Date: 2004-08-19
From: Ethan Pond Shelter

To: Mizpah springs Hut
Miles today: 9.1

Mizpah springs Hut9.1 miles, mile 1835.5 on ATWell a very nice day although not for views. It had rained briefly last nightand this morning was overcast with the threat of thunderstorms. Luckily, I wasnot planning on going far. As I walked down to Crawford Notch I ran into TreeFrog, who had left ahead of me. As we were talking up came Tinman. Tinman wasthe caretaker at the shelter last night he talked about he had worked the lastfour summers as a caretaker and that he took up that work after finishing his AT thru-hike. The story that he did not tell yesterday that he let Tree Frog and I in on was that it was his last day, not only for the season but forever. He was walking out of the mountains for the last time and off to get a teaching certificate. He went on to tell us that he had a Fine Arts degree and had worked as a digital photographer. Well Tree Frog was all excited as he had been having problems with his digital camara. Tinman gave us a great deal of advice on dealing with digital camras. At the bottom of the hill I wished Tinman good luck as he began to look at Tree Frogs camara.Well it was across the road and back into the woods staring up at the clouddraped Webster Clifts which were the big climb of the day. But before heading up the trail crosses the Sacco River on a footbridge. I caught up to Boonie on the bridge and he offered to let me go ahead. I told him to go on as I was stopping to fill up on water from the river. Boonie headed up the hill and I filled my water bladder. As I was putting my pack back on several people came walking across the bridge. They had day packs so I stopped to let them go ahead. I noticed that the second couple were carrying a cooler. As they reached my side of the bridge they looked at me and asked if I was a thru-hiker. When I said yes they opened the cooler and said "help yourself". They told me that not many people take this route up except thru-hikers as it is the most difficult, but they maintain this section of trail and so regularly leave trail magic. Inside the cooler were home made brownies and other snacks. They left the cooler by the side of the trail and head back totheir car. as I sat ther munching feeling bad that Boonie had missed the magicby minutes when Tree Frog came along to help me enjoy the good fortune. Wellthere were those cliffs to climb and up and up they went a tough climb althoughnot as bad as some we had done lately. Towards the top I was was passed by awoman in what appeared to be biking clothes and she was almost running up thetrail carrying only a water bottle. I reached what I thought were the top ofthe clifts. There was a wonderful vista looking doewn to the notch but one butone could also see that there was quite a bit more climbing to do. There wasBoonine taking in the view and the woman who had run by. She asked us questions about thru-hiking and she explained that she was part of a group that were bicycle riding across country. They had stopped below and she had run up to see the view. After a bit I headed on. There were places that one had to worry quite a bit about one's next step as the trail required a bit of climbing and it was a long way down if you fell. If it had been a clear day I am sure there would have been spectacular views but even where you could see through the clouds was pretty impressive. Well I finally made it to the hut. The AMC uts in the Whites are prety nice youget a warm bed and two meals when you stay. The thing is that it runs $70 anight and you usually have to make reserations long in advance. For thru-hikers they offer work for stay. So I walked in and asked if I could work for stay. The guy told me to wait a few minutes and he would have me talk to the person in charge of the kitchen that day. When I was introduced to Nina we looked at each other and we both said "you look familiar". After a bit of trying to figure it out we realized we had been at the same school, SOLO, learning wilderness medicine back in March. Well Nina put me to work washing dishes for an hour and than I had a bunch of free time. I caught up on my journal. In the small library of the hut I found a book on the Cohos Trail, which leads from the White Mountains straight up to the Canadian border. It may be my nixt hike although it is only 160 miles long. Well I helped sweep up after dinner and than ate with the croo of the hut, luckily there wereplenty of leftovers. Hutsagic tinman biker woman hut early wash dishes clean eat catch up on journal Cohos Trail