Date: 2011-08-01
From: Jeffers Brook Shelter

To: Ponytail Dave's House
Miles today: 8.3

(In which I stop by Ponytail Dave's house and prepare to enter the Whites)I sleep in past 9am, planning a short 8 mile day, and when I wake up it is August, the beginning of my fifth month on the trail. It occurs to me that if I had not hopped on the slow train I would be finished with the trail by now, and be back home deciding what to do next. I don't envy this parallel version of myself as I leisurely pack up and head out at 10am.Shortly after the shelter I reach a three-way road intersection where, inexplicably, the trail blazing stops. An unmarked path tentatively continues across the road, but this soon peters out. I try walking down the street in one direction, but in the absence of any blazing, eventually turn around and walk back. It's one of the few times I've been stumped as to which way to go, and with the roads I can no longer use the technique of identifying to most trodden path. After killing ten minutes looking for a blaze I eventually consult the guidebook, which instructs me to walk up the road in the other direction. I shrug and try this, to be eventually rewarded by a faint blaze on a telephone pole. On other trails I might expect to need a map or guidebook to follow the trail, but on the AT where 99.9% of the trail can be followed by blazes alone, this segment of trail stands out as the worst blazed so far, and I wish that I had a sharpie to write a note for future hikers likely to waste as much time as I did.The next four miles involve a 4000 foot gain in elevation. I take it nice and slow, having scheduled for plenty of extra time, but even still I'm sweating under the heat and seemingly endless climb. When I've reached the top, the first time I've been above treeline yet, I immediately remember the essential shade-giving function of trees, and hurry back down below treeline on the other side rather than stop and roast in the sun. I hope that the timing and weather of my other summits in the Whites work out more conveniently for stopping to enjoy the views, though I know that there can be much worse weather than harsh sunlight to encounter.Again I hike without seeing another nobo all day, and while I miss the company, it occurs to me that being in this vacuum of other hikers could have its advantages in the Whites, where work-for-stay arrangements are usually limited to 2 or 3 hikers a night.If going up Moosilauke was steep and slow, going down it is steeper and slower. The trail gets especially tricky when it decides to follow a brook for most of the descent, meaning that the steep rocks are now also often slick with water. Wooden steps make some sections easier, but going is still extremely slow, and though I risk not making it to my 5pm rendezvous -- unthinkable when I left in the morning -- I dare not go any faster lest I slip and incur serious injury.I eventually do make it safely to the bottom with half an hour to spare, and have time for a short rest before I am greeted by Pam, Ponytail Dave's wife. Ponytail Dave started and finished hiking the trail on the same days as my sister last year, and hiked together for several sections. I had heard stories but never met him in person until we show up to their house. True to his trail name he still has his ponytail, and the three of us are soon out on the porch, eating, drinking and telling stories of the trail. Like many former hikers, he speaks reverently about his time on the trail. "One of my few regrets is that I didn't take more time to stop and smell the flowers," he says, echoing a sentiment I've heard several times now. "I mean, I enjoyed every minute of it, but there were parts where I wish I had taken the time to stop and enjoy more."The next notch I encounter on the trail will also be within easy driving distance to their house, so with little resistance on my part they convince me to come back again tomorrow. This would be a perfect slack-packing opportunity, since I could easily leave most of my gear at the house, but having carried my bag every mile so far, I feel a prideful urge to carry it the last four hundred. I do strategically delay my resupply until tomorrow though, in no hurry to add an extra eight or so pounds of food to my bag.Tomorrow I will get up at 5:30 and attempt to hike 16 miles through the Whites, which if today's 8 miles are to be any indication, will be no easy feat.