Date: 2013-07-16
From: Cascade Brooks

To: NH 112, Kinsman Notch
Miles today: 14.8

DAY 37MILES ON AT FOR DAY- 14.8MILES TOTAL FOR DAY- 14.8Woke up to some hikers passing by our tent. Forgot that we had literally tented right on the old trail. Not so stealthy. When I came out of my tent I looked up and there was a white blaze above my head. Good job Magnet.As we hiked out and neared the last hut, we met a previous thru-hiker named River Wizard. He was in such high spirits and he said one thing that surprised me about the trail that stuck in my head. He said Maine was his favorite state (the surprising part) because its the only state where you can hike up a mountain and look 360 degrees and not see a road or building in sight. And it's true. It's a beautiful thing and I had never really thought of it before.We stopped into Lonesome Lake hut seeing that it was the last one and to see if they had any left over breakfast. We ended up snagging some oatmeal which was good. Much better than my instant oatmeal. It was weird being at the last hut. It meant we were almost out of the white mountains. It meant a good thing and a sad thing. The good thing was no more fees at shelters or trying to fight to get into the huts, but the sad part was we were moving out of this beautiful area of the trail.After oatmeal we continued on to North Kinsman Mountain. At the top we hung out for about an hour just talking with this woman doing the 4,000 footers in NH. It was nice. These days I wasn't concerned about getting places. I knew my pace and knew I'd get where I needed to go and didn't stress if I was enjoying a view or someone's company.Coming down from the mountain we met a NoBo named Ducky. We decided to stop for lunch at Eliza Brook Shelter. There we met a NoBo named Lucky Strike also having lunch. He was from New Zealand. He by far has the most fitting name and story behind it I've ever heard. While hiking in Virginia he or caught in a lightening storm and was hit by lightening indirectly through the water on the ground. He had an entry wound on his foot and an exit wound on his hand. It missed all of his organs. Insane!!!After lunch we hiked on and bumped into Shaken and Moon Watcher doing a slack pack. It confused me to see them again for a second but I was glad we did. As we hiked down into Kinsman Notch to complete our day we ran into the biggest trail magic we had hit yet! Bucketloads of soda, twinkies, oatmeal pies, and more! Score! We also ended up getting down to the road much earlier than planned so we decided screw it... lets hitch a ride to McDonalds for dinner!And so we did! Luckily there were some day hikers leaving the parking lot right there that gave us a ride. Chicken McNuggets, fries, and a chocolate shake I SWEAR I don't normally eat like this! Haha. We ended up hanging out there for a while charging our phones and dilly dallying. I called my friend Alana who will join me in October and we talked for a long time. An hour! It was nice catching up. The time flew by and before I knew it it was getting dark and we needed to hitch a ride back. We struggled to get a hitch for a while but finally a guy saw us, felt bad , and turned around. He said Lincoln is a bad place to get a hitch because of all the tourists and he knew we wouldn't get one so he grabbed us. He was a teacher at Dartmouth and helped out with the DOC. The DOC or Darmouth Outing Club takes care of a big section of the AT in NH. Worked out for us! When we got back it was officially dark and time to put our headlamps on and find a spot to tent. Luckily there was a campsite not too far in. We set up and passed out. We were going to be waking up early to hike up Mt. Moosilauke to see the sunrise so we needed our beauty sleep!