Date: 2005-07-29
From: 4 miles south of Lake of the Clouds,NH

To: 1 mile north of South Twin Mountain, NH
Miles today: 20.4

20.4 miles today1 mile n of South Twin Mountain, NH. I had a hard time getting up today. I was awake early enough, but I had a great stealth tent site where I couldn't be seen and a fairly easy day planned. I finally started getting packed at 7am and started hiking at 7:30. There were still lots of black flies in the upper part of my tent from late yesterday. They go up when they get near the tent and they get stuck. I probably closed up 30 of them when I took my tent down. I climbed up and over the South Peak of Mt Clinton and then headed down to Mizpah Spring Hut. I saw 3 guys that stood out as not your ordinary hut people and went to see who they were...more sobos!! I've really been running into alot of sobos the last couple of days. Their names are Kite, who knew of me from other hikes, Reef and his dog, Beatle Bailey and Moosetracks. I asked about leftovers from breakfast and they told me there should be some in about half an hour when the paying people get done eating. I set up my tent to dry it out while I was talking to the sobos. They had just seen a cow moose about 3 minutes before I got there. When the paying people were done, I went in and bought coffee and leftovers for $3.00...another meal I didn't have to cook or carry.  :-))) I left there and climbed up Mt Jackson. Kite and Moosetracks passed me and I didn't think I would see them again. It wasn't too long and I passed them back. I don't move too fast, but I do pace myself so I can walk all day. :-))) I told them I would see them at Wiley House where I planned on eating lunch. I came out to Webster Cliffs. They're nice because you can see so much from the edge. I could look way down and see Wiley House. I knew it would take a while to get there, so I kept on hiking. I met a nobo who had skipped up 1000 miles so he could finish the north end first. His name was Scotty. I went a long way down and when I got to Crawford Notch, I still had a mile down the road to Wiley House. I stuck my thumb out and got a ride with the first car from a nice lady that had been day hiking with her dog. Rides seem to be easier to get this year with this new shaved look I'm sportin'. :-))) I got to Wiley House at noon and ordered chili, an Italian sausage hoagie with grilled onions and green peppers and 2 cokes. I ate all that then went up and got a big waffle ice cream cone with 2 scoops. When I got done with all that, I sent in my journal and was getting ready to leave when I saw the 3 sobos coming in. I stayed and talked to them about a half an hour. I headed back to the trail and decided to hitch a ride again and got a ride with the 3rd car. I started up the mountain about 1:30pm. It was an easy 1500 foot climb and then the trail leveled out for about 5 miles. I met a nobo by the name of Flip Flopper about 2 miles from Crawford Notch. There was a section of trail where there were some deer flies buzzing around my head. I stopped a few times and turned them into flat deer flies. ;-))) I spotted a bull moose only about 25 yards away. I got my camera out and got a few shots. When I was leaving, I saw a nobo heading towards me, so I waved her over and showed her the moose. Her name was Montana Lush and she said that's her first moose sighting. I told her that she was heading into prime moose country for the rest of her hike and that moose was my 10th of this hike. I ran into one more nobo by the name of Low Key before I got to Zealand Falls Hut. I went in and drank a litre of water then filled my bottle and hiked on. It sure smelled good in there because they were making pizza, but I didn't want to stay at a hut. I had a steep climb up to Zeacliff Mtn and then up to Mt Guyot. I remembered a nice stealth tentsite another mile or two and kept on hiking. I saw 3 hikers going the other way and they asked about tentsites. They were tired and I didn't have the heart to tell them they passed up a good, legal tentsite about 10 minutes before. I found the tentsite again and set up my tent and crawled in for the night. It was another fantastic day with the temperature getting up to near 80 degrees. The next 2 days are supposed to be in the upper 70s. Tomorrow I get to go over Lafayette and Lincoln, my two favorite mountains in the Whites...except for maybe Mousilauke.