Date: 2017-08-05
From: Velvet Rocks shelter

To: Hexacuba Shelter
Miles today: 27.2
Weather: broken clouds

Up at 5:30 after a night of perfect sleeping weather - cool, low humidity, no bugs. But I tossed and turned all night regardless. Just not active enough yesterday to be tired. Malibu is another northbounder in the shelter just returning after some time away. She graciously moved her tent out of the shelter to make room when I rolled in at dusk last night. Her tiny chihuahua Taquito is hiking with her. She carries him sometimes but mostly he walks. A couple of southbounders are here too. According to them this is the easiest terrain they've been on so far. Sounds like I've got my work cut out for me! Yoda, Illegal (from Switzerland), Gaucho, Red Flash, and a few other NOBOs are tenting nearby. They started in mid April or even May. The folks I knew who started in March or late Feb are well ahead.The trail is easy this morning as the SOBOs said and I cover nine miles to the top of Moose Mountain in just 3 hours. The forest is mostly hemlock later ceding to birch. Plenty of roots and rocks and occasional mud but generally pleasant. I walk up into the fog on Moose Mountain, at 2200 feet higher than anything in Pennsylvania but a mere foothill here. As I crest and descend the rain begins. I duck into the nearby shelter just before it becomes a downpour. Others scurry in soon. A retired couple from Georgia section-hiking to Katahdin. Schoolbus, a Tennessee teacher who's section-hiked the whole trail but is here on a side trip to try to do 34 miles in a day. Flash and others from last night's shelter roll in. I leave after the rain lets up and head down the mountain. At the top of the next steep mountain, Holt's Ledge, I stop for lunch and watch the clouds drift along a ridge on the other side of the valley. Later I begin climbing Smarts Mountain. At 3250 feet it's the tallest so far in New Hampshire but still like training wheels. The skies open up again as I reach a series of exposed bedrock areas, and lightning crashes around me. Not a good place to be in a thunderstorm! A mom and son are up here as well. I stay low as I scurry across the exposed bedrock, hoping I am not an attractive conductor. One bolt seems to hit a hundred yards away. Eventually the lightning moves on and then the rain. I am soaked through and will have to wait for tomorrow to dry out. The sun appears as I reach the firetower at Smarts' summit and get an excellent panoramic view of distant mountains and drifting clouds. I check out the Fire Wardens cabin to see if I want to stay the night, but there are already a number of people and it feels very stuffy so I move on. I reach Hexacuba shelter a little before sunset. It's a large open hexagonal platform.  Not a very efficient shape for cramming in rectangular sleeping pads. Some folks make room for me. There are SOBOs and NOBOs here. One French girl has a husky sleeping with her. I meet Perfect Pitch again, the young woman from Upper Goose Pond Cabin, still taking it slow but still on the trail.So I ended up hiking 27 miles when I only planned on 22, despite getting slowed down by the storms. I'm sure this will not be a regular occurrence in the Whites, but it's good to have a little cushion. Tomorrow I hope to reach Mt Moosilauke, where the real fun will begin.