Date: 2007-08-24
From: Full Goose Shelter and Campsite

To: Bald Pate Lean-to
Miles today: 12.0

It rained hard last night and I didn't rest well. Trail Blaze squeezd in in the middle of the night as he got drenched in his hammock. When I got up, I packed up my gear outside of the shelter so I wouldn't disturb the other hikers while they slept. I try reall hard to be considerate of other hikers, especially in the shelters.   So today is the big day. I have to go through the Mahoosic Notch (the most difficult mile on the AT) and then up the Mahoosic Arm. Emily, the roaming shelter overseer, said the Arm is worse than the Notch. I guess I will find out. I was ready early so I headed out around 7:30. It was wet and slippery, but at least the rain held off...for now anyway.   I arrived at the Notch and began going through. It is everything I heard is was. I packed up my poles and decided to go hand over hand. It wasn't to hard at first, and then I smelled it. The dead moose. Some one had hung Tibetan Flags up by it. I walked over and looked down at it. So sad. I thought I would take a picture of it, but I couldn't. It didn't seem right to do so. It smelled bad and the maggots were crawling in it so much you could see them moving under the skin. Sorry if this is gross, but this is how it was. I said a prayer and moved on.    I was making my way through fairly well, then I got to an area and I just couldn't figure out how to get through it. Just then Evil Eye came up and took the lead. I followed him for a while when Sniper and Trail Blaze came through. They took the lead and soon I was left behind. I was sliding alot, so I decided to go slow. No sense breaking a bone and ending my hike. I took a wrong turn and came out to a cliff with a ten foot drop. What to do? Going back would be difficult. I looked down and as I sat on the edge and I could feel the weight of my pack pushing me closer to the wet, sloped edge. I decided to remove my pack and I was going to lower it with a rope, but when I took it off, my center of gravity changed and I began to slide. I cried out "help" as a reflex. Evil Eye hollered back to see if he needed to return. I said "no" along with some exploritives and let my pack drop to the ground as I grabbed onto a small "Charlie Brown like Christmas tree". I knew that tree wasn't going to hold my weight, so I dangled my long legs as low as I could go... and then I jumped. I landed much lighter than I had anticipated, forgetting that I didn't have the weight of my pack on my back. That was a relief! On I went, over boulders, under huge rocks, hoping I wouldn't fall into some of the deep crevices. At times I had to remove my pack to squeeze through the tiny areas. When I got to the end of the mile I was glad. I like rock scrambling and bouldering, but this was very difficult and draining. I was tired to begin with, so I think that had a lot to do with it.    Now on to the Arm. If Emily said the Arm was harder than the Notch, good golly, what was to come? As it turns out, tha arm was just a steep climb...similar to Franconia Ridge or Wildcat Mountain. Some people thought it was harder than the Notch, but I found the Notch to be more difficult... perhaps because of my fear of heights.      By this point we were physically exhausted. It took us 2 hours to do the one mile through the Notch. We made it to Speck Pond Shelter to have lunch and decided to go onto Bald pate Lean-to, so we would be half way up the mountain, and not have such a big climb in the morning. When we arrived at Bald Pate Lean-to, Beach Bum was there getting water and setting up his tent. We talked about the hike today, and how tired everyone was. Needless to say, we retired early and slept like logs.