Date: 2005-08-22
From: Lincoln, NH

To: Garfield Pond
Miles today: 9.2

Up and back on the trail by 10 AM this morning. Before leaving town I headed down to another appealing looking restaurant (a two calendar place for sure). After a good breakfast and some good conversation I went back to the hotel and checked out. At the restaurant I met a young woman from the Ukraine (she worked as the waitress where I ate that morning). She was intrigued by my thru hike and said she never met someone who did such a thing.    Mad Chapper was going to stay in town for a little while longer so I hitched back to the trail alone. The ride dropped me off about a mile from the trail where I got off two days before. The sun was out and drying everything off nicely. I took a break under the I-93 bridge and ran into a NOBO called Vision Quest. I met her once before way back in Port Clinton a few days before I left the trail for the 4th of July. I remembered that she mentioned buying the pack cover she was using and the "great deal" she received on it (got it for a good price). It was blaze orange in color and definitely the brightest cover I had seen on the trail yet. I told her I bet the Space Shuttle could see the thing. We got a good laugh out of it. I did also told her that it was a good thing to have as a signal devise (if she had the need to use it for such a thing). We hiked together on and off till we came to the trail towards the AMC-Greenleaf Hut. She decided to go to the Hut as I went on towards the north.   We just crossed over Little Haystack Mountain (4760 feet), Mount Lincoln (5089 feet) and Mount Lafayette (5249 feet). The wind was picking up and she wanted to get to the Hut before the rain started. I took a few photos and soon after took off myself.   The "up" was difficult however, I was hiking on a pair of "rested legs". We started that morning at Franconia Notch at 1450 feet and that was just six miles back (I was so glad I took a zero). The views were outstanding, Franconia Notch was to my left and was so beautiful. The ski slopes nearby brought back a lot of memories as well, I trained there back in 1992 with a great bunch of guys.    Soon after Vision Quest and I parted I moved on towards the Garfield Pond area where I heard there was a place to camp. It was getting dark and a huge cloud bank rolled in so I went to ground and set up my tent. I did not even know the pond was there until the next morning because it was so foggy. There was a section hiker in his tent when I got there and I saw three other hikers set up after I did. I thought I recognized two of them, and it turned out to be Apple Pie and her friend Plumb Pirate (a section hiker). Apple Pie and Plumb Pirate hiked the PCT together the year before and he showed up to finish the AT with her . Apple Pie was also completing her Triple Crown this year (AT, PCT and the CDT).   At first I thought it was Vision Quest and Mad Chapper (Apple Pie had a bright orange pack cover as well). I figured two bright orange back pack covers in one day?, no way. I did not call to them because they were quite a distance away and we were trying to be stealth full (later I found out who it actually was). Mad Chapper told me earlier that he planned to hike to the Liberty Spring Camp site for the evening (which was four miles back) and I knew Vision Quest had gone to the Hut. I was to tired to go figure it out.   It looked like rain so I set up and covered everything in case it did. It was so nice to be dry for once and I wanted nothing to get to wet. It was a peaceful night nestled there in the pines. A short day if you considered the miles. There I was though, deep in to the Whites. Camp was at 3800 feet, it was nice to be back in to the big mountains.