Date: 2006-08-29
From: Gentian Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter 14th State
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Bama greeted an overcast, gray morning, cold and foggy. The temperatures will shirt the upper 30s/lower 40s at night most of the week, but the day was supposed to be clear after the fogs lift - it didn't. The day was dark and miserable - nothing was drying out, including Bama. At least no rain predicted until the weekend.Today was another (is there any other?) of hiking up one mountain and down then up another, etc., etc. Bama hiked with Professor & Jesse James over Mt. Success, Mt. Carlo, the West Peak of Goose Eye Mountain, the East Peak of Goose Eye and the North Peak of Goose Eye. Monotonous, huh? Just before Mt. Carlo, Bama crossed into Maine, the last state. Net elevation gain was 2,000 ft since Gentian Pond. (Check out the new topo map/profile of the area in the Photo link). Bama was getting her first taste of what Mahoosuc Notch would be like - with rock crawling, belly sliding, butt scooting, mud, dirt and still wet trails and rocks. With the wet conditions and the sweat and the mud, Bama said this was the dirtiest she has ever been on the trail. Everyone was filthy. Tomorrow is the infamous Mahoosuc Notch. Much has been written about this ¢toughest mile on the AT.¢ It depends on your perspective, age, how warn-out you already are from the AT and how sick and tired you are from crawling up and down rocks for the last several weeks. Some hikers report taking 3-4 hours to go 1 mile. Granted, on a beautiful, warm, dry day and you¢re 20 years old and fresh from a short hike to get there from a nearby highway, it¢s probably a lot of fun ¢ leaping from rock to rock like a mountain goat. GORP.com describes it, thusly: ¢Glaciers cut this steep-walled valley between Fulling Mill Mt. and Mahoosuc Mt. After the river of ice retreated, winter freezes quarried huge blocks of rock from the cliffs, and the blocks tumbled into the notch (gap) below, filling it with the house-size (and car-size) chunks of schist that have given this piece of the AT its reputation for ruggedness and put it on the National Register of Natural Landmarks. Hikers here must climb over, crawl under, and jump between these huge slabs and boulders. Many remove their backpacks and drag them in order to pass through the tightest squeezes. Some of the caves hold ice well into summer, and snow often makes the notch impassable even in June. The gurgling of a small stream, the Bull Branch of the Sunday River, buried beneath the rubble, enhances the notch's air of mystery. For many northbound hikers, the Notch is the climax of a traverse of the entire Mahoosuc Range - a final challenge to their already taxed muscles. The hike's route continues on to the summit of Mahoosuc Arm, one of the range's rugged peaks, and to Speck Pond, a high mountain glacial tarn and home to a beautiful campsite.¢What this travelogue description fails to mention is after exiting this small-town-sized rockslide field, you must then climb two miles straight up the Mahoosuc Arm to get to the campsite and rest at Speck Pond Campsite ¢ a nearly vertical climb of nearly 2,000 ft. One NOBO simply described it as ¢heartbreaking.¢Bill