Date: 2015-09-02
From: just past zeta Pass

To: stealth site on the ascent of Mt Hayes
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: overcast clouds

The best thing about hiking with two other people is that we never hit our low points at the same time. If I am low, the other two are in varying states of feeling great, and the other way around. Yesterday I wanted to hang it. This morning I woke up feeling pretty good, and we hit the trail pretty early, just after 6:30. The air was a bit misty and cold, it was a beautiful hike starting out. We had an actual trail and started with about a half hour of nice hiking before we hit our first climb. It short and had no real view, but our next hill had an awesome view. By the time we summited North Carter, the mist had cleared and we had a brilliant early morning view. The descent was hard and extremely steep in places, but my head was in a better place. We were making pretty good time considering the hairballs the trail was throwing at us, fresh legs are nice. The next climb was Moriah, which some SOBOS had told us was really hard. SOBOS love to try to freak us out with waht is coming, and to be fair, I think it would be much harder to do that one southbound, but the climb was not AS bad as they said it would be. It was, again, tough in places, rocks and strenuous, but the view was beautiful. I am getting spoiled by the views, but tired of the hard hiking. I wondered if the trail would ever just be kind again.We had a very long descent down to Rattle River, but the trail got nice and smooth at some point and we were strolling after the shelter. We started talking about going back to town at the road and we all braced ourselves so that we would not give in to that. We had hauled all this food, we had a trail angel picking us up at Grafton Notch, and we talked about being strong! Don't be weak-we told ourselves. When we got to the raod, I honestly did not know which way it would go. If one breaks, we all fall quickly and happily into town. We had a little road walk and passed a hostel. Hikers were hanging out in the front yard trying to balance o a long strap that was strung between trees. We followed the white blazes down another road and stopped to eat some amazing apples growing wild. We walked over a bridge, passed a dam of sorts and it looked like we were past the danger point of going to town. Finally, we headed in to the woods, all of us a little melancholy because town always sounds so good.The trail started up pretty quick, and we made it about 3 miles before we started looking for spots. They are few and far between out here. We finally found something big enough to pitch both of our tents, almost right on top of each other and near some granite slabs.While I was in Gorham, I received a beer can stove from someone following my trail journal. The box also had snickers bars and skittles- it was such an unexpected and uplifting surprise. Thank you Steve! We decided to cook a Katwalk and set up the beer can stove for the first time. It took a little practice, and I came close to burning down the woods. Once because D.No knocked it over accidentally, and once because the pot fell off and knocked the whole thing over. We went through a liter of water spilling, on the burning ground thank goodness, before we got a cup and a half for the food. It was good to eat warm food. We gad a good day today and did nearly 15 miles. We are exhausted and hiked from sun-up to sun-down, but it feels good to get the mojo going again.Tomorrow we should cross into Maine!