Date: 2012-08-04
From: Jeffers Brook Shelter

To: North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 8.4

Last night it did not rain and we woke up to clear blue skies and hopefully it stays that way all day. We got all packed up and headed up the trail at around 7:15am, both Just John and Hill Hiker left a little before we did to get a head start. The trail started out not being too steep but the further up it goes the steeper it get so we decided to just go nice and slow and took many breaks. Today it was not near as hot as it was yesterday and we were on the shady side of the mountain all the way to the top. We made it a third of the way up the mountain and that¢s when it started to get steep but before we knew it we were at the top of the long climb but not the top yet. The trail followed the ridgeline for a while before it went to the peak. We made it four and a half miles up to the top in three hours and the weather was perfect when we got there. At the top we caught up to Just John and Hill Hiker¢¦we were only about five minutes behind them.We all took pictures at the top and sat there for about an hour just enjoying the views. While we were up there, Just John told us that he decided that his hike was done and that he was heading home once he got into town. We are all very sad to see him go but we also understand why¢¦we will miss you John. We stayed on the peak and watched John hike off into the distance and soon he was out of sight and we may never see him again. The three of us decided to head down off the peak and finish out the remaining four miles to the road. The trail went down a lot steeper than it went up and we were told that it was very difficult going down. It started out not so bad but soon it became very difficult. The trail was nothing but a two mile rock scramble straight down the mountain. There were steps chiseled into the rock slabs, rebar hand hold and a few ladders. It took us about three hours to do the two miles down to the road. It was exactly what I imagined the Whites to be and I am loving it!When we got to the road, there was a couple doing trail magic. It has been a long time since we had trail magic. The man was planning on doing a thru hike next year and wanted to get a feel for the hikers and wanted to get as much advice as he could get. We then told them that we were going to hitch into town and they offered to take us into town. We gladly accepted and we were soon at the motel where we are to meet up with Jersey. When we got there we found out that every room was booked so we called every motel in town and they were also booked. We decided to just all pile into Jersey's room for the night. It turned out that Dakota Dan was also at the same motel; he started this hike with his daughter and was just going to go as far as he wanted. He never planned on doing the whole thing but he came this far and decided to just do the whole thing. He got out ahead of her early in the hike and decided to wait for her to catch up and they are going to finish together.We all got to talking and we came up with a plan to slack pack 16 miles road to road tomorrow and stay another night here in town. The owner of the motel agreed to shuttle us to and from the trail in the morning and Dakota Dan decided to join in as well. Tomorrow is going to be a good test of the whites¢¦we will see how hard 16 miles will be without our packs and then we get a good idea on what we will be able to do with our packs. We have a big day tomorrow so its time for bed...night all.