Date: 2012-08-19
From: Mahoosuc Notch 

To: Andover ME
Miles today: 7.8
Weather: overcast clouds

This morning we decided to sleep in and rest from yesterdays rough day and did not get on the trail till 8:30am. First thing this morning the trail went up the Mahoosuc Arm Mountain and it went straight up to the top. Near the top the trail was nothing but exposed bed rock where all the soil eroded away on the trail and just left a narow winding strip of rock a foot wide. Luckily the sun was out and the rock was not wet and slipery so we could go right up them with no problems.We got to the top and the trail went down slightly down into a bowl where there was a pond and the next shelter. We went around the pond and made it to the shelter at around 11:00am and there was three section hikers there. We got to talking and the one guy was out to finish up the last 40 miles of the AT that he had not done yet and later on i found out that they were from Selingsgrove PA which is really close to home. We continued on at around noon and started up Speck Mountain. We did not have to go up very far and we were ontop in no time. From the top we started down 2000 feet down to Grafton Notch where there is a road. We passed many day hikers and a few southbounders on the way down but we did not stop to talk to any of them. The trail had good footing the whole way down and we were at the bottom at around 2:30pm. Big Sky and I had to wait the usuall five minutes till Hill Hiker caught up then we took a break with a few other hikers.Today we were planning on going to the next shelter two more miles up the trail but we got to talkiing about going into Andover ME a day earlier and slack pack two days instead. While we were talking a southbounder came up to us and asked us if we wanted any food. He took a few days off nd had a bunch of food that he could not take on the trail. We went to his car and ate some fruit, cheese, soda, chips and more. I then noticed that the car had PA plates on it and here he was from the Cambersburg area which is also very close to me back home...it is a very small trail today lots of PAers.After we were done eating we decided to just see what happens and tried to hitch into town. We decided that if no one stopped to pick us up in the next half hour we would stick to our original plan and hike to the next shelter. While we were atempting a hitch Einstein and Foster showed up and they were also thinking about doing the smae thing we were doing. Well our half hour came and went but by then we did not want to hike any more and we just wanted to go into town. We decided to try for another half hour then give up. Abouth 25 minutes later a finally someone decided to stop and pick us up but only the three of us could fit so Einstein and Foster stayed behind and continued hitching. The driver could not take us all the way into town but he could dive us 20 miles up the road and drop us off five miles out of town.We got dropped of and once again started hitching and the third car pulled over, picked us up and drove us into town. We got dropped of at the town general store and we got icecream and cold drinks before we went to Pine Ellis Lodging which is a hiker hostel. We had made reservation for tomorrow night and the next one and when we got there we explained what happened and they just bumped us up a day and everything worked out fine. Later on in the evening Einstein and Foster finally showed up, they did not get a ride into town till an hour after we got a hitch. Tomorrow we are going to do a big 20 mile slackpack from where we hitch in north to South Arm Road ten miles trailwise out of town then stay a second night. We are going to be dropped of at 7:00am so its time for bed now...night all