Date: 2003-07-12
From: Gorham, NH

To: Carlo Col shelter
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: light rain

We got dropped off at the trailhead by Mary Ann, Bruno's wife, the owners of Hikers Paradise. She left Train. Yeah, because of the combination of him not being ready and her having no patience. We sat in the car for 5 minutes and she honked her horn and screamed "lets go". All of us, Team Iowa, Cheddar and I got dropped off but no Train.   Let me say for the record tha I don't like this place. A lot of hikers seem to love it, but i don't know what's so good. I think the people who run it don't really like hikers, and nickle and dime you for everything.   I've found a lot of folks on the Trail like this. If you don't like hikers and the smellyness and everything else, don't start a business for hikers, its that simple. Some people do it for the love of the lifestyle and the great Trail community. Others do it cause they love hiking, or have thru-hiked. But its not the place to make money and retire at age 27. We have simple needs, I for sure do. We want FOOD and lots of it, a shower, maybe some laundry and a quiet comfy place to sleep. Next time I come thru i'll stay at the rival The Barn.    I was a little uneasy about today. The weather had made a 180 and we were treated to a great day, but i had been fearing the infamous "Mahoosucs" and i had always heard "once you hit Gorham..." Well the first 12 miles or so went very slowly. I hiked on and off with Mt Jam and we talked a little baseball. There were ups, but nothing i hadn't done before. We got to Gentian Pond shelter 12 miles in where i planned to stay. It was only 230. We ended up taking a break more than an hour. It was only 5 miles to the next shelter, the first in MAINE. If that isn't motivation, i don't know what is.   Well the last 5 miles were more like "WELCOME TO THE MAHOOSUCS SUCKER". Started with a kickass (as in kicked my ass) climb up mt success, which seems to be appropriately named for people who walked from Georgia. The slow going was certainly a change from the 3 mph pace i had maintained for most of the Trail. This was tough, but not like the Whites. A different tough, one that makes you feel like your making no progress. As evening hit i kept saying and thinking 'this is Maine, its so rugged and beautiful' yet i hadn't even crossed over. Every corner i would imagine the sign and what it looked like.   At 6 o'clock i hit it. A simple 'Maine, the way life should be'. Sounded about right, but I would have to see how the next 2 weeks goes. Waited for awhile until Spork came and snapped my pic. This is a drawback i found to hiking alone. I was always walking with Grunt or Dimples and it was simple enough to snap photos of one another.    A long half mile later we reached the turn off to the shelter, which happened to be .3 down the mountain we just started climbing. Not to mention it was a rock scramble. Ahh Maine, gotta love it. This shelter is a real nice one, almost fully enclosed and a great sleeping platform about 4 feet up. I stayed here with my schools outing club in november 2001. Ahh the memories. Only last time it was about 20 degrees with snow covering everything. It was a we bit different this time. Maine!