Date: 2003-08-06
From: Velvet Rocks Shelter

To: Trapper John Shelter
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: broken clouds

The rain just roared down last night, pounding on the tin roof. It woke me up several times with its force. I expect there will be mud and uphill slicks to deal with in the morning. How can there BE that much water up in the sky?The privy here continues the tradition of non-tradition. This one has a Dutch door, so if a person wanted a view, a person could open up the top half and have a view for contemplation. Chief goes off to inspect it.The little red squirrel is back this morning, sitting on the cooking stump on its haunches, begging. I toss it some crumbs while I wait for Chief to finish contemplating the view. He returns, and we set off. Within the first half-mile, we stop at the very cold Ledyard Spring to top off our water bottles and tank up. It is good water - a clear, deep inset well covered by a circle of plywood. Springs are nature's gift to the thirsty and the overheated.Before long, we spy Songbird and DejaVu coming southbound. "Hey!" I hail them. "You're going the wrong way!"They were slack-packing from Hanover via taxicab this morning. Durn! I wish I'd thought of that! But it would have meant another night in the fine Sunset Motel, and while I would have welcomed a shower and clean sheets, I was watching my budget after pricey Vermont.They pull out a little bit of trail magic - raisins: sweet, plump carb-laden morsels that we didn't have to carry up a mountain. This is a fun thing to do when slackpacking south, I have done it myself on occasion. Shortly, they are joined by Sparky and Zapman, also slacking SOBO.We said our goodbyes and hiked on, eventually chugging up the 2,222-foot Moose Mt., our major climb for the morning. Hard to believe we'll be up at 6K again in a couple of days. The top is accommodatingly bald in one spot, so we join Nick the Brit and eat our lunches on the rocks. Though cloudy, it is not raining.We bypass Moose Mt. Shelter because it is a hefty .3 miles off the Trail, and we are not stopping now. We have six more roller coaster miles to do before stopping for the night. We are not doing our usual 2 miles per hour on this stretch.Not long after the shelter turnoff, the wind picks up and the rain starts to fall. I put my raincoat on but not my rain skirt. The exposed rock slabs on the descent require my full attention at a time when cold, icy skywater is trickling down my shorts and legs, and my feet are sloshing into puddles. It is a war of attentions. I slip a number of times, but luckily do not fall.After not seeing a moose in Vermont, I am hopeful of NH, but there is no moose forthcoming at either Moose Mt. or the Goose Pond swamp. What we DO get are facefulls of wet underbrush and raspberry bushes. Yuckola! Where are the youthful "paid maintaining crews" Dartmouth is said to employ in summer? This is the most overgrown section of the Trail yet. There are blowdowns galore too.We start up the flanks of the long Holt's Ledge climb. There is a stiff bit of unswitchbacked uphill, and we stop for a breather, parking ourselves on one of the ubiquitous stone walls. We speculate on how the land must have looked back then, hill farms instead of forest.We have been seeing these forest walls in every state, but especially Vermont and now NH. Sheep once grazed these moutaintops, and 70 percent of the land was open. Today, the stony hills have reverted back to muddy woods. I vote for the sheep. I miss my views.I've also been forgetting to mention the maple sugar operations we've passed in VT and NH, simple lines of tubing tapped into the abundant sugar maples on the mountains. The systems are gravity fed, ending down at a central collecting point. Though it is not the collecting season, the tubing remains in place. Apparently it takes 25 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.The thunder rumbles, signaling another thunderstorm is approaching. It's worrisome, but there is nothing we can do but keep trudging. We certainly can't RUN or anything, it's too steep and we are at least a mile and a half from the shelter. Except for the walking, it's out of our hands at this point.Near the top, the old AT continues along the rocky ledges and cliff walls that have become a haven for nesting peregrine falcons. The new trail leads us away from these ledges and down, lest hikers disturb the fledglings. There are cliffs on the mountain opposite as well.Nick the Brit joins us shortly before the shelter. The rains start up again too, and we're all wet. Trapper John is a full shelter. I get in and also make a space for Chief, but it's slim. He decides to go off and tent, just as the rain starts up. So does Nick, though he has a tarp and is more exposed.Amble is here, as well as two groups of section hikers. The rain continues all evening.The Dartmouth privy humor continues. This one is a throne, with a high step up. Inside, a circle is cut in the seat of a wooden high-backed Windsor chair. Behind it, an "Exit Only" sign, with an arrow pointing down.It's cute, and I smile. But I wish some of this high-spirited energy could be devoted to blowdown removal, overgrowth cutting and general trail maintenance. It would be nice not to be torn to bits by raspberry bushes.