Date: 2016-09-01
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Grafton Notch
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: light rain

This is what Hazel said as she stared into her hot chocolate this morning. "What horrors await us today" I couldn't help but laugh. I woke up around 6:30 to only a little bit of water in my tent. I was worried where we didn't have our rain flies pulled tight that we would leak. It was a foggy morning and cool and neither of us wanted to move. Yesterday was a really hard day and we only went a little under ten miles. You never know how hard the terrain is going to be by looking at the elevation profile. We made breakfast at our tents and talked about the plan for the day. Hazel said oh I wonder what horrors await us today. I laughed as Mahosec Notch is coming and just like yesterday it looks like we will be dealing with wet rocks. The shelter area was packed. I would guess there was 40 people crammed in everywhere. The shelter was full, all the tent pads were full and people were camped wherever they could fit. Yesterday people zeroed at the shelter as they didn't want to do the notch in the rain. Then all the people from the shelter we stayed at including us came, a few southbounders, and finally a few backpackers made for a full site. Hazel and I finally got packed up and on the trail by 8am. We were one of the first people to leave and I think everyone was waiting for drier weather. Our first climb of the day was Fulling Mill Mountain. The climb was not to bad but the descent down to the notch was steep and with wet rocks very difficult. We reached the beginning of the notch and started in. The notch itself is only a mile long and it took us 3 hours to traverse through. We had to climb, hop, crawl under, fling ourselves from rocks, under rocks. Then you add in wet rocks and it makes for an interesting time. The rocks in the notch had fallen from the cliffs above which created a jumble of them. You would climb over one rock to have a drop off on the other side, you would have to hold on to the Rock and slide your body off trying to get s foothold on another rock. Some moments were scary as if you slipped you would be really hurt. We finally made it through the notched a bit scratched, bruised and sore but everything still attached. After the notch we had a climb up Mahoosuc Arm. When we got to the summit we texted Emily (Prime and Grey). They are hikers Hazel met on the trail in the south. The flipped from Harper's Ferry to Katahdin and started hiking south. They had kept in contact via email and were taking a week off to explore Maine and New Hampshire. They wanted to take us out to dinner. We were soooo excited. We agreed to text when we were descending. We descended down to Speck Pond and then began to climb up Old Speck Mt. Hazel had a slip on the rock face and banged her knee, elbow, ribs and hip pretty good. I was a bit ahead but crash and red came to her rescue and took her pack so she could get up that stretch easier. She is ok but sore and a bit bloody. We made it to the summit and had a fantastic view of the valley below. We texted Emily and began our descent down. 3.5 miles and it was loooooooong descent. The trail was nice and not too steep which made for a long way down. We arrived close to 7 and Prime and grey were waiting for us. They brought us Gatorade which we were so thankful for. We got into the car and headed to dinner. I was so grateful for their generosity and they told us about the trail ahead. They mentioned there will be a rope. Yes a rope to go over the edge. Dinner was great. I had steak and cheese sandwich, Hazel got pulled pork. We had a great time and they stopped at a gas station on the way back for us to get some snacks. We got back to Grafton Notch and set up our tents by some picnic tables on the path to the privy. It was gonna be a cold night. I looked at my watch as I was laying down and it was 10:56. 10:56!!!!! Just a reminder service has been spotty so I will be probably posting several of these at a time. Make sure you hit back to read them all in order.