Date: 2014-07-24
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Speck Pond Shelter
Miles today: 4.1

Click, click, click, whoosh. At 5 AM two thru-hikers fired up their stoves in a shelter full of sleeping hikers and synthetics. "I'm enjoying an early morning cup of coffee", I heard one say to his partner who was wondering what time they were going to leave this morning. This never would have happened in 2003. First, it would have been rude to fire up a stove at 5 AM with others sleeping around you and second and most importantly, it's DANGEROUS!Now I'm not saying that 2003 was the very best year to hike (it was) or that the hikers that I hiked with in 2003 were the very best hikers....ever (they were), but life on the trail was different then. No one threw trash in a fire pit, and if someone did, they were called out on it. I'll never forget the time Morph called out 2 section hikers at Hemlock Shelter for throwing their aluminum cans in the fire. ALUMINUM CANS! We didn't have pee bottles left in shelters in 2003. I don't think anyone had even yet thought to pee into a bottle back then....and if they had, they felt responsible for it. In '03 we didn't walk up to a shelter and find used tampons (oh yes, Tray Mt Shelter 2013) laying about in the woods, or old gear strewn about, or plastic bottles of sun screen, or cigarette butts lined up in the cracks of the picnic table at Goose Mt. Shelter in '13. Speaking of cigarette butts, ......oh, don't get me started. Back to 2014    It rained until 10 PM, and when it stopped, the wind blew for the remainder of the night. We wanted Mahoosuc Notch and Mahoosuc Arm to dry out a bit before it challenged us, so didn't leave the shelter until 7:30. It took us an hour and a half to reach Mahoosuc Notch, the hardest mile on the Appalachian Trail. When Beerdra went through it last year on her thru-hike, it took her two and a half hours. Young, strong, spry hikers can do it in an hour, but I was none of the above. None the less, I was excited to get started. We took a short break and headed in. The walls of the notch soar straight up and offer a fantastic view out. At some point many, many years ago, parts of those walls broke loose and fell to the valley below. Car sized boulders tumbled together at the bottom, making it the most difficult mile on the entire AT. We climbed up, over, around, under and through the notch. I enjoyed it, but it seemed like it would never end, and when it did, we had been in there for 2 hours and 45 minutes! I had to take my pack off 4 times to squeeze through openings in the rock tunnels, or to shimmy up a crack. There is still ice in the notch in low, shady places. When climbing in tunnels under the rocks, it felt like air conditioning.While in the Notch, we met Foxy 1 and Foxy 2, two young hikers that had hiked previously with the Cuddle Bubble and were trying to catch up to them again. We also met Sardine and Captain Red Beard, two southbounders. Sardine was painfully thin and both Beerdra and I were concerned for him, and told him so. His hip belt was huge and he was carrying the weight of his pack on his shoulders. I hope he is ok.We popped out of the notch at a beaver pond and took advantage of a couple of large rocks on which to eat our well-deserved lunch. I ate Justin's Peanut Butter with Chocolate on crackers, 2-6" tortillas with pepperoni, cheddar and mustard that was donated by Beerdra. I'll have to start carrying mustard packets as it made a nice difference in my tortillas. We had some trouble finding the trail at this point, but it didn't take us long and we were on our way. Mahoosuc Notch was behind us, but Mahoosuc Arm was in front of us. We now had to climb out of the notch from 2163' up to 3370', in only a mile and a half. There was lots of water running over the rocks and trail from the rains the day before. It made going slippery and dangerous, but we took our time and finally reached the top. I turned and told a few great pictures of the notch below. I found it hard to believe that we had just come through that. We stopped for a break and to call The Cabin, a cozy, friendly hostel in Andover, Maine. We asked them to collect us tomorrow at noon from Grafton Notch on ME 26, a short 4 miles away. We're heading into town a day early! Five days out on this terrain is more than enough for my knee. I need a break.From the top of the Arm, we had a gently sloping down to Spec Pond Shelter. It took us about a half hour to travel the .9 to Speck Pond, then we had another .2 around the pond to the shelter.. The sun was setting on the rippling water, and the peaceful calmness of the water helped to wash away the pains of the difficult day. We reached the shelter at 5 PM, after on of my most difficult days ever on the trail. It was the longest 4.1 miles I've ever done....and it took me 9.5 hours! I laid out my sleeping bag in the shelter and made dinner in the designated food prep area away from the shelter. Bears can be a problem in this area. I got water a short way past the "kitchen" area and headed back to the shelter. I had gotten cold while eating and was looking forward to sliding into my down sleeping bag to warm up. On my way back, I could see the water through the trees, covered in sparkles from the evening sun, so decided to walk down to the pond for a last look. It was like a different world down there, sunny, warm and quiet, so I took off my jacket and sat and enjoyed it for a bit. Beerdra joined me for a half hour before I retired for good. Don't know what time it is as my phone is stone, cold dead.