Date: 2011-08-13
From: Gorham, NH

To: Pinkham Notch
Miles today: 20.8
Weather: broken clouds

August 11 I met Super Turtle, Serenity, and Nola at Route 2 in Gorham to start hiking up into the Wildcats around 8am. My aunt Sara Bara dropped me off after a great zero of doing nothing in Intervale, NH. I had picked up some doggy shoes for Nola to try, well she tried them on... and... it was the funniest thing I hav seen with this dog. She was picking her feet up really high and looked like she was being tortured. Crash Test was staying at another hostel so we thought he was ahead of us with Super Chef so we started hiking. I hiked alone for most of the morning, I did come across some hikers that we met a few days earlier and the guy was not looking good, puking and just looked miserable, they were heading back to the hostel in Gorham. I kept hiking on, alone, which I didn't mind because it was comforting knowing that I had friends behind me that I would meet up with at the top of the mountain. On the way up two ladies were hiking North and they said, "You're in for an a** kicking", I thought it was kind of funny because I've hiked a lot of the NH mountains (it being my back yard) and mostly know what I'm getting into. We I got to the top of Moriah I waited for about half an hour for Serenity and Super Turtle and we ate lunch, Nola got some of the chicken I dropped on the rocks We got to Imp Shelter a little later and decided to call it a day around 2:30pm, it was a great place to stay and there was an awesome view! The shelter caretaker was actually someone I knew, a friend of mine from Bates is his girl friend!!! Small small world. He let us do work for stay and we split the remaining stay money so we all only paid around 3 dollars. It was a really really cold night, but it felt good to zip my sleeping bag up all the way! August 12th we got hiking around 7:30am because my friend from Bates showed up to see her boyfriend (the caretaker) and I had to talk to her for a little bit. Otherwise I hiked with Crash Test all day, we stopped at Carter Notch Hut for lunch for an hour, towards the end Serenity and Super Turtle caught up. Crash Test and I continued on towards Pinkham Notch together over the Wildcats. I had a plan to meet my aunt at the visitor center at 5:30pm. We started down the notch, which was really steep! When we hit the flat ground, I felt like I couldn't walk, I was usually leading on the flat sections but I had to have Crash Test lead because I just didn't have energy to lead. We got to the visitor center around 5:40pm and as a great surprise my aunt, dad, and sister were there waiting for me!!!!!!! My sister said that she didn't recognize me walking across the road because she said I looked took skinny!!!! However town food always makes you gain back all the weight you lose! After my dad gave Crash Test a sandwich and twisted tea, I left the trial for the night to go to my aunt and uncle's house back in Intervale, NH to enjoy a bed, shower, and a good hot meal (not ramen) August 13th ZERO involving golfing, relaxing, hanging with family, and lots of Mikes Hard Lemonade!!!! (Not sure if I'm gonna catch up to my friends now because they will be a whole day ahead... in the Presidentials!!!)