Date: 2015-07-11
From: Lost River Road, NH 112

To: NH 25
Miles today: 9.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night we had a great time with Spartacus' friends, Rick & Penny and Jim & Heather. They were fabulous hosts and we just wish that it could have lasted longer. But we needed our sleep for our first taste of the NH mountains, so we didn't stay up too late. You might have noticed that I didn't even try writing Friday's journal input, Rick introduced me to Monsta, a Massachusetts IPA - very good. We took off really early this AM, but not early enough to thank Rick again who was already gone. We grabbed some coffee, some cookies, said goodbye and headed out with Spartacus driving. We stopped for some breakfast sandwiches and then pushed on to Kinsman Notch, NH 112. We planned to slack-pack SoBo back to our end-point yesterday. We had a short hike today, only 9.3 miles, but Mt. Moosilauke is a big challenge, especially the climb to the top going southbound. The mountain is so steep that we prefer to climb it rather than descend. The climb started almost immediately from the trailhead. I guess no one was in a big hurry since they put me in front. The 2,000 ft climb up is still as steep as it was last year, although I think there may be a few changes in the path. A lot of rock steps and climbs over rocks. There were more reinforced wood blocks on smooth rock faces and more re-bar than I remembered from last year, but that may be just a bad memory. Much of the trail is parallel to Beaver Brook that cascades down the mountainside and the falls are beautiful. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time concentrating on where to put my feet, rather than gazing at the landscape. The 2,000 ft I mentioned is just the steepest part of the climb. From that point the trail begins to flatten, but it's still 2 miles and another 1,000 ft to the Mt. Moosilauke summit. As we approached the top, the trees shortened and eventually disappeared as the surroundings changed to an alpine environment. The final ascent yielded great 360 deg views and the day was clear enough to see a very long way. But without the tree cover, we felt the wind and it was cold at over 4,800 ft., especially since I was sweaty from the climb. We took a few pics of the summit marker and the remains of a Dartmouth hiking club building, and then headed down. As expected, the descent wasn't as steep as the ascent, but it was still hard on the knees. The trail finally flattened out and we made good time. Our last hurdle was Oliverian Brook, a stream that was literally yards from the end point. It was wide with a lot of rocks, but we couldn't find a point where we could rock-hop all the way across. So we ended up walking across a fallen tree trunk. I got some good video of the log walk, but my app won't let me WiFi vids to my phone. Maybe later. Once across the brook, we walked a quarter mile on the road to the Hikers Welcome Hostel. We had our backpacks delivered there yesterday. We all took showers and Spartacus and Princess huddled on arrangements for the next day. Spartacus' son John was coming to pick him up later in the day and they planned to head for Spartacus' home in NH. Spartacus generously offered to host us at his home. But Princess had recently learned that a former colleague and very good friend was visiting in the area and that opened the possibility of hooking up for dinner. Not long after we cleaned up, our friend Josie drove up to the hostel with her friend Ivy. We (including Focus and Ranger) piled into Ivy's car and she drove us into N. Woodstock where we were able to get rooms at the Carriage Motel. We had a mail drop sent to the Carriage last year, but didn't stay there, so we were pleased to give them some business this time. We had a great time with Josie and Ivy, we had dinner at the Woodstock Inn and got caught up on lots of things. Our links with Josie and her husband, Jim go back a number of years and we've had lots of fun with them. They hosted us (and a big group of our friends) in FL during the final shuttle launch and landing, and made the whole event extra special. If I remember correctly, Jim was responsible for connecting us up with Josie here in NH. He has been following this journal and realized that Josie's trip would bring her close to where we are. So a big thanks to Jim for tracking our progress and being alert to the possibilities. Our only regret was that he couldn't join us. When the evening was done, they took us back to the motel and after goodbyes we turned to preps for the next day's climb, a tough one over Kinsman.