Date: 2019-08-06
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Left Rattle River shelter in morning twilight and hiked the two miles to route 2, reaching my car about 6:10. Today's plan was to visit thruhikers I'd known down South who were still on trail. But Fast Lane is deep in the 100 Mile Wilderness, ET is in the Bigelows, and Scrub-a-Dub and Go-Gurt just entered the Presidential range. Reaching any of them is nearly impossible. It was dumb luck I bumped into Mudturkey last night. Only Tin Can is in a town, spending the night near Lincoln. I figure he'll hit Franconia Ridge today. Since it's gorgeous weather and Franconia has fantastic views that seems a good place to spend the day even if I miss him. It's an hour-and-a-half drive to the Flume visitor lot in Franconia Notch State Park. The park was famous for the Old Man on the Mountain, a high rocky crag that looked like a silhouette of a head. It became a symbol of the Granite State, but it collapsed about ten years ago. The tourists still come for the flumes, and the hikers still come for the challenging climbs and open summits.I'm starting pretty early so I probably won't see Tin Can until I turn around and start down. The climb to Liberty Springs is long, steep, rocky, and sweaty. But after Katahdin it's not too great a challenge. Still, the total elevation gain to Mt Lafayette, the highest summit, is only a few hundred feet less than Katahdin. Plenty of dayhikers about, as well as some backpackers doing the Pemi Loop. Few elect the side trail to Mt Liberty, though the view there is excellent. I have the summit to myself. The alpine trail to Lafayette is busier. It's entirely exposed for several miles, with views to Mt Washington and in every other direction. I see no thruhikers or section hikers.On Lafayette two runners stop to chat. They've run the Pemi Loop in under nine hours. I've no idea how far that is, but two backpackers earlier told me they were hiking it in four days. The terrain is very rough and goes over many 4000-footers. The AT covers about half of the loop, so I know first-hand it's no joke. A group of macho dayhikers, clearly not impressed, comments after the runners leave how the record is under six hours. Nevermind they themselves probably took most of six hours just to climb Mt Lafayette.Pausing on Mt Lafayette I check Tin Can's text again. Unfortunately I had misread it. He was overnighting in Lincoln, but he'd come in from north of Mt Moosilauke, not from Franconia Notch. So he'd be hiking Kinsman Ridge today, not Franconia. Since I'm not going to see him I decide to take another way down. It drops steeply down through open alpine tundra past Greenleaf Hut before plunging below treeline. It's the Helen Taylor trail of the White Mountains. Steep, boulderly, and exhausting. The folks I pass seem to agree. Eventually it relents and I come out at a parking area three miles north of the car. So I follow a paved bike path south for the easiest miles I've walked in over a week.Back at the car after about 14 miles in seven hours, I change and pull out to head for North Woodstock and a milkshake. Across from the Flume visitor center entrance I spot two hikers looking for a ride. Well, they're not difficult to spot because they're dancing around like goofballs, and cheer loudly when I pull over. I get out to help with their packs and start to introduce myself when my jaw drops. One of the hikers is Tin Can! He and his buddy Jolly just finished slackpacking Kinsman Ridge. Seventeen miles of nasty terrain and it's only three o' clock. "We were killin' it!" cries Jolly. I drive them down to The Notch hostel outside North Woodstock, catching up along the way. Tin Can seems to be having a great time. He heads off to Guinea for his Peace Corps stint in December. I'm flabbergasted that I accidentally ran into both Tin Can and Mudturkey. There are few people I remember as well as them. And it can't be taken for granted that they are both still on trail. Most hikers I met in the South dropped off long ago. It's a great way to cap off my day in the Whites, and a fitting send-off as I travel home from Katahdin.The milkshake helps too.