Date: 2003-08-14
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Rattle River Shelter
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: scattered clouds

The carter notch hut has room for 40 people, but only 7 people were there, Wench, Walkabout, and I shared a 6 person bunk room. Not too shabby¢¦ Wench and I relaxed and journaled in the room, and Walkabout made enough noise to wake the dead as she made her entrance (I think she tripped over everything, dropped her gear, talked¢¦ If anyone was asleep, they weren¢t any longer). But what a great night! Cool, big winds, a big, bright moon, but no meteors (it clouded over, so I didn¢t see any at 3AM when I went out to look/pee). But it was fun standing out in the breeze in the dark just the same. In the morning, we got up, ate, packed and straightened up the bunk room before we went down to the main building. We asked what work we could do, but since so few people had stayed last night, there was nothing to do. Heidi told us to have a nice hike, so we thanked her and went on our way back out ot the AT. We hiked along two ponds, then up and over Carter Dome (what awesome views we got looking back down into Carter Notch, we could see the bowl the pond and Hut were in, it was a post card picture). It¢s a natural bowl, with ponds and the Hut in it, and a rocky lip to the bowl, it¢s ¢take your breath away¢ material for sure. The hike up Carter dome was steep, but felt good. On the way up, and at the dome top we stopped for more views and pictures (it was too good to pass up). Awesome views, and a nice cool, breezy sunny day, it felt good to be alive. Next we went up and over Mt Hight, now this was an exhilarating hike¢¦. There were more awesome views, lots of sun, COLD, with a nice constant 50-70 mile per hour breeze (with higher gusts)! We were fighting to stay upright as we posed for pictures on the Mt Hight summit. Our poles were flying, we were getting pushed around, what a fun time we had! NOTE: It¢s very hard to keep a camera still to take pictures in a 70 mph gust¢¦. Anyway, the real challenge was going steeply down the other side with out getting blown over and hurt in that wind (one foot caught in rocks as I get blown over is all it would take). Just an aside¢¦ Hiking in the Whites is dangerous in many ways, never forget that¢¦ We spend lots of time rock hopping and root hopping, butt sliding, sliding on slick rocks while holding tree branches or roots, jumping rock to rock on steep descents hoping we can stop. There is a lot of time spent on the ¢edge¢, that line between hiking and falling, between brilliance and stupidity. Sometimes we do fall, and either depend on poles, grabbing rocks, or dumb luck to keep us safe¢¦ So far, so good, but we have to remain vigilant, we are never far from injury, and as each day progresses, fatigue becomes a big factor. But enough serious talk, lots of breaks and snacks help fight off fatigue and keep us moving north. And just between you and me, I think someone is watching over me. I have had too many stupid slips and falls without any serious injuries for it to be just luck¢¦ Especially today, it was another as kicking, knee smashing, butt kicking day. Lots of rocky ups, and too many rocky steep downs. But hiking from the Carter Mt range to Mt Moriah made it all worthwhile. Lots of cliff walks, views, and open mountain tops, to give awesome views. This was all after we stopped at the Imp shelter for lunch and sat on a homemade bench overlooking the valley, some mountains and Gorham NH. Cool¢¦ But every day has it¢s down side¢¦ To get to Gorham, we had to drop down from 4,000 feet to 1,300 feet. It was a nasty, pounding trail down that left us with sore ankles, shins, calfs, and burning sore knees. Thank God we are taking time off to recover (2 miles tomorrow and a zero the next day). We need it, we have averaged 10 miles a day since we left Glencliff, NH and headed up over Moosilauke. Not bad for the whites, 97.7 miles in 10 days, and on one of those days we only did 1.6 miles (my hospital day), and all those days I had Bronchitis¢¦. What a man¢¦ LOL! So now we will take a break before we head into Maine. Mahoosic notch will come soon enough¢¦ WOW!!! We are now under 300 miles to go (299.8 at the shelter)! Soon we will be in Maine with over 1,900 miles hiked. Who ever would have believed I would do something like this? I never even dreamed of it until recently¢¦ But here I am¢¦ SO the plan for tomorrow, is to hike to US route 2, hitch into Gorham, go to the Post office and eat at McDonalds and wait for Suzie to pick us up and take us to her house. Jan may be there too! Cool, so off to sleep with dreams of coffee and a McDonalds breakfast in my head¢¦ Did I mention the register mentioned that bears were here yesterday? Well Twofiddy said there were, so you never know. So I¢m thinking about food, and bears¢¦ Life is good!