Date: 2008-09-05
From: Hanover, New Hampshire

To: Near Holt's Ledge, NH
Miles today: 15.2

I did it! I'm back to walking north on the Appalachian Trail again. :-)I wasn't in any particular hurry this morning. I didn't even get out of bed till about 7am. I took a shower and went downstairs for some coffee, then finished packing up all my stuff and cleaned up the third floor. Mrs Gorp seemed to be in more of a hurry than I was. I couldn't figure out why. ;-) We loaded up her car and headed over to Hanover, NH and went right to Lou's for breakfast. I always eat there when I pass through Hanover. I had a good breakfast of three eggs over easy, homefries, bacon, rye toast and more coffee. We drove back to where Mrs Gorp picked me up to go to the Long Trail Festival in Rutland, VT. It seemed like a looooong time ago when she picked me up. I went in the Co-op and bought four muffins for my breakfast on the Trail. That will last me two mornings. It was time for me to go, :-( I gave Mrs Gorp a big hug and thanked her for everything. I had a blast walking the Long Trail with her. :-) I started walking slowly towards Katahdin at 11:15am. I only had 440 miles to go. The Trail near Velvet Rocks, NHI was only about half a mile into the woods and met the first sobo of the day....Earth Surfer. We talked about 10 minutes. He was excited about getting into town today for some food. I walked on and passed by the side trail to Velvet Rocks Shelter without stopping. I had climbed about 750 feet. The walking leveled off after that for a while. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat going up that hill. It's very humid and warm out today and not much air moving in the woods. I came across the second sobo of the day...Hot Pants. I stopped and talked to her about 10 minutes. She said the water on Moose Mtn was kind of stagnant, so I should get it from Mink Creek before I climb that mountain. It wasn't long and I met two more sobos...Mokay and Chill. I stopped at Mink Brook and drank a liter of water and filled up a couple bottles and ate a few snacks before I started the 1,000 foot plus climb up Moose Mtn. I got to the summit and met a nobo by the name of Shwa. There was a college group from Dartmouth that was heading to Moose Mtn Shelter. DOC Trail Signage for Moose Mtn ShelterWhile I was talking to Shwa, three more nobos came walking up. They were slacking south back to Hanover for the night. I walked another mile and stopped at Moose Mtn Shelter to sign the register and use up a smiley face sticker. I wanted to let any nobos know that I was back to walking on the AT and I wanted to see how long ago some of my friends had signed in. That group from Dartmouth walked up just as I was leaving the shelter. I caught a leaf today...the first of the season...and this year's "Leaf Catching Game" is on! :-) I have just a couple rules to start with...if your trailname starts with the letter "L", I can't let you play this year. I just have too much trouble with people who's trailname starts with an "L"....and they don't even give you your change if you buy a book from them. I finally heard from my ol' buddy Chief. He got Lyme disease on his last hike. He's been feeling real bad, so I going to be extra nice to him....I've decided to give him special treatment this year and let him start the Leaf Catching Game a week ago. Another friend who will be playing again is Goosebump The Snow Princess. I have to limit her this year. I'm afraid I can only count each leaf she catches as a half a leaf...she has an unfair advantage being 8 months pregnant and having not only her hands to catch the leaves with, but I know she would use her stomach too! That's just too much coverage. :-) The last person I'll talk about today is Amoeba. She has demerits carried over from last year, so she is limited to leaf catching for this first week of the official season to only catching leaves when she's above tree line. Sorry, but you were a bad girl in last year's game. Anyone can play the "Leaf Catching Game". Just go out and knock yourself out...but just remember it's a dangerous game and I'm NOT responsible when you get hurt. It's so easy to run into a tree or trip of a rock or fall off a cliff when your full attention is on a leaf that is fluttering down from a tree. It's really much harder than it sounds because just when you think you have that leaf, it flips and flutters right out of your hand. Just let me know in my guestbook how many you've got and I'll make an official decision on how many I'll accept. You can go ahead and congratulate me on winning this year's "Leaf Catching Game" anytime in my guestbook. When the game is over (when I summit Katahdin), I'll change the dates to make it look like you actually congratulated me AFTER I won. ;-) I'll talk more about the game in later journals as I pull farther and farther ahead of the rest of the contestants, but for right now, I'll just say that I've got one leaf and that's at least twice as many as the nearest competitor. ;-) First Leaf of the Season in the GAMEI also want to mention that my "no fall" thing is still in tack on the AT. I did fall once on the Long Trail, but that's NOT the AT! 1,748 miles on the AT without a fall this year! :-) I got to an overlook on the north end of Moose Mtn and in the distance, I could just make out the firetower on the summit of Smarts Mtn. I'll be climbing up and over that tomorrow. I descended Moose Mtn and met another sobo just before I crossed Goose Pond Rd....Beast. He was in a hurry to get up the mountain and to the shelter before it got dark out. I had planned on finding a flat spot near the bottom of the hill, but I started getting attacked by mosquitoes, so I kept walking. I climbed almost 1,100 feet before I settled on a very soft flat spot off in some pines just south of Holt's Ledges. I could see the sky turn pink after the sunset while I was setting up my tent. I crawled in and ate a few snacks. It's fairly windy out now and it's been dark for a couple hours. I had to officially start the "Leaf Catching Game" tonight though...did you see that picture of this year's first leaf? It was a beauty! :-) Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)