Date: 2004-10-22
From: Full Goose Shelter

To: gentian pond shelter
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: overcast clouds

¢the best decision i ever made¢i¢ve come to the decision that i¢m of a different breed than most. it¢s true. i¢m just not right. i¢m not all there really. today the temperature never got above freezing, and the wind was blowing, and we were in the clouds, and there was snow and ice; and i hiked in shorts (and at times- short sleeves) all day. i like the cold. i thrive in the cold. i couldn¢t have asked for better hiking weather today.it was quite cold this morning when ross and i awoke. i think that the hardest part of the morning is making that move from the warm depths of my sleeping bag to the frigid temperatures of the outside. i always want to stay in my bag as long as possible, putting off that initial shock of cold air. there is no easy way to go about it. you just have to make up your mind to unzip the bag and do it. it is a small mental battle that i wage with myself almost daily.i always find it interesting how different shelters and the area surrounding them look in the daylight as compared to when i usually arrive in the dark. when i get to a shelter after dark i get one picture in my head of where i am, and the next morning that picture is completely different. the shadows of my headlamp can really throw things off sometimes.the mahoosuc range is incredible. it is by far one of my new favorite sections of the AT. i absolutely loved hiking through this section of trail today. i thoroughly enjoyed hiking across the open faces of goose eye mountain, mount carlo, and mount success. we were completely socked in for the majority of the morning. visibility was never more than fifty feet. rime ice covered everything. the wind was strong. i hiked in shorts. ross was completely bundled up. there were a few climbs that were a little tricky on account of the layer of ice on the rocks, but we managed.the sun appeared briefly while i stood at the maine/new hampshire border. i stood there for a while. trying to imagine what must be going through hiker¢s minds when they reach this spot. it is either the first or last state border- depending on how you look at things. for me, it was nice to cross into a new state, but there wasn¢t much emotion involved. the sun retreated behind the clouds and a slight rain began to fall. i put on my jacket and kept hiking.i soon passed ross as we were climbing our last mountain of the day- mount success. i felt strong on the climb. hiking was good. the summit was open, the clouds had lifted a bit and the views were welcoming. to the south were the carter-moriah range and the presidentials, beckoning me. to the north were the mahoosucs. part of me was tempted to turn around and traverse the mahoosucs again. that is how much i have enjoyed them.ross caught up and we enjoyed a break by the summit marker. i kind of got the idea that he wasn¢t having the best time. an idea found its way into my head and i didn¢t like it. i wondered if ross might decide to call it quits when we got to gorham tomorrow. he didn¢t seem to be enjoying himself at all. i pushed the thought away and started hiking again.by my original plan, we were going to be camping at the trident col campsite tonight. that would put us within range of gorham so that we could get there before the post office closed at noon tomorrow. granted, we¢d still be about seven miles from town, but that would be easy enough to do before noon. after the break on mount success, ross and i decided to make a new plan. we decided to stay at the gentian pond shelter instead of the campsite closer to town. the gentian pond shelter was only 3 12 miles from mount success. that would make for a much nicer afternoon. of course, it would mean that i would have to hike eleven miles before noon tomorrow to get to the post office. i didn¢t mind, though. i just wanted ross to be enjoying his time on the trail. and, if that meant cutting the day short, then that was fine by me.there are quite a few people camping near the shelter tonight, but ross and i are the only two people actually staying in the shelter. we¢ve strung up my tarp and ross¢ tent fly across the opening to help block out some of the wind and trap in what little heat there is. i like this shelter. the pond from which this shelter gets its name is beautiful. the view in front of the shelter is amazing. ross and i have tossed around a few options for our hiking tomorrow. we may end up taking a side trail down to the road where we can hopefully hitch into town. that way we won¢t have to walk eleven miles before noon tomorrow. it¢s something to think about. i like options. options are good.having traversed the majority of the mahoosuc range over the past two days, i¢ve come to a conclusion. last year when i bailed out of these mountains on a side trail from the speck pond shelter, it was probably one of the best decisions i ever made in my life. if i¢d continued heading south on the trail through the weather that i was facing, i¢m convinced that bad things would have happened. there was almost a foot of snow on the ground, it was still snowing, and i was in no way prepared for the mountains that i would have been crossing. these mountains are intense to say the least.if someone were to ask me, ¢what is one of the single most important pieces of gear you carry?¢my answer would be: maps.