Date: 2006-07-30
From: Maine/NH Border

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up at 4:30am and wasn't ready to start my coffee yet.It was a nice, cool morning and I slept really well last night.I finally couldn't stand thinking about coffee anymore, so at 5:15 I stuck my stove outside the tent and started my coffee brewing. When that was ready, I had the coffee and just one apple pie for breakfast...I'm going to start watching my figure, so I'm going to cut back on the quantity of food I'm eating. :-)))I got packed up and left at 6:15am, about 5 minutes after Mrs Gorp was packed and left. I made the steep, but short descent to the side trail to Carlo Col Lean-to and kept going on up to the summit of Mt Carlo.The wind was blowing lots of clouds over the mountains surrounding me...both peaks of Goose Eye and some of the smaller mountains too. It was a beautiful thing to look at because it wasn't socked in, just a few clouds here and there.The wind was also making the 55 degree temperature feel much cooler.I was taking lots of photos.A guy that was walking south had a pitbull type dog. When the dog saw me, he came running at me and growling, so I dropped my left hiking pole and got ready to jamb the right one down his throat.The guy finally got the dog to come back to him. I love seeing 98% of the dogs on the trail because they have such a good time, but the few dogs that are aggressive shouldn't be running loose out here.It was a beautiful walk over both peaks of Goose Eye Mountain. I met up with Moosie last year on these mountains when he was nearing the end of his nobo thru hike....sure seems like a long time ago that I sat down with him and watched him eat a fresh avocado in front of me without offering me any. :-((( I got to Full Goose Shelter and sat down for lunch. I ate, then walked down and got water.When I got back, Mrs Gorp had made it there and was throwing some graham crackers to a couple grey jays...Hey, what about me?? :-))) We walked on and when we got to the summit of Fulling Mountain, I could see Baldpate and Old Speck to one side of me, Mt Washington and the Presidentials to the other side and Sunday River ski area in yet another direction. With the cold front that came through, the long distant views were awesome.We came down off Fulling Mountain and entered Mahoosic Notch.I was going to let Mrs Gorp lead, but I wanted to take lots of photos, so I got in the front. I was taking one photo of her coming through some big rocks. Almost as soon as I took the photo, she slipped and fell straight back against a big rock....luckily she landed on her backpack and didn't get hurt.I'm glad she didn't get hurt because I didn't want to have to leave her there and walk through the Notch by myself. :-)))I found four huge boulders to crawl under.When I walk through here going south, I usually only crawl under three. I'm not sure why I miss the fourth coming from that direction. I had lots of fun getting ahead of Mrs Gorp and taking photos of her working her way through he Notch.We got through the one mile section of the Notch in 1 1/2 hours, then start the very steep ascent of Mahoosic Arm. I was glad to run into Squeaky Clean about half way up because my legs were burning.Mrs Gorp and I sat down and talked to him for about 20 minutes.When we did get up to walk more, it took a minute for me to get going again. When we got to the top, my legs were very tired. I'm glad I only had one apple pie for breakfast this morning. :-)))We walked down to Speck Pond Campsite and took a long break.I ate the rest of my snacks and drank a bunch of water. There were some overnighters there and they had a bunch of booze bottles and a boom box in the shelter. That should be a noisy place tonight. :-)))I left Mrs Gorp at the shelter and started climbing to the summit of Old Speck. I passed by a couple section hikers and sent a message back to Mrs Gorp to pick up the pace a little. I wanted my steak that was waiting on me back in Gorham. :-)))I descended Old Speck and came to a small peak where I tented one year. I remember the morning I woke up there...I thought my tent was on fire because it was so orange. Turned out to be the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. I ran into Goat Milk, a sobo, about half way down Old Speck.I sent another message back to Mrs Gorp. :-)))I got down to Grafton Notch at 5:05pm.Rambunny and Aqua parked Mrs Gorp's car there earlier today...thanks!!! I had only been there about 5 minutes before Mrs Gorp showed up...guess my messages helped. :-)))We drove to the Gorham trailhead and picked up my truck, then on to Gorham and got a room, got showers and headed right over to J's Steakhouse for dinner. Today's weather was the best I've had since I came up here. It's more the way it should be here in New England...nice and cool all day and there was NO bugs. There was also a very nice breeze all day, so I never even worked up a sweat.