Date: 2015-07-26
From: North end of Mahoosuc Notch

To: Just past the state line
Miles today: 7.9

Hikers I met today included Vulture, Flippin' Milanders (a couple of flip-floppers who combined their 2 names), Mission, Mouse, Sunflower, another young woman with a sunny-sounding name & sun-bonnet to match, Hawk-Eye (SOBO), plus 3 section hikers. Then Fire-Starter, Scribbles, & Vanguard. It rained during the night, so things were wet down in the Notch. I guess I should expect that, since I had rain on Mt. Katahdin, rain on Mt. Bigelow, & rain on Saddleback. Fortunately the rocks are mostly a kind that don't get so slippery when wet. I found poor blazing thru-out the Mahoosuc Notch, about 2 miles of boulders stacked in a narrow gorge. It seemed harder to me this time, but I did it in 3:15 [compared to 2:30 8 years ago & 4:15 2 years ago] -- my average, I guess. I definitely had my crisis-of-confidence moments. I know I should use my pack momentum to keep on moving from rock to rock, but my body just doesn't trust that intellectual stuff & wants to take one step at a time, which sometimes makes the process excruciatingly slow. While my legs have the strength to pull me up some pretty good lifts [& the knees didn't complain much, either], I lack the strength or dexterity to get the next leg up at the same time. That can make for some awkward situations. I sure am glad I have been able to switch back to my tied-together shoes with rock-gripping soles.I saw no one else in the Notch till the very end, when I met about 6 people coming North & was overtaken by 3 speedy young guys going South [their time: 1:15!]. They didn't go much faster than I going up the next hill.As I proceeded up the mtn. to Full Goose Lean-to, Hawk-Eye caught up with me, & we visited while eating lunch. The blazing on Goose Eye Mtn. left a lot to be desired. Rock cairns just aren't very informative about exactly where the Trail goes. A number of places on Goose Eye [3 peaks] have wooden or iron ladders to help. I noted how much of a surprise it can be to finally reach the last Mtn. in a series. On these mtn-tops & the saddles between, there are a lot of places where they have boardwalks & urge hikers to stay on them to preserve the fragile alpine vegetation. Only trouble is, they don't maintain them very well. Some obviously hadn't been worked on since I came thru 2 years ago. Some of them are under muddy water; So you have to feel ahead with your pole. In one, I started to walk around, which is wet but not muddy. But I decided to be a good trail citizen & take the board walk. Mistake. It got to about 4 feet from where the next board could be seen. Surely there must be another board in between. Apparently not. I stepped off into mud up to my knees [some places are deeper]. Too trusting. Then, just before the border, another surprise: one last major rock climb. So up I went! I wanted to get across the border, just to feel a sense of progress; not that I don't still like Maine very much. I found a place to camp half mile after the border; in my tent by 8:40. I heard another hiker go by in the dusk. He'll be in for a surprising rock climb if he didn't camp soon. 15-16 miles into Gorham tomorrow. See if that's doable