Date: 2015-08-03
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: Maine 26, Grafton Notch
Miles today: 9.7

Dawn arrived. Early. Too early. Today was the day we would do the Mahoosuc. The Mahoosuc notch is touted as the most difficult mile on the trail. It's a scramble over, under, around, and between boulders. Very slow going and there's ice in there year round. Stories about the Mahoosuc are told to little hikers to make them eat thier vegetables and mind thier parents. After the notch was the Mahoosuc arm. A grueling climb, gaining over 1500 ft in elevation under a mile. We were as ready as we were ever gonna be. We left camp about 7. We had a mile and a half to hike before we hit the west end of the notch. 837am we entered the notch.... it was fun. Slow going, which we were prepared fkr. But there was nothing frightening about this. If it was raining that would have been a different story. But it was great. We stowed our pIles in our pack, they were useless here. And we rock climbed across the notch. Up, down, around, and through boulders. There were 2 cave crawls we had to take our packs off for. It was great. It took 2 hours and 23 minutes to get through the notch. Pretty decent timing. We weren't even tired. My hands were sore from holding myself on the rocks. Rock climbing gloves would have been wise.We took a break at the stream on the west end. And geared up for the arm. And up we went. And there was more boulder climbing. Root climbing. But nothing tok bad. Not even as steep as I thought it was going to be. Overall, it was a pretty decent morning. I have to say, there were much harder miles on the trail. Much harder climbs too. All that hype for nothing. I feel like most people are discouraged through the notch because its very slow going...but we're used to moving slow lately so it didn't bother us.We stopped at the Speck Pond shelter for lunch. It was about 230ish. After our break we were trying to determine what to do. It was after 3. The next campsite was 7 miles away. With the way the terrain is we couldn't guarantee that we'd be going faster than a mile an hour. Plus thunderstorms were suppose to be moving in. After getting stuck in thea at one we said we'd never do that again. We went to find the caretaker. He wasn't at camp but his friend was. She gave us the go ahead to tent. We set up both our tents on one platform, apparently there was a large group coming in. The caretaker got back about 4. And things changed. He said that since I had a 2 person tent we would both have to share my tent. He said there were 2 large groups coming in that made reservations and he needed to make sure there was enough room. I said that wasn't an option. There was no way Mighty Mouse and I were going to cram into my small tent with all our crap. Plus having to set it up on a single tent platform, leaving space for another tent, means I didn't have a vestibule...so no space to store stuff. No freaking way. And when we mentioned the fact we were paying 8 bucks a piece to stay here he replied it was for the use of the facilites. Mainly the privy. And since you're not suppose to pee in the privy...I ain't paying 8 bucks to take a crap. I refused, so we packed up and left. Which sucked because it was getting later. I texted Copperhead. We saw her a day ago. Her friend from Oregon was here slackpacking her. The place they were renting had bunk beds and she offered us a place to stay. We got confirmation that they could pick us up at Grafton Notch. Now we just had to make it there. We had a steep climb first off. And of course it started to thunder. We hustled as much as we could. Had some amazing views on the peak. But we hustled out of the open. It was thundering pretty heavily now. We threw our pack covers on and started our decent. About 6pm the skies opened up. It downpoured, it thundered and there was a ton of lightening. We were under tree cover for most of the decent. But there were spots we were walking on open rock faces. Pretty nerve wracking with the lightening and the fact I have a metal trekking pole. It got really dark too. We could barely see anything. It was kinda terryifying. Not something I want to repeat. About 745pm we hit the road. Thank god. About 8 Copperhead and her friend Beth areived. We threw our crap in the car and went back to the rental. It was a nice place. I was soaking wet and freezing and had the best hot shower ever. We did laundry too. Beth made the most amazing chicken soup for dinner. It had tomatoes, chicken soup stuff, sausage and a whole bunch more in it. I loved it and had 2 bowls. And I'm not a soup person. She had blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert. Amazing. It was pretty late after that. I went up to bed. On the top bunk, but it was a super comfy bed.