Date: 2011-07-25
From: (108) Beaver Brook Shelter

To: (109) Lincoln, New Hampshire
Miles today: 1.4

It was another cold night, and for the first time since I can remember I had to zip up my sleeping bag. Wakarusa and Bald Eagle headed out early, but I slept in until 6am because I no longer cared for 14 hour days. Back on trail, I continued to hike down Mt Moosilauke, and soon realized that I had barely even begun to descend its northern slope. I traveled a tunnel of a path; nearly vertical at times and surrounded by dense pine. To my left was a stream that rocketed over the rocks at an incredible rate while forming many waterfalls. It was amazing to watch it crash and spiral down such a steep incline, and it followed me the whole way. After a time, I caught up to Wakarusa and Bald Eagle and hiked, or rather climbed, with them. Eventually we reached the bottom of the mountain and hit a road that led into the town of Lincoln. I didn¢t need a town stop, but having so far enjoyed the romance of the Whites and the company of my two friends, I decided to hitch in with them and take a nero (A ¢nero¢ is a day that is ¢near zero¢ miles). The three of us started walking, and after a mile or so got picked up by a middle aged couple who dropped us off at the town¢s McDonalds for breakfast. Once inside, Wakarusa realized that his camera had fallen out of his pack while in the couple¢s car. It was gone, added to the list of things he has forever lost across the entire east coast. I felt bad for him; the pictures in his camera were irreplaceable. After eating we walked around town and took care of some chores, including a trip to the outfitter where we learned about a hostel not listed in any of the guidebooks, a place called ¢Chet¢s¢. Not wanting to blow at lot of money on a motel, we got directions to ¢Chet¢s¢ and then walked down neighborhood sidewalks until we found the place. As it turned out, Chet, an enthusiastic guy in a wheel chair, had been an active outdoors man until a fuel canister blew up on him. Handicapped, he now puts a roof over hiker¢s heads through the use of his garage, a large back room, and porch. In doing so he is still a part of the culture he loves. Upon entering Chet told us that we could donate money or do work for stay. I looked around and saw that the place was absolutely filthy due to the large volume of hikers passing through (The Whites are very popular), so I volunteered to clean up the place. I spent the next two hours throwing trash in a garbage bag and then vacuuming with the only vacuum, a small shop vac. It was tedious work with the shop vac, and I probably could have finished sooner if I had been scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush, but I cleaned the entire place anyway. Satisfied that I had earned my keep, I went back into town and found the library. I was going to type up more trail journals, but for some reason the ¢Public¢ library charged ¢Outsiders¢ to use the internet (Was nonsense, if they are going to discriminate against non-residents then it should be called the ¢Local¢ library). I left and went to the movie theatre instead, where I watched the new Captain America movie. It was ok. (I considered watching the new Harry Potter, but there was no way my weak hiker bladder could have made it three hours. I am used to going whenever I like, and therefore have no endurance).Back at the hostel I found a full house of people, a total of 15 hikers, including: Captain Planet, Cayenne (who I hadn¢t seen since PA), Wakarusa, Bald Eagle, a kid with Tourette syndrome who kept saying ¢Mhhhmmmm¢ after every sentence, and many others. I spent the night lounging around and talking to other hikers. I noticed that a lot of the other hikers were reading Aldous Huxley¢s ¢Brave New World¢, which I also had as an audio book on my iPod. It seems that thru hikers all have a very similar reading list, and it is no wonder as thru hiking causes us to question things like society and social norms (Some other hiker favorites I¢ve noticed are: Into the Wild, The Alchemist, and anything by Thoreau). The bunks were filled, and so was most of the ground, so I ended up sleeping under a bottom bunk with maybe a foot of space, but there was a cobweb covered wall outlet beside me for my phone so it was a fair trade off.