Date: 2010-08-01
From: Pinkham Notch, NH

To: Madison Spring Hut, NH
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: broken clouds

July 24 - August 1Today is August 1. Here I am. Drinking a Coke, listening to music and sitting at a picnic table in the sun after a buffet breakfast--I can hardly believe it, but it's true. Yesterday, we had am amazing day in the Whites. Quite difficult to hike in when there were so many pretty views--especially from Carter and Moriah mountains.However, we hit our first hut yesterday. It was very pleasant to say the least. Carter Notch may be small with a capacity of only 40 people, but we lacked nothing. At a little after 2 pm, we walked into the hut and were greeted by a "huttie" named Mary-Anne. Quite a pretty sight for a pair of eyes that have been trying to avoid my German friend's spandex. She served us coffee, hot cocoa, and left-over chicken parmesian. What luck! We could hardly move, and when it came time to leave, it felt impossible. Yet, we couldn't stay. For all her kindness, Mary-Anene wouldn't let us do work-for-stay. So, she wrote us a note to carry with us today to Madison hut. Hopefully, we'll land a spot or three over there.However, over the past week, I haven't been doing much journaling. This is partly due to laziness, but more to late arrivals at camp, stealth campsites and utter exhaustion. So, here's yet another rundown of a few days. On July 24, we tried to push 21 miles but failed miserably. Still the 17~ miles we did hike was no easy task in southern Maine. We did make it to an amazing stealth camp across the creek at South Arm Road, and trail magic was waiting there too. I had a root beer! Yet, it rained that night, and I found out that my rain tarp wasn't quite doing the job it should have been doing.On July 25, We worked for 4 hours over Moody mountain only to find that we had hiked only 4 miles. Great. Part of the trail was gone due to a landslide, which is yet another prime example of MATC's erosion control practices... What a joke! We finished that day at Frye Notch LT after 14~ miles.On July 26, we hiked 10.5 miles to Speck Pond LT, where we did work-for-stay for the caretaker, Steve. I "brushed-in" a few campsite. Nothing hard. At the road to Bethel, we entered AMC territory, and the trail suddenly changed. It's nice to hike on trails that are actually maintained. Quite the difference when compared to MATC trails.On July 27, we spent 2.5 hours in Mahoosuc Notch. It was so much fun. I can only describe it as a junglegym for hikers. Although a mile-long jumble of giant boulders is a good description, I like hiker junglegym better. We would climb and scramble, and then drop our packs to play caveman games, which included climbing up over "technical" scrambles, down through caves or whatever else we could think of. Without a doubt, it was the funnest mountain thus far, but by the end of it, our knees were happy to be done.However, it was after 12 noon when we left, and having only accomplished a few of our miles for the day, we hit it to high gear and got going. We hit a few mountains. I stepped in mud up to my calf after Creamsicle fell between a bog bridge in mud up to his thigh, but around 5 pm, we finished our first state and crossed into New Hampshire. Great success, again.Arrived late after dark to camp at Gentian Pond. We ate and crashed. Totaling about 14 miles for the day.On July 28, we hiked a slow 11 miles to Gorham, NH. On the way, we passed the AT section maintainer, who later gave us a ride after our road walk to US 2. He was even nice enough to wait for us at the PO and then take us to Hiker's Paradise. Checked in and hit KFC. Pizza hut later--medium pizza and salad. Oh, so good!Oh July 29, we took a zero, went to Walmart, used the computer at the library, and chilled with some McDonald's later that night. While in town, I resealed my tarp with some silicone. Hope that will work better for me.On July 30, we hit the trail late at noon and hiked to Imp campsite, where we did work for stay again. Really, we just scratched around in the drainages because there wasn't much work to do. After 30 minutes, the caretaker came and took our tools away. He seemed surprised we were still working.The next day on July 31, we passed by Carter Notch Hut (our first one) a little too early to stay. As I've already said, Mary-Anne gave us some left-overs. We cleaned the pan and hit the trail with out note. Up and over Wild Cat (a Maine-type mountain) and down a steep downhill to a stealth site a half mile from Pinkham Notch.Today, August 1, we went into the visitor's center for breakfast and chilled for 3 hours, at which time I am writing this.Later in the day.... we "killed" our first president (Madison mountain) and ran on down to Madison hut for work-for-stay. Unfortunately, there were 7 NOBOs with the same plan, but we had a note (thank you Mary-Anne), so we landed a free stay in the dining room and leftovers for some minor jobs. Actually, I liked the work because it was a good change of pace and I got to hang out and talk with Harrison and Luke, the croo members. Fun times all around for my first stay in a White Mountain Hut.