Date: 2018-07-30
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Speck Pond Shelter
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: scattered clouds

As you might have guessed, I¢ve been running low on calories and sleep lately. Well, I did some catching up on both last night. I fixed my emergency packet of Knorr Mexican Rice to go with my usual Salami, Bacon and Cheese Sandwich. After dinner I crawled into my tent with the intention of writing up a journal entry. Instead, I was asleep before 7PM.I slept until after 5AM, which is the most sleep I¢ve had in some time. It was after 8AM by the time I finished the journal this morning, ate breakfast, packed up my gear, and had a nice long uninterrupted call with Which Way. No hurry. No worries.Grumpy took off several minutes before me, but was planning on waiting at the entrance to the Mahoosuc Notch so we could go through it together. A second set of stairs took me down the northbound AT. At the bottom of the stairs I came upon a red squirrel perched on a log eating its breakfast. Now, I have been trying to get a picture of one of these fiesty little guys since the Green Mountains. When I come up to the temperamental little critters they usually bark at me and work their whole body into a quiver. But by the time I reach for my camera, they scurry out of sight. Not this time though. This fellow was more interested in ravaging his nut than he was about me stepping on his turf. So, as he kept one of his bugged eyes on me and chomped away on breakfast, I finally got the shot I¢ve been waiting for. I thought, ¢It¢s gonna be a fabulous day!¢ I also came by some interesting spongy moss, some pretty flowers, more neat mushrooms and a snake today. The first order of business was the climb up and over Filling Mill South Peak. It had a few obstacles which provided a good warm up for what was ahead. I caught up with Grumpy at the south entrance to the ¢Notch¢. It was 0930 when we began navigating up and over the first of many boulders. Two quick thoughts on the Notch. First, it was not how I imagined it would be. I pictured these huge clumps of white rounded boulders. As it turns out, there are lots of trees, moss, flowers and other vegetation amongst the rocks in the Notch. Second, I thought it was much less difficult than all the hype led me to believe. It was a rock scramble for sure. There was plenty of lifting, scooting, balancing, crawling, etc. However, it was not any more difficult than other obstacles encountered along the AT. It just happened to continue for a full mile. Personally, I thought it was fun. Grumpy, on the other hand wasn¢t having such a grand time. He fell twice in the first hundred feet. Unfortunately, he dislocated his shoulder on one of the falls. It popped back in to place, but he had limited use of his left arm. The result was that he was unable wear his pack over many of the obstacles. I ended up carrying it through many of the harder stretches for him. The whole event ended up taking us 2.5 hours. I am confident that we would have made it in an hour if Grumpy hadn¢t sustained an injury. Before I move on, one last interesting thing about the Notch. The deep gulch sits between two very steep mountains. It doesn¢t get a lot of sunlight and in a few crevices there was still patches of ice and snow. We stopped at a nice stream for lunch. I took advantage of the opportunity to soak my feet in the cool water. I really need to do this more often. Grumpy started up Mahoosuc Arm while I chatted for another half hour with a couple of SOBOs. The 1,700¢ climb up Mahoosuc Arm was extremely steep with a few difficult obstacles to overcome. More great views to the north at the summit. A little over a half mile down the other side is Speck Pond. The final AMC shelter is located on the pond. I found Grumpy there. He had already contacted his wife in Massachusetts with instructions to come pick him up at the next road crossing. His hike was on hold for now. Grumpy unloaded some of his food on me to reduce his pack weight. He then thanked me for my help and moved on. I offered to walk out with him, but he said he could manage. One real truth of long distance wilderness hiking is that you need to be prepared to self evacuate, because it is likely that no one is coming to your rescue. Grumpy is a flip flopper with about 1,000 miles under his belt. This is the second time he had to come off for an injury. Wishing you a speedy recovery Grumpy. Keep the dream alive!The newly built Speck Pond Shelter was spacious and clean. I wanted to tent again but all of the platforms were being used by group hikers. After dinner I went down to the large pond and started working on the journal entry. I also kept one eye out for a moose. Back at the shelter, the journal entry is done and it looks like I will once again be asleep before dark. Sweet Dreams!Peace and BlessingsNext StepElevation Data:Ascent - 2,070Descent - 1,650Grade - 13.8Weather:Day - 73 / Mostly SunnyNight - 56 / Partly CloudyOver The Horizon: Saddleback Mountain