Date: 2009-09-18
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gentian Pond Shelter/Campsite
Miles today: 11.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Highlight: Updating my blog in town, arriving to the shelter exhausted at night with some chronic diarreah, eating a warm meal, and reuniting with my trail friends at the shelter. In our last day in Gorham, Jungli and I headed over to the Life Center where we had the chance to update our blogs and re-connect with our friends and family back home. She managed to get a hitch to the trailhead early, while I stayed behind to send emails until two in the afternoon. On the way out of town, I called my mom using a payphone and TracFone where I was finally able to set up my cell phone minutes, ever since my cell phone fell into a creek at the beginning of New Hampshire. I am making it official; TracFone is now CrapFone. After a quick stop at Subway, where I looked through the front window and watched a HUGE rainstorm come through, I packed up my belongings and sub sandwich and made my way out to the main street and attempted to get a hitch to the trailhead. For over 45 minutes, I was unsuccessful. I was still 3.6 miles out of town, but I decided that I would just start walking with my thumb out. So, I did. Within 10 minutes, an elderly couple driving a Prius stopped and asked if I needed a lift. They were just on their way back from the grocery store and, when they pulled over, I had to help them to re-arrange all of their groceries. When they dropped me off at the trailhead, I noticed that my stomach had started gurgling. I made it into the woods and I IMMEDIATELY had to pull down my pants and do a #2, which turned out to be entirely liquid. I say this not to gross people out, but to explain that it was the first time on the trail when I really thought that I had giardia. The other alternative was that I received a bug from the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Gorham, where we gorged ourselves for over two hours. The views leaving Gorham were wonderful. The leaves had started changing colors and the setting sun provided an incredible fireball of light on top of Cascade Mountain. The light shone brilliantly on the white puffy clouds above, made even more vivid by the blue sky. For the last 1.5 hours of the hike, I was walking in complete darkness. The trail was difficult to walk through, as the pine trees hung so close to the trail hitting my face and body. There was also a significant amount of mud that I had to jump around/through. When I was within one mile from the shelter, I saw a light up ahead during a steep descent of rocks. I tried to catch up to the light, but it (the hiker) kept getting ahead during certain sections. When I arrived at the sign leading to the shelter, I realized that it was Chinese Tourist, who had left Gorham late as well. He explained to me that Beechucker¢s friend had dropped him off at the trail, while Beechucker was dropped off at a completely different trail and he only had to hike 3.5 miles on a different trail to get to the same trail. It was blue/yellow-blazing at his best. Jungli had just arrived, so the three of us ended up chowing down on our food before heading to bed. We were surprised at how ¢freezing¢ the air temperature was and how the cold wind left us scrambling for our sleeping bags.