Date: 2007-07-26
From: Imp Campsite

To: Pinkham Notch
Miles today: 13.1
Weather: few clouds

The morning urge to pee gets me out of the bag today. The sun has been up for about 30 minutes, and thoughts of the days hike gets me motivated to get some breakfast in me. Today we climb the Wildcat peaks A-E, big day. Tumble Weed and I move out together, kicking the conversation as usual. Today she is a little annoyed with Timber and her new friend, The Harry Potter book. To be honest I can see where Tumble Weed is coming from, but we have to hike our own hike. We start one of our many climbs for the day and find Brian has caught up to us. We pick his brain to figure how far behind Timber is, we think 30 minutes. We hit the peak and plan on breaking but the bugs are swarming. We push to make it to the hut for lunch, all you can eat soup and bread for $2. We start the descent and my stomach is growling loud enough that Tumble Weed is making comments. I speed ahead and make it to the hut for my booty. Tumble Weed and I enjoy soup and bread. The next table over, the hut volunteers feast on pizza and steak. I run off to the bathroom and when I return the other table offers us their leftover steak. I split it with Tumble Weed and eat her remaining soup. We walk outside and start discussing our plans with Brian, this was his original camping point for his trip. We made such good time that he is planning to join us all the way to Pinkham Notch, finishing a day early for him. Come to find out New Hampshire has this thing to climb all the 4000' peaks, and that¢s what Brian is chasing. I think he said there is something like 40 on the list. Today if we make it to Pinkham Notch he can cross off 6 from the list. We head back to the trail crossing and wait for Timber to show up. As we wait we realized our lunch lasted over an hour and she should have caught us by now. All we can do is sit and wait, which is unnerving, since all we can look at is our next climb of the day. Now we have waited for an 1 1/2 hours and Tumble Weed is getting a little frustrated. She makes comments about Timber staying up late reading Potter. Timber finally arrives and things are tense. Timber looks exhausted, then Tumble Weed asks how long she needs to break, and there is a little tone to her voice. At that point I thought for sure Timber was going to break down. 2 1/2 hrs after we started our break, we roll on. Tumble Weed, Brian, and I hike as though we are on a mission. We slowly climb peak A of Wildcat, we make the top, no summit sign. We push forward to a clearing with views, but a family of day hikers is there. We choose to press on, to get our own viewing point, followed by all of our cussing about no summit sign; we thought it would be better to not ruin their moment. Well wouldn't you know, not a single god damn summit sign on any of the peaks, as well as that was the only vista for the whole damn mountain. The 3 of us finally stop and take a break right in the middle of the trail. Brian and I try to figure if we have 1 more peak or is this it. We conclude there is 1 more left, and at this point for all my effort I want a view. Brian and I double time it over this last peak and find a radio tower thing sitting on a platform, this will have to do. Timber and Tumble Weed show up shortly after. We all take a nice long break, and start talking about this nasty descent we have to do to get to Pinkham Notch. We all decide to stick together for this last stretch. An hour in I'm getting tired of descending straight down. Another hour goes by and still descending. Now we are worrying if we are going to push on down this in the dark. We are all tired and it's starting to show. Tumble Weed is leading us down and we lose the trail. She starts trying to go down a loose dirt slide. We stop her and Brian suggests we find another route. I walk across a rock shelf and find the trail. We quickly get Tumble Weed to take her pack off and Brian grabs it and passes it to me. Tumble Weed slowly maneuvers to climb back up to us, then slips and quickly grabs hold of a root. Brian reaches down and pulls her up. That was a close one, everyone is a little shaken up. Brian earlier in the day mentioned he had his car parked at Pinkham Notch, so to break this mood I suggest we head back into Gorham (15 minutes from Pinkham) for real food. This suggestion does the trick. We now have a new motivation. We make it to Pinkham Notch right at dark. I ask if the lodge will hold our packs for the night, and away we go. In the car ride to Gorham we decide to all split a hotel and of course to girls want McDonalds.