Date: 2015-07-07
From: Madison Spring Hut

To: Gorham
Miles today: 7.8

Today I actually felt truly ashamed to be associated with thru hikers. I saw first hand the scumbag behaviour that I had heard about, but thought only happened in 'the bubble'. I noticed it first last night, when us WFS people were eating left overs. One hiker took handfuls of cherries that weren't part of the dinner, but belonged to a member of croo. Another took an entire loaf of bread. The next thing that made me ashamed was the group of 5 thru hikers who had gathered outside the front door, in front of the windows of the dining room. The guests were filtering in for breakfast, and everyone (including a group of Boy Scouts) could see that the group outside were smoking things that were plainly not cigarettes. I'm very aware of smoking culture on the trail, but this was a poor decision on several levels not least because the hut is made mostly of wood, so smoking near it is forbidden. I can't believe how disrespectful these hikers have been. As I wrote yesterday, hiking a long distance doesn't entitle hikers to anything special. It doesn't mean that you can break rules or etiquette (or laws) just because you don't spend much time in common society. I had to stay behind after breakfast and do my share of cleaning. I had to sweep up all around the hut. I eventually left at 8.30, which is quite late really. I made my way slowly up Mt Madison. The wind was blowing and the clouds looked ominous. My main priority was to get down below tree line before any of the bad weather appeared. Climbing over Mt Madison was quite difficult, but mostly because it was all jagged rocks for miles and my ankle was still sore from yesterday. (I just checked, it's bruised and swollen still.) I couldn't really put any weight on it, so clambering over the rocks and was a very careful process. I eventually made my way into the tree line, but the rocks didn't cease for miles so it took absolutely forever. Just carefully stepping on or over each rock. I didn't have any real pace, except maybe a snails pace. Eventually I wound my way down to Pinkham Notch. I had finally caught up to BigBen. I went inside and picked up a parcel that Jean (Brightside's mum) had sent me. It had even more wonderful snacks, some mountain house meals (which I still haven't tried before) and best of all, home made cookies. A big thanks to her for giving me a present again. It took a great deal of self control not to eat all of the cookies immediately.From the center, I tried to reserve a place in the White Mountain hostel but it was completely full. At least their shuttle gave me a free ride into Gorham. I was dropped of at The Barn. It is a literal barn. The upstairs is just filled with beds, some of them on cement bricks. It's pretty comfy though, and there are still far less spiders than the Hikers Welcome hostel. The best thing about the hostel is its proximity to the petrol station for snacks.Gorham itself is pretty boring. There isn't really anything here. The Walmart is a couple miles away, so resupplying means getting a lift. There is a section of the Main Street that has fast food places, so I stopped into McDonalds. I did a small resupply at the petrol station. I've decided to move on as quickly as possible to get to Andover, even though my ankle is swollen. This town is just so dire that I don't want to spend anymore time here. I also called up Salomon about my shoe, and they're going to process my claim but it could take 2-3 weeks. I might get new shoes just in time for Katahdin!