Date: 2015-07-26
From: Hanover, NH

To: Campsite 1774.3
Miles today: 18.9
Weather: broken clouds

Count gingerly put his boots on this morning. His heels still hurt but they aren't as painful as they were. We pray he can hike today without too much pain. When he put his backpack on, he cringed a bit. And, it had rained this morning. We are a bit concerned what the day will bring. Trail angel Ted took us to Three Mile Road where we had left the trail abruptly on Thursday. Ted said if Count has any problems call him and he would pick us up. We hope we don't need to call him. We thanked him profusely and said goodbye.   When we left the trail on Thursday, we were part way up a climb. So, we finished the climb. And, as we climbed, it stared to rain. We already had our pack covers on. On went our ponchos. It had stopped raining after about 20 minutes. It wasn't a downpour. We weren't too wet. But, we did climb during the rain. We climbed 1000 feet to Moose Mountain. We are 2222 feet above the sea level. 22 is Count's favorite number!   Off went the ponchos for the descent. During our descent of 1400 feet, we passed a couple that was SoBo thru-hikers. We decided we should tag team our thru-hike. They thought that was a good idea! Then we would all be finished. Of course, we didn't and on we hiked. What do we do when we go down? Climb back up. 1200 feet this time. We came upon Frisbee and his daughter. It was nice to see them. We hiked a bit with them. But, Frisbee was hiking slower since his daughter just joined him. We hiked on. We reached the top that had precipitous drop offs and lots of views. We saw no cliff edges or no views as it was foggy!! The trail took us through an evergreen pine forest. The aroma was fabulous. We didn't want to leave this area. But, the trail went down and we left the smell behind. We had some mud but nothing too terrible.. Count was doing okay but his feet hurt some. He was setting a nice pace. Before we knew it, it was lunch time. Rumor had it, a short distance up the trail was the Ice-cream Man's house. We hiked a bit further. Sure enough, there was a sign for his house. We turned to the side trail and up we went. The Ice-cream Man has a freezer with popsicles for thru-hikers. Just as we were getting our popsicles, Frisbee and his daughter arrived. So did another NoBo, Pappa Lou. Then a section hiker arrived. We ate our popsicles. Then ate lunch. Yes, dessert before our lunch. We also had a soda. We enjoyed our lunch and the conversation. But, too soon, it was time to hike.    We had our third and biggest climb of the day after lunch. Good thing we had a popsicle with our lunch! This climb took us up, up, up, through mud, and over rocks. Not just a few rocks but steep rocks, rock steps and then rebar on rocks to help us climb the rocks. The rocks were slippery as they were very wet. We climbed more rocks. Then, we climbed even more rocks. We climbed for at least two and a half hours up these rocks. It was a killer climb. We were thinking, how are we ever going to climb the Whites?? Count's feet were hurting by the time we finally reached the top of Smart Mountain.    We took a much needed break at the summit. Another thru-hiker was at the top resting. We talked about the climb and the Whites. He has already hiked the Whites. He said the climb up Smart Mountain was like the one climb in the Whites. But the others aren't as hard. We were happy to hear this. We finished our afternoon break and then headed down the mountain.   Down, down, down we went. Through lots and lots and lots of mud. Count had the misfortune of one foot slipping off a log into the mud bog. This was not good. Not good for his foot at all. But, of course, he pushed on. We crossed a much needed water source. We decided to call it a day. Count needed to get off his feet. We filtered our water, found a tent site, set up camp, ate dinner and finally relaxed. We have noticed, it is getting darker earlier. It is now dark before 9:00 pm. Just a week or so ago, it was dark alot later. With hiking north and getting later in the summer, darkness comes earlier.