Date: 2011-09-02
From: Carter Notch hut

To: Rattle River Shelter
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: fog

Breakfast was a little later than the other huts I stayed at but still earlier than the work for stay time. The timing allowed me to sleep in a little bit. I got mostly packed up before breakfast but couldn't finish up because I needed to brush my teeth. The toothbrush and toothpaste are kept in the food bag because bears and other critters like toothpaste. By keeping these personal care items there, they are hung with the food at night to keep them from getting into them. Can't have bears running around with clean teeth, can we? :D Back in Hanover, I got rid of the pack cover in favor of using a trash compactor bag to keep stuff dry. It works well except getting to stuff requires the bag to be opened up. Because it takes longer to get packed up and the twist ties used to keep the bag closed wear out frequently, I decided that a new plan was in order. My plan is to go to all dry sacks instead. There's just three more class of items that need to be kept in dry sacks: the tent, spare clothing and the sleeping pad. Once those are taken care of, the trash compactor bad isn't needed any more. It would also speed up packing in the morning since I don't have to wait to close up trash bag because I still need to brush my teeth. Something to think about while I head into town. "Double Check" and "Christian" took off before I did. They were trying to get to the hostel so they needed as much time as possible to get there. My goal was to stop at the shelter just before the road crossing then head to town the next morning. That way, it would be just one hotel stay and I would have nearly the entire day to resupply. Heading north from the hut starts out with a climb to the top of Carter Dome. After climbing Wildcat the day before, it almost seemed easy. There weren't as many rock scrambles and the grade seemed gentler as well. When I got to the top of Carter Dome, I found "Double Check" and "Christian" up on top enjoying the view. I spent some time up there with them before continuing down the trail. I got to the Imp Shelter around lunch time which really gave me a morale boost. It was nice to cover the miles I covered at a reasonable pace. I knew that I could make it to the next shelter by dinner time even with another mountain to climb. I ate lunch, relaxed a bit, then continued on. The last climb for the day was Mt Moriah. It wasn't steep or long yet there was good spot to stop and enjoy the view. After a little bit of a technical descent off of it, the trail turned into a nice gentle downhill walk with almost no rocks. I hadn't seen this easy of a trail since hiking to Crawford Notch almost a week ago. The trail also paralleled Rattle River which added nicely to the whole experience. When I got to the shelter, I noticed that there was one tent set up but no one around. The road crossing I knew was close and staying in town was tempting but I resisted the temptation and stayed put. After setting my pack downand surveying the place, the owner of the lone tent came back to the shelter area. As it turned out, it was Dan,the guy who shuttled hikers between Chet's hostel in Lincoln and the trail head. He was there with trail magic. He had snacks and drinks for anyone who came by. He also had a fire going which is always a welcomed site by a weary hiker. I was the only thru-hiker who stayed at the shelter, everyone else continued on to the hostel at the road crossing. We talked while I cooked my dinner and set up camp. I ended up heading to my tent earlier than normal because of fatigue. I felt like I had a little bit of a sore throat but other than that, I couldn't understand why I was tired. The hike, though longer in distance than I had been doing, was much easier because of the more gentler terrain. The only thing I could think of was just not getting as good of a rest as I thought I got last night.