Date: 2015-07-22
From: Lyme NH

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 11.1

7/22, Hexacuba Shelter, 11.1We arose very casually this morning since our return to the trail would be delayed waiting for the post office to open. We were mailing a few things home to further reduce weight and a few things forward for later. We had said our goodbyes to Lisa last night and finished our thank you's with David this morning before he left for a meeting. We packed and loaded the car and Lane drove us to the post office and then to the trailhead. After goodbyes and all we were headed north again at 9:15. In order to not push our recovery, especially mine, we planned a relatively short day of 11 miles but still had Smarts mountain in our path. The climb to the top took us from 880 ft above sea level to 3230 feet at the top of Smarts making the elevation gain nearly 2400 ft. The distance to the top was nearly 6 miles so the grade was moderate with just a few steep spots making it a long but not exhausting climb. We reached the top at 12:30 and joined several other hikers in an old fire wardens cabin, converted to a shelter, just in time for a pretty steady rain to set in. We enjoyed the company, ate some lunch, and relaxed for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop. We started down the other side of Smarts at 1:30 and experienced some of the wettest trails we have seen since southern Vermont. Many areas of the trail were actually deep bog spanned by half sawn logs to walk and as we set our poles into the bog they would sink 2 to 3 feet in the muck. At one point Otter was leading and found one of the logs spanning the bog was floating on it, and sank a foot into the water when he stepped on the end. IB was next and stepped further onto the log, sinking into the water to soak his foot as well. I was next and decided to step as far onto the log as I could which was nearly four feet with my long stride. The log only sank about six inches so I was in good shape but the next two steps for balance recovery did not go as well. I stepped on the edge of the log, lost my balance and had to step into the mud to keep from falling. I stepped right next to the base of a tree with my right foot figuring the tree would hold some soil firmly at its base, as do most of them. Unfortunately this tree did not so my right foot sank in the muck up to my knee. My left foot was still on firm log and I caught myself with my right arm against the tree so I was able to slowly lift my foot from the bog and continue on. We reached a stream just before the shelter and decided to fill our water for the night as our guide indicated the water source at the shelter was hit or miss. When we arrived at the shelter the water source was fine which should have been our guess since the amount of rain over this entire journey has been considerably above normal. The shelter is a hexagon shaped structure large enough for twelve or more so we joined a couple of section hikers and several south bound thru hikers for the night. Dinner is done now and Bill and Pete are asleep, Otter has returned to his hammock to read and I am finishing my update for you folks. After I finish I will probably read a little, since it is only 7 pm, before I roll over and give in to my sleepy eyes.Tomorrow we plan to hike 14 miles to a hostel where we hope they will shuttle our gear ahead to the next hostel so we can slack pack mount Moosilauke on Friday. Our knees take quite a pounding on downslopes so we hope to slack pack the larger mountains as much as possible but we will have to see how much it will cost to have our bags shuttled ahead. The best news of the day, in closing, is the full recovery of my achilles confirmed and the good progress my back is making. Tomorrow we will cross the 400 miles remaining point. We talked about celebrating every 100 mile milestone today, but didn't settle on a plan yet so we will have to finish that discussion tomorrow.Silverback