Date: 2015-08-23
From: Jeffers Brook Shelter

To: Lincoln, NH
Miles today: 8.4
Weather: light rain

I saw a moose! But first...I woke up feeling pretty refreshed after a decent nights sleep. The sound of the water cascading down the rock face in the creek next to us was like an all night lulabye.When we hiked out, it was going to be a straight up 3298 elevation gain over 4.8 miles. We wished each other luck- this was the first of many monster climbs in New Hampshire. We elected to hike north with our full packs rather than southbound slack packing. Future hikers- go for the southbound slack pack!!!!I headed up the mountain. It was a beautiful cool and clear morning. The trail was going steadily up, but it was not yet rocky or too steep. I heard a noise in the trees to my left-glanced over and saw nothing- then started up. In front of me about 25 feet was a GIGANTIC moose! It had paused on the trail, the back of half of its enormous body still in the woods. It was such an unexpected surprise. I think my mouth actually fell open and I gawked. My first thought after marveling at the size, was how surprising it was that the antlers were brown. I always thought they were white. My next thought was that the moose was exactly the color of a paint in my industry called Chocolate Moose. They got that color exactly right! I finally realized I needed a picture and fumbled for my phone. Deja-vu of my bear experience, this broke our mutual trance and he headed into the woods. I got a picture of woods with a faint dark shadow, not even recognizable as a moose. But I can still see him in my mind, so that is the best picture to keep.As I headed up, the trail got rocky and steep. Relentless is the word I would use to describe this portion. Everytime I wend around a bend, another long stretch of rocky uphill would be visible. It went on FOREVER- but I did not find it more challenging than I could handle. I went almost to the summit without stopping. I waited at a flattish spot for the gang and we ate lunch. Then we headed up the short walk to the summit. A group of Harvard students were there and I asked them to say A CHANCE FOR A CHILD IS A WIN FOR THE WORLD for a short fundraising clip. They happily agreed. The view at the top of Moosilauke is gorgeous. The views surrounded me, I could see the Whites, I could see what I already climbed, I could see heaven. I was reluctant to leave, but I finally headed out about 10 minutes after my friends.Immediatly, there was a fork in the trail. I was unsure since I saw no blazes and almost went the wrong way, even with the help of a confusing sign, but at the last minute spotted a white blaze on a small rock. I headed down with a bounce in my step. I heard this section was tough, but so far so good. About 20 minutes in, I passed Moonbow and Lightning bug heading south-slack packing. They had not seen C.Shell, D.No or Tedzilla. I had the feeling those 3 took the wrong trail. I continued. The trail got VERY rocky and steep for a long descent and I was impressed eith how tough it was. I had to use my hands and slide on my rear end a few times. Then it finally evened out a little. Pshaw I thought. Bunch of whiney babies said this was super hard. That wasn't too bad! I've seen worse! I passed some people going up and they had not seen my gang either, so now I knew they went the wrong way.I got to a pretty spot with a steep rock face going down about 10 feet, to my left, and a cascading brook was at the bottom of the drop running next to the trail. I accidentally dropped one of my hiking poles and it slid down the rock face. I left my other pole on the trail, sat down (stupidly keeping my pack on) and slid on my butt down the rock to retrieve the pole. Once I got down, I couldnt get back up! It was too steep and my boots just slid. I tried to shimmy up on my bottom, feet pushing me. No luck. I took off my pack and still couldn't slide up. I found a branch to push off on and inched up, pulling my pack along in one hand. When I got close to the top, I heaved it up and then turned around and belly crawled the last few feet. My plastic cup broke off of the laniard it was hooked to in the process and skittered back down to the creek. I left that trace. Sorry! There was no way I was going back down for it. I walked to where the trail continued and gasped when I saw a complete vertical drop down at least 50 feet, a rock face with wood steps widely spaced to step on. What! Those were not made for short little legs! Check out the pictures-- seriously dangerous! I actually couldn't do it at that point. Soon, Tedzilla arrived, fresh from being lost. He went first and I knew that down was the only way off this mountain so I went next. Wood can be slippery and I was actually a little (or maybe a lot) scared. But I made it down that section ok. What followed was about two miles of harrowing drops, slippery rocks, occasional rebar handholds, all next to a very distracting beautiful waterfalling stream. How the heck did Harvard send their freshmen best and brightest out here! To strap bohemoth packs on their backs and head up this nightmare? Our future president could be only a shade away from a gruesome end.The descent went on and on- it felt like it would never end. It was steep enough that it was not exactly fun...I was very cautious and slow. Just because a few guys skipped past me doesn't change that!Finally I made it to the bottom. A sign warned that this was a trail for only very experienced hikers and that if specail care was not used it could lead to "tragic results". Well, we were warned before we started, but we were cocky then. We got spanked by Mt. Moosilauke. We were offered a ride into town and went to the Comfort Inn to lick our wounds and clean our underwear. (just kidding about the underwear...sort of)Mexican dinner, a cold beer, and several episodes of Naked and Afraid XL made us feel better. Those people really are whiney babies. Zero tomorrow to prep for the Whites.