Date: 2015-07-11
From: Lyme Dorchester Road

To: NH 25C - Warren NH 
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: broken clouds

This morning during the hour drive back to the trail where we had been picked up, we saw a bear suddenly run across RT 25 and into the woods. Margaret thought he was a teenage bear. He was good size and he was close enough we could see his features. We set off and quickly caught up to Jingles and Walking Man on the climb up to Lamberts Ridge. I paused to eat a few wild raspberries. We paused at Lamberts Ridge to enjoy the view and continued up Smarts Mountain. Some of the climb had wet rocks and I encountered my first metal handle stairs attached to the rocks to step up on the climb since the rock was wet and slippery. We ran into GQ at the fire tower along with a couple of other women hikers. We admired the view and had a snack. About three miles later I caught up with the women who are mother and daughter named Squirrel and Spock. They mentioned they were hiking supported and trying to finish in 100 days. I asked them if they had hiked with my friend Bob and Warren Doyle in January. They had! Bob had told me he hiked with them in Virginia and how they were planning to do the trail in 99 days with a Prius. Apparently they found a large van instead. They had heard about me during their hike with Bob. Small hiker world! Climbing back up, I met a southbounder Aloma Sunshine at Eastman Ledges view. We chatted and I told her about free water and ice cream ahead on the trail that Cliffhanger had received the previous day but we had not stopped. GQ and Walking Man had camped there the night before even though the owner was having a family reunion, he still hosted hikers! It was a good climb to Mt Cube over some rocks and boulders. You could see Mt Cube in the distance. I thought we were almost there but it still looked so far away and I could see two people on top of the summit. 15 minutes later we were on the summit. Andreas, Cliffhanger and I enjoyed a snack on the hot sunny rocks. I stayed a little longer enjoying the view. I could see the numerous mountain ridges I had hiked up and over including Mt Killington which was a very faint shadow of a mountain in the distance. Looking at the ridges in the distance, it was almost like you had triple vision. We only had 8.6 miles to go and started the descent. When we hit the paved road 3.3 miles later we saw cars parked alongside. We said hello to one guy sitting next to the van and found out he was Conrad, Squirrel's husband and Spock's dad. He gave us a seltzer water and Andreas looked at his map since he was still trying to figure out where he should end his hike in a couple days since he returns to Germany for another 4 weeks to see his daughter on her school break. We quickly hiked the remaining 5.1 miles and finished about 40 minutes earlier than we had told Karl and Margaret. We did not have any cell service since Mt Cube and did not know if they were waiting for a call or if they would come at 6 pm when we estimated our finish. Cliffhanger and I tried to wave down passing vehicles without any success so we enjoyed picking wild raspberries from a bush we found. We the got a car to stop and Michael and Andrea agreed to drive us to the next town Warren where we might have service. No luck getting service so he took us home which was on the Main Street and let us use his phone. While we waited, they gave us a cold drink and we chatted with his family and siblings who were visiting and told them about our hike. Karl and Lucky Laura, a 1995 AT thru hiker whom Andreas met on his first hike, picked us up and we returned to Karl and Margaret's for a nice evening of showers, great food and conversation. We went to bed so full it hurt ... And that's not necessarily easy to achieve for thru hikers!! Thanks again to Karl, Margaret, Lucky Laura and Jennifer and Tom who brought us cupcakes we couldn't refuse even after we were stuffed!!