Date: 2005-08-12
From: Carlo Col Shelter and Campsite

To: Grafton Notch, Maine 26
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: clear sky

Holy Toledo Batman!!Today was a tough day. I would say it was the most physically demanding day I have ever had on the Appalachian Trail.I'm glad I did not run to the Full Goose Shelter like I was considering doing last night and stopped at 4:30 instead. It would have taken me until dark to get there. I started at 7 o'clock from Carlo Col and it was togh getting to Full Goose Shelter. For the most part, there were some walks along the peaks, across boardwalks, but for the most part it was just uphill and downhill, nasty ones, all day long.Of course, in the middle of all this, was Mahoosuc Notch, which is considered by many on the Trail as the single most difficult mile on the Trail. The h9ike down was extremely steep and rocky, the hike through it was adventurous, to say the least. For me, it was not that bad, because it was only a mile, but it was equivalent to some of the roughest caving I have ever done. I had to figure out how to get around boulders the size of houses. They are just stacked up on top of each other. What Mahoosuc Notch is, is this valley that was carved out by glaciers 15,000 years ago. On both sides of this very narrow valley, rise a couple of thousand feet of completely vertical rock walls, that have chunks falling off of it for thousands of years. The chunks pile up at the bottom so deep that the water under them never defrosts, it's full of ice in there. You walk along and drop between rocks and, suddenly the temperature drops from 80 degrees to 32 degrees. It's like someone opened the freezer door. I'm so tired I can't even think straight.Today was really physically tough. The last 2 days I have done about 15,000 feet in climbing, and of course about that much in downs as well. You almost can't even call it climbing, it's almost 'bouldering'. All day long.The thing about the south is when you're going uphill or downhill, you are mercifully hidden from what you are about to do because everything is so overgrown and you rarely get to see the Trail past a few hundred yards at the most. Here in Maine, you are coming straight down the mountain, and you have a full view of the fact that you are going straight down hundreds or thousands of feet down to the bottom of the mountain. Clearly visible, going straight up the other side of the mountain, is the Trail, equally steep and full of rocks. Somebody once told me that, when you're in Maine, just look down at your feet and keep walking. Don't look up because you're going to get intimidated by it and, he's about right on that. It is intimidating.Regardless of all that, I still did my 14.1 miles in 8 hours today through the most difficult terrain I have ever encountered. Mainly because I had a deadline to meet my ride from Wandering Bull back to The Cabin in Andover at 5:00. I made it down by 3:00 and called from the top of one of the mountains to tell him. He picked me up and we drove into town. He heard OC1 was in town, so we tried looking for him there, but we couldn't find him. We came back to The Cabin and I met Earl Towne, who owns the place. He's a very nice, charismatic man. It's a very cool place to hang out. There are other through hikers here, too. Tomorrow I get to slack pack 10 miles through some more of Maine's worst territory. The day after that another 10 miles. I'm glad to be here. I've had two very rough days. Some incredibly difficult and ridiculous landscapes, and very beautiful all at once. Almost everything I have been walking through in the last few days since I got out of the White Mountains, and especially since I've gotten across the Maine border has been very boggy highlands. They have alot of boardwalks through it. You really don't want to step off the boardwalks because everything is wet and damp. It's highly mossy, Mahoosuc Notch is just covered in moss. If you step off the boardwalks, you run the risk of killing plants that have been alive for a couple of thousand years if you do. I'd better stop now. Good night.