Date: 2013-07-08
From: Gorham, NH

To: Imp Shelter
Miles today: 8.0

DAY 29MILES ON AT FOR DAY- 8.0MILES TOTAL FOR DAY- 8.2Woke up early to get one more shower in, a good breakfast, and organize my things before taking off into the woods again. It was Andrews 22nd birthday, which I felt bad about leaving on. No matter what whenever I leave town or home I just feel rushed and never in a great mood. That's also probably due to the fact that it always seems to be raining the day I head back out into the woods.I got all my stuff in my pack and when I stepped on the scale it said that with food and water my pack was 43lbs. A third of my body weight. How is this possible I thought. I had that much going into the 100 mile wilderness but I had 10 days worth of food! Now I had what I thought was 5-6 days worth. So much for cutting pack weight. I guess I just eat a lot of food or I was overestimating what I would need.Regardless, I wasn't eliminating anything so I threw the pack in the truck, wished Andrew happy birthday, and then hopped in the car with my mom and stepdad Gary. I said goodbye to Nick at the house and then ended up also saying goodbye at the gas station. He was headed back to NYC. For whatever reason, this time leaving each other seemed so much harder. At least I was closer now and he would be able to visit more often.My mom and Gary dropped me at the hiker hostel where Nightwalker was which was right on the trail. He had decided to wait up for me so we could hike the white mountains together. When we went into the hostel to grab him I was very surprised to see that Firefox was there. We would have stayed to chat but we were already getting off to a late start even though we didn't have a long day. I said goodbye to my Mom and Gary and thank you for an amazing day off, and then headed out.We got going around 12:45pm. Again, later than planned. It also didn't help our spirits that it was raining and it was uphill right off the bat for a long while to Mt. Moriah. Though despite the conditions, low spirits, and heavy packs we still made good time. We were just coming off a day off and had fresh legs. It became a bit tough on the rock faces on top of the mountain just because it got so windy and wet, which made it very cold. We just tried to focus on keeping moving. All we needed to do was get to the shelter, which we got to around 5:15pm. You had to pay to stay at Imp Shelter. Welcome to the whites! Once we settled up with the caretaker it started to pour but at least we were at the shelter. Much to our surprise, Slips and Mutt were in the shelter! We thought they would have been long gone but apparently they had only gone 1.6 miles in to the next shelter from Gorham the day before. I was glad they were there though. It was nice to see them again sooner than expected. Maybe we would be leap frogging with them through the whites.The shelter was nice. It was one of the two floor cabin like ones that are closed in. That night we only shared it with Mutt, Slips, and 2 AMC workers who were helpful with looking at our trek through the whites. After chatting with everyone, I made up a dehydrated meal and went to bed. Would need the energy for the white mountains ahead. Oh yea... and we hit the 300 mile mark