Date: 2023-07-12
To: NH 25A
Miles today: 14.0

After most of two days off to let the high water recede a bit, we decided to give it another try.Today would be a short hike, 14 miles, but the route also goes over two mountains, Cube (2900') and Smarts (3200').It only took two hours to reach the top of Mt Cube. The views were terrific and the higher elevations are nice, fewer bugs with pine trees, rocks and moss everywhere, just like I thought New Hampshire would look. The water level in the streams had definitely gone down; we had to wade across a few but it wasn't bad at all and the trail wasn't nearly as muddy as I expected, at least at first.It all went downhill from there literally and figuratively. The saddle between the two mountains was pretty rugged and very muddy. At one point I sank almost to my knees in mud while crossing what looked to be a shallow puddle. A thunderstorm blew in about 4:00 p.m. and dumped hard rain on us for 10 or 15 minutes. It also made the rocks wet and slippery, all the worse since most of our remaining hike was going to be sharply downhill.I slipped and fell first, mostly because of my weak right knee. I was just standing talking to Bob and my left foot slipped causing my right knee to bend more than it can take. The funny thing is, it doesn't hurt to walk on it but I can't bend it very much without excruciating pain. Anyway that left me lying in the middle of the trail. Bob had to help me up.Bob fell next. I just caught up with him after falling behind a bit when whoops his feet shot out, poles went flying, snd he was quickly flat on his back in the mud, but luckily unhurt.Then it happened to me. We were only a couple hundred yards from the parking lot when I went down hard on my side, so fast I'm not even sure how it happened. But now I was covered in mud from my ankle to my shoulder. My thigh landed on a rock; I'll probably end up with a nasty bruise but it's not bad.Bob and I washed some of the mud off in the creek by the parking lot before climbing into the truck for the ride home. It was 7:30 p.m. by the time we came off the trail. It took us two hours to do the first 3.5 miles, then over 8 hours to hike the next 10.5 miles. Nobody expected a tough day like that one.Moving day tomorrow, we will be headed to Bob's place in NH. Flooding has done an unbelievable amount of damage to Vermont; they say it's the worst since 1927, literally the flood of the century. Multiple roads and bridges have been washed out, including some major ones. We heard from several hikers who were trapped in shelters by high water. The local AT commission has ordered all the hikers off the trail. They had to go shelter to shelter through the state, rescuing stranded hikers or just telling them to head to the nearest town.More heavy rain is forecast for this weekend. We are about to climb Mt Moosilauke, a serious test and a prelude for the Presidential Range in the White Mountains. I'm already worried about my ability to handle that with my bad knee, trying to make those climbs in a rainstorm is potentially life-threatening. Maine is flooded too, and we got dumped on today, seems like we can't stick our heads out the door without a thundercloud rolling in.Slipper has decided to leave the trail. She didn't go out with us today. Tomorrow, she'll go to the bus station and make her way home. I think her feet and knees just hurt too much. I will miss her; she was literate and interesting.Saw two deer today.