th and final state. Hobo got pretty emotional; he'd accomplished his name- Homeward Bound. We joked that we'd have to rename him "Ho" for Home.   We took some photos and then had our first lunch in Maine. As we were packing up Dr. Who reemerged. he'd gotten almost a half mile down the trail when he came to a scar, hairy cliff drop-off and decided to wait on us. we didn't show up so he back-tracked to find us. I was pretty nervous after hearing his description, but when we got there, it wasn't quite as terrible as I had imagined that it would be. But there was still plenty of terrible. There were rock faces with rebar- several actually. They climbed straight up 10-15ft, then you had to side step 3-4ft to a ledge, and then climb up another 10-15ft cliff. My heart pounded in my chest, and I had to force myself to stay calm. there were several wooden or metal ladders of various heights and degrees of steepness. There were miles of boardwalks, some two planks, some one plank, some with foot-stops, some with staggered foot-stops, some on inclines, some on declines, some at twisted angles. I felt like a Border Collie in an agility contest. As the afternoon wore on, we found ourselves in a light mist. the rocks got slick as the cloud around us thickened. Hobo slipped down a staggered rock face and broke a hiking pole. I sunk down to my knee in a thick, muddy, deep bog. I was worried that I might tweak my knee trying to pull my leg out. my gaiters did a pretty darn good job keeping the gunk out. We crept to the shelter at a mile-per-hour pace, and we arrived around 7:00 pm. Our shelter hold Pressure-D, Tough Cookie, Hobo, me, Badger, the Austrians (they courteously smoked far from the front of the shelter this evening), and Chuckwagon. My elbows are crazy sore as are my feet and knees. Maine has really thrown some really tough stuff at us right off the bat. Tomorrow we face Mahoosuc Notch (aka the toughest mile on the AT). the forecast isn't great, but our mileage goal is low. Fingers crossed, our bodies and spirits stay in good form.