Date: 2017-07-30
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 15.2

As usual, all the thru hikers were up bright and early to get all of our gear packed up before any of the guests came back to the common area. I hopped back in the kitchen and began helping with breakfast preparations and taking care of some late night dishes from when we ate last night. This morning was pancakes, bacon, and oatmeal for breakfast, which kept the croo and I busy as we (but mostly they) prepared the food and I took care of all the dishes coming back from the tables.At this point, since this replacement croo was short staffed (as they always seem to be), I had done all the dishes from a full day of hut life... a dinner and a breakfast essentially by myself as the other three croo members tried to keep on top of the meal itself. I think they should hire me...After the meal had finished and we had had our fill (the remaining thru hikers polished off everything except for the oatmeal... which for me at least, is a last thing I'll voluntarily eat) everyone started heading their seperate ways. I took my time packing up, not in a huge hurry to get moving, and said goodbye to the croo. I got hugs from each one of them and a couple pieces of leftover cake to pack out, as a thank you for helping out so extensively. Honestly though, this was the best croo I've worked with... I always have a lot more fun when I actually earn my keep and especially when I can earn my way onto the croo by helping out.Finally, I could delay no longer, and I hit the trail, immediately heading up a cliff towards Carter Dome. Though not quite as steep or long as the ascent up wildcat, it was close, but the beautiful day and the cool air being held in the shade of the ever-shorter trees made the hike pretty enjoyable for how much effort it required. I passed a couple people from the hut, a couple that I talked to about my thru hiker presentation last night before moving on, and eventually reached the top and was treated to views of my hike for the day, the summits of the Carter's and Moriah visible before me.I didn't linger too long and headed down to High Mt, which although lower than Carter dome, offered panoramic 360deg views from its rocky summit. I enjoyed a piece of cake as a snack as I took in the sights, the Presidentials behind me, Maine just off to the East, Gorham visible down in the valley just a little ways north, and mountains stretching off in every direction as far as the eye could see. A couple of locals were up there having a snack and talked about their hikes on many of the surrounding peaks as we hung out.Though beautiful, the wind on the exposed summit soon had me pretty chilly and I had to move on, heading down a couple steep scrambles. The trail crested a number of smaller peaks... definitely not mountains, but just ripples in the rock, but each poked back above tree line and offered another glimpse of the surrounding mountains from a slightly different vantage point and kept the hike interesting. Throughout the day I bounced up and down along the peaks, racking up quite a bit of elevation, or so my legs informed me. Finally I reach Mt Moriah and headed down my last hill of the day. A couple of SOBOs had said the downhill to town was all very easy terrain, but that definitely wasn't the case. A bunch of steep scrambles, steep trail, rock hopping, root hopping later, I finally got down to the Rattle River shelter, after which I was able to cruise the last 2mi to town. I finally got down to the traihead, tired from today's hike, and thankfully managed to hitch a ride into town with a guy coming back from buying a motorcycle fender for his bike. I don't know anything about motorcycles, but that was ok, he could hold the conversation with minimal prompting from me.  He dropped me off downtown and I thanked him before he continued to make his was back home in VT, and I walked the last little bit to The Barn and checked in. It turns out the Lost has decided not to hike today, electing to take a zero to give her cold another day to blow over, and so was happily sitting in bed when I pulled in. I flopped down on a bed, claiming it by exploding my pack onto it, and grabbed a shower, the first real shower in almost a week (though I had had a waterfall shower more recent than that). Clean and as presentable as I get, Lost and I headed down to the Saalt Pub, which had been recommended to me by a day hiker, and had a burger and beer. Afterwards I hit the gas station to pick up a pint of ice cream and we headed back to the hostel to watch Game of Thrones, although we ended up conking out before it came on.I'm not sure what Lost's plan is for tomorrow... I need to hit Walmart (Last one on the trail!) to pick up a few things... hopefully a new shirt (this one that I've had since Perisburg, VA is getting a little beat up), a new knee brace (today the spring exploded out the side of one of mine), and some food items. I wouldn't mind a zero to recover from the Whites, but also wouldn't mind hiking out in the afternoon and doing at least a couple miles. We'll see what happens!