Date: 2018-08-04
From: Stealth Campsite - Mile 1881.7

To: Gorham NH - Rattle River Hostel
Miles today: 10.9

2018 Miles: 555.2The rain from yesterday afternoon continued all night and into the afternoon today. We found a stealth campsite that accommodated both our tents, sort of. The Wildcat Mountains are a continuous rock pile with almost no make-do tent sites around. So we made do. Everything was soaked. Sometimes I try to take down my tent in a certain sequence to keep the tent piece dry while still under the rain fly. Today both pieces were saturated as the spot had collected a puddle overnight, and the rain was still coming down. I slept on rocks and roots but got ok rest. I had inches to spare for the tent to fit between the trees and other obstacles.  I left with Glider still in his tent. About 10 feet down the trail I realized there was no way to keep my feet dry. The trail was a series of ponds connected by rushing streams. So I just stomped on thru. It was actually a relief to just get my feet wet and then forget about it. I wanted to finish the climb up Middle Carter Mountain and North Carter Mountain and the treacherous descent down the north slope to the Imp Campsite. Treacherous it was. Steep, rocky, technical, 50 foot high drop-offs with rain coming down, and most of the time in a wild stream of runoff water, sometimes a foot deep. When it leveled off up on the summits there were plank boardwalks submerged in the flood stage water, sometimes sinking up to my knees.  The climb to Mount Moriah was a relief. I had the runoff stream coming at me from above but somehow felt more stable going up than trying to come down the slab rock faces.  My ¢up muscles ¢ handled the work better than the ¢down muscles¢.  Rumor had it that once I made the summit of Mount Moriah I had the hard stuff done.  The first few miles of the descent were more difficult than coming down from the Carter peaks earlier. I fell about a dozen times, aggravating the sore shins. But the worst was a sideways fall down a slab chute similar to the fall in New Jersey last year that sent me home. It put a strain on my sore right knee and the pulled muscle in my chest.  I sat in about a foot of water half way down the chute counting my parts to make sure everything was still there and still working. Then I burst out laughing. It seemed so absurd. The final comic relief came when I fell again and did a backwards summer-salt in the stream coming down the trail. I guess everything wasn¢t wet enough so I gave it a final soaking. All the way I was crossing dozens of smaller streams and walking down their courses, sometimes seeing half a dozen at a time coming down the mountain in a braided weave to come together and form what became the Rattle River. The promised flattening out of the trail began gradually. Then I eventually came to 5 or 6 places where I needed to ford the river, each one lower down the mountain and having collected more of the wild water, coming up above my knees. The last ford was iffy, but I found a wider place upstream about 75 yards where it was fast but not as deep. Get ready for that in Maine. The last 3 miles were a nice flatter trail with even some soil showing through the rocks. I put myself on auto pilot and woke up when I got to the hostel. I was completely spent and sat on a chair in the yard staring off into the trees and talking quietly with El Gringo Loco. We came the last little way together. I had not seen Glider since I left the campsite.  I showered and got settled. That was the limit of my ability to function. Resting. Goodnight Sweetheart. Sunday UpdateI decided to take a second zero day tomorrow. My aches and pains are not healed. It seems prudent to give my feet and legs a rest and let my knee and chest muscle have a chance to heal. The mountains ahead in southern Maine are reputed to be harder than these, if that even seems possible. The Rattle River Hostel is inexpensive and very accommodating so I will stay here. Marlene and I talked and that is the plan. Nice to have a trail boss who understands.