Date: 2022-07-26
From: Pinkham Notch

To: Top of Khatadin
Miles today: 319.4

Churchill once said: "This is not the end. Nor is it the beginning of the end; but it is the end of the beginning."To prep for my upcoming climb of Kilimanjaro (under 'Other Trails' on this site). I completed the northern section of the AT from Pinkham Notch to Mt. K. It was a rugged section of the trail and I doubt I will ever choose to repeat it.July 2, 2022It was a long trip from home to Pinkham. The airlines over promised and under delivered and I spent an unexpected night in Toronto. However, it was great! Met up the Magellan for a delightful meal of remembrances of the PCT in 2011. Trail friends can be forever!Got to Boston, caught the five hour bus to Pinkham Notch just as the sun was setting. The bunks had a special of $200 so I found a bivy site up the trail a bit. A pretty, pretty night.Went back to the hotel for BF and then started up (and mean ¢up¢) the trail. The local call this section the ¢Terrible 24s¢. It seems that there was to be 24 distinct rock faces to climb to the top of the chairlift. And that was only the start of this section. At Moriah Trail Notch Hut there was no camping allowed and the Hut had a special of $110 per bunk. My, I wish I owned stock in the AMC.I pushed on to Carter Dome and put down a camp. I had carried water up the trail so all was good.Come dinner two more hikers arrived: Masshole and Spills. Trail Magic happened with Masshole remembered me from the PCT in PCT. We chatted from 10¢ away as they both had a fever and a cough. There were planning on getting off the trail in Gorham to be tested for COVID. I hope they did well!July 3rd, 2022 I met up with frustrated (from a previous year¢s partial thru hike) Hillbilly and Moonshine from Virginia. Hale and hardy were they! At one side trail they saved me 2 miles of hiking by sharing a litre of water. Thank you. We pushed on, up and down to reach Imp Campsite. Nice and dry. A couple skinny dippers for entertainment.July 4th & 5th: a short hike and car ride to Gorham at the Hiker¢s Barn. Got flea bites on the ankles but a couple of good meals in town.July 6th: a rainy, rainy day to Full Goose Shelter.  Discovered my pack cover  was actually the VBL socks from Everest. Opps.July 7th, 2022Why I do NOT sleep in Shelters:First, there are the mice. The little devils chew and rattle and run across you face all night long. You know, in DC the city releases neutered and feral cats at each round-about to deal with rodents. The neighbours tend to adopt them on the job. Come winter the city sets out life traps and brings the felines into the warmth until spring arrives. May shelter wardens would consider such a program.Second, mosquitoes.  Buzz, buzz, buzz and chomp all night long. Back in 2017 it was so bad in NY that it was routine to set up personal mosquito nets to sleep under.Third, ass-holes. Here was my latest experience. It had been raining hard in Gorham but I started early and on July 7th, 2022 I rolled into the shelter at Speck Pond at mile 1917. It was empty and based on previous shelter experience I set up my mosquito netting. Other hikers rolled in at the day progressed. At about 6pm a young man whom I will call ¢Red¢ (red shoes, red short, red hair, red beard) rolled in and screamed at me (and I quote): ¢ You¢ve got to move your fucking tent out of the shelter. No one puts up a tent in a shelter!!!¢.  I replied (quite taken aback) : ¢ I do. It keeps the mosquitoes off me and the mice from running across my face.¢He screamed: ¢I don¢t give a fuck.¢Well, he kept a running, profane commentary much to the delight of the other hikers.Having hiked 10k miles over the years and on several continents I have always considered the trail community to be some the nicest people around. It has been like Disneyland. Yeah, people have discussions but I had never, ever seen anyone on a trail act like this. Red was way out of control and I, an experienced psych nurse could not deescalate the situation.My observation of the AT (v. the WT, INT, AZT, WCT and PCT) is that there are hikers who hike for fun, hikers who drink too much, hikers on [psych] medications, hikers who should be on psych medication and hikers who are self medicating with heaven knows what. Having observed the ¢AT Rats¢ on the PCT in 2014 I knew there were some very east coast attitude and criminal activity on the AT that has not yet reached the west. This individual¢s behaviour allowed only for him to HYOH but not anyone else¢s. Perhaps, he was a bully in HS or was frustrated 5th grade hall monitor. I can only speak to his behaviour.Now, you will ask why I did not slug him. 1st, I am 70yo and am more fragile that I used to be. 2nd, I did not who his friends were in the shelter and I did not want to get jumped. 3rd, he was not worth it and 4th. He never touched me. So, I gathered my gear and went to a nearby the platform. Never again will I attempt to sleep in an AT shelter. I have a thousand miles to finish the hike and my tent will do just fine if it helps me from being assaulted. Hooray for sleeping platforms! The get you off the mud and drain rain water away. But they are handy for lunch if it is raining and no one is smoking in the shelter. Another reason to not use a shelter: ever notice how people that snore always fall asleep before anyone else? I hope someone invents a BiPAP machine for hikers. July 8th Andover. An easy hitch after yet another day of up and down rock faces. My average daily miles is about 12. I hitched into two for BF and found a historical marker (my kids hated the fact I would stop and read ALL the historical markers) about Telstar [satellite] receiving station was in this town in 1962. I actually re member watching a B&W image of a French guitarist singing in that ground breaking broadcast. Hitch out of town I got a lift with a local (Scott Cox) who was an electrical engineer and had worked on the antenna in town. We had great nerd conversation!  That afternoon the trail went straight up, again.July 9th: Bemis Mtn Shelter. Hmm, I wrote nothing down about this shelter at all.July 10 & 11: Rangeley and the Lakeview Motel: I wish I had a Piper Super Cub on floats¢¦..July 12th: Got soaked during a downpour. By the time I got the tent up there was a 12¢ of rain inside the tent. This is a different rain from the West Coast.July 13th: Stratton. July 14th: More rain. ¢Occasional showers¢ baloney.July 15th Dried out on Little BigelowJuly 16th: Attached both my Goshawk and a grouse. The birds really had it in for me. Plus, I fulfilled a bucket list (from a Nat. Geo article back in the ¢60¢s) of crossing the Kennebec.  Plus, everyone I met while walking to the Stirling Inn told me the story of Benedict Arnold¢¦who got promoted after he lead a disastrous march on Canada.July 17 & 18th: Two nights in Monson for R&R before the dreaded 100 mile wilderness.July 20th: I watched a beaver swim in the pond from which I just got water. July 21st: broke one of my Cascade Tech hiking poles while descending yet another rock face,July 22nd: a nice campJuly 23rd: another nice camp and the trail was actually level enough to be fast.July 24th: a camp near Rainbow Lakes camp.July 25th: Abol Bridge. A clean up and resupply.July 26th: final camp at The Birches: Many happy hikers.July 27th: topped out on Mt. K. Came down the south side with PopTart who was then flip flopping to Harper¢s Ferry to complete the remaining 47% (he is an engineer). Of the AT. This section will wait until next year for this hiker,