Date: 2014-07-29
From: Gorham

To: Lincoln
Miles today: 0.0

7/22: Right before leaving Gorham, I weighed my pack. Somehow I managed to get it to a staggering 45 lbs, even after shedding pounds of luxuries and such. Food weighs a lot! I left White Mountain Hostel alone late, as I expected the day to be easy. It proved to be a challenge though, as my calves started to cramp underneath the rather insane packweight, and the climb up Mt. Moriah is actually more than even the climb up Madison! The mileage was small thankfully, and I arrived at Imp Campsite (8 bucks for a shelter?! Thanks, AMC: Appalachian Money Club!). Eventually Brew, Boone and Splash showed up, followed by Magellan and Halfblood. Magellan was a fellow SoBo, who started earlier and came back to do the Wildcats with Halfblood (a joke originating from how this was her first backpacking trip, so she was half 'muggle' tourist, half 'wizard' thru-hiker). That night we feasted on Trail Angel Cake, a creation of my mother that is essentially a dehydrated chocolate berry angel food cake. It was an absolute hit, and a great way to stem much of the anxiety of the coming trials to come.7/23: The forecast predicted 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms by 3 PM. Naturally, we all slept in to 7:30 and stumbled our way to the trail by 9, because clocks and weather can't control us (or something). We all did, however, decided a quick comfortable day was better than a long wet day, so we all did 7.5 over Carter Dome down to Carter Notch Hut. Free vegetable lasagna greeted us, yet we were forced to stealth camp down a trail to wait out the storm. Thankfully I somehow had 4G on my phone between those two mountains, so I entertained myself with snapchat, YouTube and Facebook through the thunder and rain. Not very 'look at me I'm a hardcore hiker, bweeeehhhh', but enjoyable none-the-less!7/24: Free breakfast leftovers at Carter Notch Hut was a pretty great start to what promised to be a more difficult day (with clear weather, thankfully). After a steep climb out of the notch, I traversed the Wildcat ridge until an infamously steep, unnamed section of the trail. Several times on this dangerous descent I would enter an uncontrollable slide, butt scooching down granite slabs with slight streams of water to slick up the rock. In my opinion the entire ordeal was more dangerous than even the Mahoosuc Arm, a sentiment shared by some of the other SoBo's when we all gathered at Pinkham Notch.Speaking of Pinkham Notch, I have never eaten that much overpriced resort food in my life. My lunch was a panini, a bag of chips, a bowl of corn chowder, 2 ice cream bars, 3 m&m bags, and 2 glasses of milk. I'm actually concerned about how much food I am willing and able to eat, it seems unhealthy.Anyway, another quick 4 miles, and we all were sleeping soundly in our tents, ready for the big climb of Washington and most of the Presidentials the next day.7/25: A strange day of ups and downs, although not really literally. A BIG climb of Madison took me above treeline, where I started hiking behind Brew and Boone over shale that would continue for 14 more miles. At the top of Madison we were passed by two guys, Chicken Fat and The Kid (a 17 year old, youngest thru-hiker I've met so far). They had been following me in the register, believing that I was female because I write where I'm from, and "that's what girls do". Hm. In addition, I looked down at one point and noticed that the tip of my right pole had mysteriously vanished! Using it further could severely damage the pole, so I spent the rest of the day ridge walking over shale without poles.From Madison to Washington, you can see your entire path in front of you; 11 miles above treeline, skirting around summits that crown a gigantic gulf. Even with the great views and the great food at Madison Hut and the Summit House, I remained uncharacteristically cynical throughout the hike. Perhaps it was the wind, which made the summit below freezing, or the slow pace over the shale, but I really just wanted to be done with the day. Despite the attitude I saw in myself, we watched as Washington loomed closer and closer, crossed the cog railway, snagged a fallen trekking pole tip near the summit (how lucky is that?!), and arrived, accomplished at the summit. We remained briefly, laughing at the people who drove up in flip flops and tank tops, then descended to Lake of the Clouds Hut. Work for stay as well as those two SoBo's from Madison awaited us, and we slept on the dining room floor in peace.7/26: I decided to follow behind Brew and Boone that day as well, as I enjoyed the company. We were hiking by 6:45, and made good time to Webster Cliffs. The descent down into Crawford Notch was treacherous, yet we all arrived at the bottom with Chicken Fat and The Kid. There were no campsites in the notch, yet we found a nice place at the bottom of Ripley Falls where we set up camp (illegally, it was on state land; don't tell Obama). The ladies hitched into town for some supplies, and we celebrated the end of the presidential range around a campfire, with hot dogs, marshmallows and blueberry beer. We clearly didn't follow LNT policy, but at least we carried out our trash!7/27: 14.5 miles to Galehead Hut. Although it's a relatively impressive mileage for a SoBo baby through the Whites, five of which was an insanely flat section I knocked out in an hour and 40 minutes. Rain plagued us all throughout the hike, and with more possibly on the way, Chicken Fat, The Kid and I decided to push through to Galehead while the others stayed three miles back at Guyot, deciding not to risk the chance of not getting work for stay. Thankfully the three of us got it, and spent the thundery night on the floors of the hut, with leftovers from the paying guests in our stomach.7/28: Oh man.... This day. Although the mileage was only ten, it was perhaps the hardest ten I've ever done. It was a constant downpour of rain on our way to Liberty Spring Campsite, up and over the waterfalls of Garfield and through the entirety of the Franconian Ridge. Every step the water came up to mid boots, soaking our socks with water and making each additional step more difficult. When we eventually arrived, with no views from Mt. Lafayette or Lincoln, everything we had was soaked. Thunder boomed overhead as I stripped myself of my wet clothes and got into my wet sleeping bag in my wet tent (inside and out). If any day has come close to breaking my spirit, it was this day, where our only respite from the rain was wet synthetic materials we had to pay 8 bucks to set up.7/29: With everything still wet and cold, the three of us decided to nero (near zero) into the town of Lincoln. A quick 3 miles and hitchhike later, we gorged on McDonalds, went to the movie theater, and found ourselves at a free hostel named Chet's Place. I would go further into detail, but the ice cream place I'm at is about to close, so there goes my free WiFi.Summary: Whites are almost done, rain sucks. But hey, I'm getting through them! Progress, whoo hoo!