Date: 2003-08-04
From: Galehead Hut (3820') 

To: Crawford Notch, US302 
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: light rain

"Sunshine... on my shoulders... makes me happy!"   Aloha! Sunshine really does make me happy. It warms down to the soul and makes the whole world rosier. I'm not a cold weather gal at all and I realize that every time the temperatures drop below... oh... 60 now. So sunshine really does make me happy.   Pity we don't have any!   Care to guess what it did last night and continued to do through breakfast, the morning hike and part way through the afternoon hike? Yepper, it rained. Sometimes softly and sometimes not so softly. Rain, rain, rain... this is definitely not a dry hiking season.   Grrrr...   This morning's revelry was brought to you by one of the croo with his guitar and a song. There was a harmonica strapped about his neck but I neither heard nor saw him play it. The young collegian is quite talented as shown by last night's mandolin performance so I would assume the harmonica is another one of his many talents.   Maybe tonight's guest will get to enjoy it.   We were out and headed UP shortly after breakfast. It was anticipated to be a longer day than the last two so getting a move on early was a good idea. As always the trail started UP to South Twin Mountain (4902') with a short but steep decline to follow.   There were absolutely no views the whole of the morning so we just trudged and chatted on through the mud and rain. From that point on the trail ran mostly downhill and wasn't horrible. There were moments of course that I wondered what the trail maintainers were thinking but overall it was a decent hike.   Rain or no rain, I loved it.   We arrived at Zealand Falls Hut, located next to beautiful waterfalls, just in time to change out of wet shirts, warm up and have a couple of bowls of a wonderful bean soup. All you can eat (AYCE) soup for $2 and all the homemade bread or pastries for $1. I almost filled up on the bread while the soup was cooking. It was wonderful bread.   It also went perfectly with my two bowls of soup! We were only there long enough to warm up, dry up and fill up. This was the point where Pizazz would take another trail down and back to the car and I would continue north to Crawford's Notch. She had three miles to go and I had seven.   Luckily my terrain was not anticipated as being rough and it wasn't. As a matter of fact, 5.5 miles of it followed an old railroad bed with no more than 2% rise in terrain. It was fantastic to finally be able to put the long legs into a stride and just walk.   Short lived, but wonderful while I could. It came to an end when I hit the bog bridges (still on the relatively flat terrain) and forced myself to slow. Remember, these things are the reasons for the majority of my falls. With the latest volunteer trail crew having completed 126 new bridges, I was going slowly.   Slow on the old because they were in terrible shape and falling apart and slow on the new from fear of slipping. It was nice to walk with a long stride for a moment.   Pizazz had mentioned the possibility of seeing moose at Ethan Pond so when I arrived at the turn I was ready to go check it out, rain or no rain. As I was about to take the short side trail a trail maintainer named Dave came out of the trail. He tells me that it's one of the prettiest ponds but today was a lousy day to go.   Lousy weather and no moose. That was enough for me. No stopping or side trailing - back on the trail and moving north. That's okay though, Pizazz assures me that I will see moose in Maine. Yea, sure.   I arrived at US302 pretty much on schedule. Pizazz was sitting comfortably reading a book and waiting on me. It doesn't sound like she had to wait too long so that's good. The gear was loaded quickly and we were off to find Gutsy in North Conway.   Easily accomplished.   As we entered some timeshare resort lobby we found Queen Gutsy sitting comfortably outside the Eastern Mountaineering Store (EMS) awaiting our arrival. Prior to departing North Woodstock I had called EMS to ensure that I could either shuttle my gear or use Gutsy as a shuttle system over to them and they would hold the gear until my arrival. Whomever I had spoken to had absolutely no problems with doing that for me.   As it turned out, when Gutsy tried to get them to hold the gear so she could walk about town they adamantly refused. No amount of talking would change their mind. That's irritating. But as most everything does out here, it all worked out for the best when she crossed the street and talked to EMS's competitor International Mountain Equipment (IME).   Good on them!   With Gutsy tucked in also we were off to North Bridgton, Maine (Pizazz's home) for a day of rest, relaxation and reorganization. Now how great is that! To top it off, when Pizazz checked her cell messages she was surprised to hear that Short Job was also sitting at her house!   Surprise! She's in the area for some hiking and is now joining us for the evening. Most excellent! Another reunion!   Also included in the merry band now is David, Pizazz's husband. He's a honey. Just like Pizazz, he's a good-looking charmer with wit and personality. He has to be a great guy to put up with being invaded by four hiker women, two of which were muddy and stinky.   That or St Patient! He's awesome. Too awesome as a matter of fact. He took this merry band of hikers out to dinner. I had my very first ever Maine lobster. Yum! And in this case it was stuffed with shrimp, scallops and crab. It was fabulous! And huge!   I love Hawaii but even I will say that the Hawaiian lobsters don't come close to Maine lobsters. Physically or geographically! Damn was it good!   Lobster, Bloody Mary, wine, vanilla ice cream... what else could I ask for? Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Stuffed to the gills we were taxi'd back to the their 1850 farm house (another neat thing) and shuffled off to bed. I'm so tired I can barely see straight.   This has been such a wonderful day. A great hike, awesome companionship, new and old friends together, delectable food, and a bed to max it all out. I'm in heaven. Exhausted heaven but heaven.Heaven is also showing me that it's bedtime. I have to close. The fingers and eyes aren't working. You take care, eat like a horse, hate yourself later for it, and sleep well. That's my agenda. Goodnight.BSandTs: nopeAandPs: no actuallyMandGs: I ate way too much... waah!Critter count: 1x Canada Jay, 1x grouse with one baby chick