Date: 2007-09-24
From: Galehead hut

To: U.S. 3/Lincoln
Miles today: 13.0

I woke up to the sound of a flute being played at the bright hour of 6:30. I hung out in my room reading Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse until the guests had eaten, which is standard policy for thru-hiker meals. I ate some leftover pancakes, packed up, and hit the trail. I arrived at Garfield shelter a couple miles downtrail shortly thereafter and saw to my surprise that Spyder stayed at the shelter last night and was now ahead of me. He must have passed me when I got that late start outside of Ethan Pond campsite. I must have been just a few hours behind him when I got to Garfield shelter.I quickly left the shelter and cruised up Lafayette mountain and onto Franconia ridge. That must have been the windiest conditions I've had on this entire trip. The gusts must have been clocking in around 70 mph if not more because I had to lean way over into the wind and several times during the stronger gusts I didn't even bother to try moving, afraid I would get blown over. But, it was a beautifully clear day and the views from the ridge were simply breathtaking. I passed a hell of a lot of people as I traversed the ridge and had my bandanna blown off my head into the far reaches of the ridge by a particularly strong gust. I eventually made it down off the ridge shortly after one or so and walked to where the trail crosses I-93. The interstate is on an overpass over the trail, and in 2000, I remember climbing up to the interstate to hitch into town. This time around, I opted to take the one-mile side trail to the Flume Visitor center and try my luck on U.S. 3. In retrospect, that was a mistake as I wound up walking 3-4 miles (damn near the whole way to Lincoln) before I was able to get a ride to the center of Lincoln. I asked around and found out at one of the outdoors shops in town how to get to Chet's place. I managed to find my way there at around 4 o'clock and Chet showed me around the bunkhouse. To my surprise, Ragnar and Highlife had already been there. Spyder had rolled in a couple hours before me, and Wicked, the dude I met in Monson, was there as well, but about 16 miles ahead on trail, having hitched in from Kinsman Notch. They were all in town when I got to Chet's, but Highlife came back shortly thereafter and said he was done hiking in 10 days. He set up a flight from Manchester, NH, on Oct. 3 and palnned to walk into Hanover and call it a hike. That came as a small surprise. He had always said Oct. 15 was going to be his last day on trail, but with a major airport in Manchester he decided to fly home early instead of screw around with a bus.Soon after, Spyder and Wicked returned with some groceries - some for resupply, some for a feast that night. Someone had dropped two pounds of spaghetti into the hiker box so Spyder and Wicked picked up some ground beef, sauce, peppers, garlic, and onions for a big pasta dinner. Highlife donated some bread and I picked up some salad and we all had a big feast that night. I capped off the night with about a quart of ice cream and smoked a big fat bowl. All of us but Highlife went to see Superbad that night, and maybe it was because I was pretty baked out of my gourd, but I found that movie absolutely hilarious. The penis montage during the end credits was simply outrageous, but what made it funnier was that we four grown men were standing there laughing our asses off as penis picture after penis picture scrolled by, the whole time some 60-year-old dude was waiting in the back of the theater for us to leave so he could clean the damn place, looking more and more disgusted as we laughed at each penis picture. Ah, what a great day it turned out to be.