Date: 2012-07-29
From: Zealand Falls Hut

To: Mizpah Hut
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: fog

Well, there wasn¢t much sleep to be had last night. The trail is all about compromises and so are the huts. While it is simply magnificent, in another one of those you can¢t possibly understand until you experience it ways, to have warm, amazing food and a dry place to sleep, the huts are also full of people out on their hard earned vacations. They like to stay up talking and drinking late into the night. Beggars can¢t be choosers or complainer though and I was so grateful to the hut system for even having work for stay as an option. So us thruhikers were up the second the sky started to turn bluish and were out the door long before the hut visitors were stirring. So last night Skunkape got it into my head that we should shoot for Mizpah Hut 14 miles away. Having recently had a newfound respect for the Whites and what they do to mileage estimates this seemed like an overreach. Challenge accepted! Well 7 of those miles were over glorious glorious flat trail. Darn near the equivalent of a garden path. The day started foggy with a slight chill to remind of us yesterdays and the night¢s downpour. It was a quick drop into the valley where be encountered blessed flatness. In this valley we moved along the side of the mountain with mountains climbing on either side. Below a river was still doing its best to carve deeper into the earth and the fog was slowly retreating as the sun came out for. Again there is always an amazing sense of peace associated with witnessing grand slow and so very natural events like this. Physically it was so good to feel yourself moving quickly again. This didn¢t last too long those as we soon entered the steep descent in Crawford Notch where YAY trail magic awaited us! And so did the steep mountain shoot-up in the looming distance that spoke of pain soon to come. For now though soda. Soda soda! Thank you, rock dancer, for this real treat.Webster cliffs. Every moment in the Whites you start to feel this sense of security like, ¢oh man I got this, I¢ve climbed this before¢. Then you turn a corner and your jaw drops as you again realize, ¢nope not really. New challenge¢. Okay perhaps it was the fact that it always seems to be raining when you reach these slick rock scrabbles but regardless, though climb. A good one, one that made you feel like you¢d earned your rest today, but still a tough one. Probably the steepest bit of trail so far where you actually had to rock climb and guess your way to the top. When in doubt the AT always goes up! The clouds of course decide to roll in just as I reach the top with the views but it was neat to watch anyway. God I love these moments: such a mixture of joy and reveling in the rawness of it but that¢s always mixed with frustration at being in and so dependent on that weather. So I look at massive dark clouds and cold rain smiling and cursing at the same time.   Continue on hiking in cold rain climbing rocks over and over. The rock climbing required an abandonment of poles and the hauling of both body and pack up crevices relying only on a good hand grip and precarious foot placement. At times these were right next to steep cliff drop offs but they were really just fun. Today, for all its challenges was satisfying trail even though I was sore and tired. A troop of older boys came plowing through at one point and we played leapfrog for a while, mostly because these fast guys on fresh legs would pass quickly then stop and break which is when I (playing the steady turtle) would go on by. And repeat. Interesting conversations with the group leader though until they broke off on a different trail. I arrived at Mizpah hut at the perfect beg for work for stay time and was luckily granted it. Skunkape was there already and we retired to the library to await work assignments. Very different energy here at this hut. Calm, relaxed. Nice. Ape and I found trail trivia questions which was really entertaining to go through. So funny to see what AT related questions we answer right out not missing a beat, no need to read the possible answers. Since mostly you¢d start a question with ¢what state do hikers comp_¢ ¢PA, rocks¢ and the answer would come really quickly. Also some of them were obviously outdated or we would simply flat out disagree. Fun times. Also learned some fun facts as well. The food tonight was amazing1 and they had so many leftovers stuffed pasta clams, soup, doughy warm baked that day bread, peas, salad, brownies! Everyone went to bed early and Ape and I settled into the benches in our bags sleeping away by 9:30.   There are some great windows in this hut and the moon is so big tonight with a soft orange glow. The stars are out, the sky is clear. It feels like a promise for a good day tomorrow.