Date: 2017-07-31
From: Gorham, NH

To: Gretian Pond Shelter
Miles today: 11.8

Last night I didnt sleep very well, I woke up a couple times during the night to the roar of a truck going by on the street just in front of the barn, and a couple times because I couldn't breathe very well... my nose had become stuffed over the course of the night and was dripping down my throat which would surely give me a sore throat by the morning. Alas, I was right, and by the time I got up at 630 I had a very uncomfortable throat and was still stuffed up, so I headed down to the gas station just down the street to try to get some medicine, but their sad selection didn't have anything useful and so I returned empty handed.I roused Lost and she decided that she was going to hike onwards from Rt2 with me today and wanted to leave late in the day and only do a few miles, a plan which worked well for me since I needed to do laundry and visit walmart to resupply. My plan was breakfast and then walmart and so she elected to come along for the first part of the plan, which ended up being a dunkin donuts run. I had a hot chocolate (to try to soothe the throat), a breakfast sandwhich (for calories), and a jelly and boston creme donut (for sweetness... and moar calories).My breakfast consumed, I hit the street in search of a ride to Walmart. I had brought my pack, stuffed in a fairly inefficient way with my lighter gear to give it girth, and my trekking poles, which I now took out and extended. Now looking the part of a hiker (not a hobo) I started slowly walking backwards up the street, thumb out and poles and pack visible. I hadn't even walked a block which a pickup truck pulled over and picked me up, the owner coincidentally also heading to Walmart.The ride was short and I thanked and said goodbye to my generous driver at the door and headed inside. This Walmart was the last Walmart near the trail according the SOBOs, so it was a shopping trip which had to count. I picked up a new knee brace (to replace the one which had exploded yesterday), dayquill and a decongestant, new headphones (for when the ones I have inevitably die), and some sundry foods to round out my food supplies to last me a couple days. Bags in hand I headed back to the road and repeated the process. Only a couple of minutes later a familiar pickup truck pulled up in front of me and I hopped in... the same guy heading home now. We chatted about bee keeping on the ride, since he kept several hives of bees and sold the honey they produced. Once again I thanked him and walked back to the barn. There I put my laundry in, desploded my pack, and watched the newest episode of Game of Thrones with Lost (who never misses an episode, even on trail). I also did a quick repair on my gaiters, sewing the velcro back onto the gaiter where it had begun to seperate from the fabric.Lost and I decided that it didn't make sense to leave town without eating first, so we headed down to Welch's, the local diner, for second breakfast. Neither of us walked in that hungry, but I did end up eating "The Hungryman", so yea...Finally ready, we donned our packs and prepared to hitch back to the trail when a guy I vaguely recognized walked in. The guy, Soggy, was chatting with some of the other hikers and offered a ride to anyone who needed it, which we did! We hopped in his car and on the short ride back to the trailhead I realized that I had met him before in Erwin, TN at Uncle Johnny's hostel where he was also giving rides to hikers, that time to go get food. It turns out that he's a trail angel from PA who typically does this sort of stuff during the hiking season... small world to see him again.He dropped us off, gave us each a Gatorade, and we were off on a short road walk. I popped a dayquil to soothe my throat as we crossed a small hydro electric dam and passed several groups of SOBOs heading into town. Back into the woods the trail headed uphill and didn't stop. Though long, this uphill had switchbacks, was decently graded, and wasn't very rocky... all of which were a welcome change from the terrain we had been hiking on for the past couple days in the Whites. The trail topped out on a rocky bald and I waited for Lost there, occupying my time with trying to eat every blueberry I could find. She came, took a short rest and then continued on and I lingered a few minutes longer, finishing up a couple more bushes before shouldering my pack and walking on.The trail dipped down into a valley as distant thunder rumbled through the mountains and a few raindrops began to fall. I stopped and put on my pack cover before proceeding, but that process seemed to have dissuaded the would-be rainstorm from wetting us any further, though the thunder continued to sound from behind us for some time longer. We climbed and descended several rocky hills as we made our way north, my throat becoming progressively more uncomfortable as the afternoon wore on and my water supply dwindled. Finally we reached a campsite, the 7mi mark for us today, and confirmed our decision to move on to the next shelter, 5mi distant. I refilled on water and popped another couple dayquill and we moved on.We passed several beautiful alpine ponds as we walked, lillypads flowering on the water surface and dense coniferous trees bordering the body of water. We also climbed a couple more rocky inclines, passing one with an overlook with a single tent site, a great place to camp if we had thought ahead and filled up on water. Oh well.We passed a final pond, only 2.2mi from the shelter and continued on, crossing several boardwalks over the muddy and marshy terrain. It was about this time that the wheels started to fall off the bus, both of us tripping far more often than normal just due to tiredness. We passed a final, final pond and descended a steep rocky section before emerging onto the pond which the shelter overlooked.The shelter itself was located at the outlet of the pond, a small stream escaping the pond through the beaver dam and down a narrow rocky cravase and down a long hill to the valley below. The shelter's front face was oriented to provide a wide view of the valley below and mountains beyond. We filtered water, ate dinner, popped a few more decongestants, and bedded down, both tired from todays hike and our sickness. Outside the moon, despite being only half full, brightly lit the landscape from above and the light spilled in the front of the shelter. A few bright stars were visible, dotting the night sky with more sure to come once the last echos of day faded from the eastern sky and the moon set late tonight.Tomorrow we tackle Mahousic Notch, the hardest mile on the AT in that it requires extensive scrambling and climbing through boulder caves to navigate. Usual times for the SOBOs to navigate it are ~2hr... for that one mile. The notch is so deep that there's apparently still snow and ice at the bottom... should be fun! We plan to camp tomorrow at a firetower just past Speck Pond shelter, perhaps my last chance to sleep in a firetower on my thru hike, which I've been trying to do for hundreds of miles.