Date: 2019-08-27
From: Full Goose Shelter (ME)

To: Gentian Pond Shelter (NH)
Miles today: 9.6

Last night I knew snoring was going to be an issue, so I put in my earplugs, put on my hat, pulled my hat down over my ears and eyes, got into my sleeping bag, and pulled my bag around my face so only my mouth and nose were uncovered. I remember thinking, I can still hear the snoring, but I soon fell asleep. I woke up at 1:15 and had to pee, but I tucked myself back in and went right back to sleep. I got up a little after 5am. It was still cold this morning, but not as cold as it has been. I joined another hiker on an empty tent platform to eat breakfast and watch the sunrise. We started hiking at 7:30 and immediately were greeted with a ladder to climb down. It wasn¢t long before we were climbing up the Goose Eyes. First we did North Peak, which was a climb but not anything too crazy. East Peak, on the other hand, was ladders and rock walls. On the way up East I saw a woman we stayed with back at Partnership Shelter. When I got to the top, SC was talking with the guy we¢d stayed with at Sarver Hollow, or as we like to call it, ¢the Haunted Shelter.¢ Climbing down East was not much fun either. Again, ladders and rock walls. SC could see me from West Peak and called out, ¢How¢s it going?¢ I responded, ¢I signed up for Level 2: no previous rock climbing experience!¢After the Goose Eyes was Mt. Carlo. Fortunately Carlo was not as exciting as the Goose Eyes, and next thing we know, we¢re at the side trail to Carlo Col Shelter. It¢s .3 miles off trail but we all need water and I also need to use the privy. SC and Sidewinder finish before me, and I tell them to go on and I¢ll catch them at the state border because we only have half a mile of Maine left!!Soon I¢m on my way when suddenly I¢m staring at a 50¢ cliff I¢m somehow supposed to climb?! It reminded me of the Notch, only the boulders were a little smaller and rather than moving horizontally, I¢m going vertical. When I get to the border I ask, ¢What the h*ck was that?!¢ SC and Sidewinder know exactly what I¢m talking about. Next was, you guessed it, another mountain. This one was called Success. SC met me there, but Sidewinder had pushed on. He wanted to camp on a ledge to get a good view of the night sky and have a shorter day into town tomorrow. SC and I were going to the next shelter. We were about to leave Mt. Success, when a familiar-looking guy walks up. ¢Are you Great Scott?¢ I ask. It is him! We had shared a shelter with him our second night on the trail. As we¢re talking, 7 more hikers walk up, 5 of whom we had met on day 2 or 3 of our hike. Today we saw a total of 10 people we had met early on the trail. I decide to listen to a podcast for the hike down Success. It¢s a 2 hour 22 minute interview with someone who just finished the trail. She comments, ¢No one told me I needed to be part mountain goat to hike the AT.¢ I feel so validated!It takes me the entire episode to make my way down Success. I need to use the headlamp to make and eat dinner. Fortunately, there¢s not a lot of people here, so we aren¢t disturbing people as we set up in the shelter. There¢s a family with 2 teenagers tenting nearby. SC thinks she saw them back at Partnership Shelter.  There¢s a pond near the shelter (hence the name), so there¢s a couple of nobos down there hoping to see their first moose. The view out of the shelter is the best I¢ve seen.