Date: 2006-07-23
From: Baldpate Lean-To

To: Andover
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: overcast clouds

AndoverThe RoadhouseRoom #1   The rain continued all night long and I had guests. But first, I noted that my beautiful shelter was developing a series of leaks under the persistent deluge. The leaks were occurring along the edge of the skylights ¢ which I had admired so much when I first arrived at the shelter. I moved out of my corner spot and put my mug under the leak at my side.      A father and son ¢ Big Spoon and Little Spoon ¢ arrived sectioning SOBO and they set up shop on the other side of the shelter. They choose to jam a cup up against the leak in the roof on their side and take advantage of more floor space. After we had all eaten dinner and were getting ready to go to sleep, Bloody Mess and Fortune Cookie arrived in the pouring rain, all the way from Carlos Col ¢ having traversed the Notch and the Arm and still came on here under terrible weather conditions. They were wet, tired and hungry but clearly bent on making big miles and finishing their hike on Aug 7th.   It rained all night long and we all awoke to a dull, cold, misty, raining, tree dripping good morning. On the trail early, I started off with the ascent up the West Peak of Baldpate Mountain. What can I say? It was difficult ¢ wet, cold, windy and slippery. The West Peak barely clears the tree line, and then it was down into the Col and up again to the East Peak. This was a much more treacherous proposition! Steep sloping faces of wet rock with swirling mist and cold rain ¢ always looking for the next cairn to loom out of the mist. I took one bad fall, and began to slide back down the exposed rock face. For a second I thought that I would continue my slide, gathering ever increasing speed until I went over the edge of the rock face, plummeting down to my doom. With relief, I was able to stop my slide after about 6-10 feet, well short of the edge.      The East Peak might be ¢stray sod¢ material on a better day, but not on this day. I began the descent like a little old lady, gingerly testing every foot and handhold before trusting my full weight on it. I was happy to regain the tree line, since it allowed me to use my own patented method of descending, called the ¢Shake Hands with the Trees¢ method. It consists of staying over to the side of the rocky trail and grabbing on to the limbs, branches, trunks and roots of the trees as a way to get down. Not very elegant, but it does work!   I passed by a thin ledge which I took to be Little Baldpate and then continued on down, until finally the going got easier and I had a smooth walk out to Frye Notch Lean-To.   I met with Supernova NOBO thru hiking, as I started the ascent of Surplus Mountain and was over it in a flash. Then things began to get better. It was a 4.0-mile steady descent down to the road on a ¢foot candy¢ trail and I made excellent time. My left knee, however, started to hurt ¢ not at the old stress fracture site, but in and behind the joint. The rain did stop and things began to dry out. At Dunn Notch I met two couples out for a day hike enjoying the waterfall, but they were not heading back into Andover and so alas no prospect of a ride!   I was very concerned about getting a ride into Andover since East B Hill Road ¢ you just got to love the names ¢ has ¢not much traffic¢ per The Companion. I climbed up to the road, and as I did so a pick-up truck approached. I stuck out my thumb and they stopped. It took me all of 10 seconds to get a ride to Andover! As we bounced along I realized how realy deserted the road is, and how lucky I was to have met any traffic ¢ not to say a truck that stopped for me.   So here I am now in Andover. A VERY small town. I found the Roadhouse without difficulty ¢ empty, but a note said to ¢come in¢ ¢ which I did. Another note said to ¢check in at the ice cream shop¢ ¢ which I did. The girl there contacted the innkeeper who said that I should ¢take room #1¢ ¢ which I did, and to make myself at home ¢ which I have!   So now I am showered, half laundered, fed, figured out how to get the downstairs TV to work, but not the Internet access as yet, and there still is no one here. Maybe someone will show up eventually!   My left knee and calf are still bothering me. We will see what RICE will do for it during the next couple of days here. Good cell signal here and spoke with KT. Al is well at home.Thought for Today ¢      If there were no difficult sections on the trail,       Then we would think that the easy sections were difficult!