Date: 2015-08-24
From: Nahmakanta lake 

To: Abol Bridge
Miles today: 24.3
Weather: few clouds

And, it rained last night. Of course!! We woke this morning with no sound of rain. We quickly dried off the tent. Then, we had breakfast and packed up all our belongings. We no sooner did this and it started to rain again. We put on our pack covers and headed out. We had a short climb and descent. Then, it started to rain harder. There was a shelter near by. So, we ducked in there. Then, the heavens opened up and it started to downpour. We sat in the shelter for a bit. Then, we had to head out to make some miles. It was still raining but not the downpour it had been.      Today was another day of autopilot. From talking with all the NoBo thru-hikers, this is the general consensus - just put the miles behind you. But, we had a 700 foot climb to Nesuntabunt Mountain. We had to think on this climb. It was hard as there were lots of rocks and it was very steep. Rumor had it, the second 50 miles of the 100 mile wilderness was easy. That rumor is as true as the rumor that Virginia was flat. Both are very, very false. We finally reached the summit of Nesuntabunt Mountain. It had stopped raining. We weren't wet from the rain but rather we were wet from sweat. It was now so humid. It wasn't nice weather for hiking.   We descended the mountain but it wasn't as steep going down.    We had lots and lots and lots of rooty, rocky, muddy trail as we hiked around two ponds - Wadleigh and Crescent. The trail was not a trail at all. It was in such bad shape.    We hiked passed Pollywog Gorge. We climbed along the cascades of Pollywog Stream. The view was quite spectacular but the trail not so much. Lots of rocks and roots and of course mud.    We had an early and quick lunch because we came to the Rainbow Lake shelter. We only had 9.3 miles in by noon. We were behind schedule. Thus, the reason for a quick lunch of only 30 minutes.   After lunch, we hiked 7 miles around Rainbow Lake. Up, down and all around the shore of the lake. The trail was nothing but rock piles, mud bogs and tree roots. It was a very treacherous trail. One great thing we saw were three otters swimming. They dove under and came up with clams. We could hear then cracking cracking the clams. That was totally awesome. Our son's favorite animal is an otter.   Finally, we left the lake and climbed to Rainbow Ledges. We were so happy to climb. We were hoping the trail would become better. It got a little better but not great. In fact, the last few tenths of a mile, we were walking in a stream of water cascading down the rocks were clamoring over! Finally, we reached the top. We were above the tree line, walking on the ridgeline. Then, we heard thunder. Not good! We quickly got off the ridgeline. There were beautiful, plump wild blueberries. We didn't take the time to pick any. We thought it was strange there were so namy berries. Then, we realized all the NoBo thru-hikers didn't want to take time to pick them, they just want to push out the miles! We stopped at Hurd Brook shelter. We took a break and talked to Turbo. He is planning on summiting on Thursday as well. We were thinking of camping there. But, Abol Bridge was only 3.5 miles. The promise of non-trail food and a shower propelled us onward.   We hiked hard and fast over more treacherous trail. We covered that 3.5 miles in 75 minutes. We got to Abol Bridge just in time, the kitchen was closing. But, they said they would make fried chicken for us. Since it would take 20 minutes, we took a much needed shower. Oh, how good that felt. We were so muddy.    We finished cleaning up got our chicken. Then, we took it outside and ate. Yum! Fried chicken never tasted so food. What a hard day but rewarded with food and a shower.   We set up camp for the night and relaxed.