Date: 2007-09-17
From: U.S. 2/Gorham

To: Imp Campsite
Miles today: 8.0

After waking up at around 8, Spyder and I finally got moving and started packing up. He went out to Rite-Aid for some food for the trail, and while he was gone, I watched some Women's World Cup soccer. What can I say, I'm a sports junkie; guess I picked the right profession as a sports reporter. Spyder got back in decent time and as we were packing we ran into a conundrum; there were seven beers in the fridge. Can't let good beer (not sure PBR falls into that category but whatever) go to waste we said, and I threw two into my pack, Spyder took three, and we left two for the cleaning crew. We started walking up the street to stop in at the local outfitter to possibly buy long-sleeve shirts for the whites. the temperature was dropping into the low 30s in town at night and we knew it would be even colder in the Whites. Unfortunately, the outfitter was closed on Mondays (as well as Sundays and Tuesdays - what kind of business opens only four days a week?) so we rolled over to the hardware store to see what it had. It didn't have much of a selection of backpacking gear so we started walking up the road, intending to hitch out of town when we spotted the library across the street.We went in and were informed it would cost us $1 per half-hour to use the computer. I'd never heard of a library charging for internet use; whatever happened to the free flow of information into the marketplace of ideas? we forked over our bucks, but to our surprise, the library blocked most sites it felt were non-educational, including facebook and other social sites. Imagine, you have to pay to use the internet but can only view what they want you to view. What a crock. Spyder decided to bail and headed to the family center to get online while I stuck around. I was able to pay some bills and update a couple Trailjournal entries with my 1/2 hour, but I didn't feel like spending more money for limited use of a computer. I headed out to find Spyder but didn't see him at the family center. As I was walking up the road, Spyder called out from across the street at Crabby Jack's, a little Mexican/American restaurant. We had lunch, I ate way too much from the buffet, and we headed out to hitch, coincidentally getting a ride from a woman that had given the flip-flop crew a ride into Bethel from Grafton Notch. We hit the trail and cruised the two miles to Rattle River shelter. The hike was all uphill, but at a gentle grade and my heavy pack didn't feel too bad. A four-mile, 3,000-foot climb up Mt. Moriah was still ahead and I knew it wouldn't be fun. The first two miles weren't too bad, but the last two were a killer; nice and steep to burn my lungs and threaten a reappearance of Crabby Jacks buffet. I made it to the top with Spyder close behind. A side trail led .1 to the summit, and Spyder and I dropped our packs and headed up. It was a great view, but we decided it would be even better with a beer and a cigarette so we went back down and grabbed both. Chilling on top we could see Mt. Washington off in the distance and the good ole Cog shooting out it's puff of black smoke.After our little break, we headed down the other side a couple of miles to Imp shelter. The scenery and views were outstanding and we rolled into the shelter to find Ragnar and Highlife setting up for the night. It's just the four of us in the shelter, and after dinner and a decent sunset from a spot in front of the shelter, it's time to crawl into my bag to escape the cold. If today is a forerunner of the weather I'll have in the Whites, I'm going to be very happy indeed.