Date: 2017-07-04
From: Franconia Notch

To: Kinsman Notch
Miles today: 16.3
Weather: broken clouds

I woke in a bunk bed, top bunk. When was the last time you slept in a bunk bed? There was only one snorer in the bunkroom and he¢s not too bad. 5:30 alarm.I am slackpacking the Kinsmans today, 16 miles. (Frodo: The Kinsmans are a set of mountains, I believe.) So, Scout, what is slackpacking? Slackpack: I am so uncomfortable.  I have to confess.  It is mid-morning the day after the date on this journal entry. I try to be so religious about writing my journal. Usually I can¢t close my eyes in sleep until I have that day¢s journal entry done. But last night (July 4th) my son Sean said he could meet me for dinner. (He responded, ¢Great! What a lucky dad I am.) He¢d be bringing his climbing buddy. Then I heard from Dot and Frankenfoot ¢ my trail peeps! They were pushing to get to a trailhead and Sean could pick them up, too. Sure we had wonderful town food. Sure there were random firecrackers going off in North Woodstock near our dining patio. But I basked in the glow of these wonderful people. Dot and Franky got buzzed by the sailplane on Mt. Lafayette, too. ¢Scout, did you really sleep in the Dungeon?¢Sean and Dave wanted to show me their climbing photos. 5.11b, 5.11c, and 5.12a pitches. Rumney has the best hard rock climbing east of the Mississippi. At 10:30 my eyelids were like lead.I got up early this morning, thinking I¢d journal first thing. But Cuckoo is also here at the hostel. We chat like excited school kids. Dear reader, I choose you first over so many things. But hiking really is about the people. I feel better already, having ¢fessed up about how I feel. I think you¢ll understand that this time I chose Dot, Franky, Cuckoo, Sean, Dave, and calling Frodo.(Frodo: He may have been tardy with today¢s entry, but he was prolific. Too bad I¢m such a slow keyboardist.)¢¦ Slackpacking: Carryomg only a daypack¢s worth of gear (Frodo: usually food and water, ten essentials bag, rainjacket, not much else) because at the end of that section the rest of your kit will be brought to you, or you will be brought to it. It¢s a common enough practice, but some purists do look down their nose. I was primed to feel a little sheepish about it. But I¢ve seen strong trail friends treat is as normal course. Rolling Thunder is more blunt. ¢Slackpack? I¢m in.¢All of which means I left 60% of my gear at The Notch Hostel and with what feels like only goose down filling my pack, The Notch folks ¢ thanks, Bookie ¢ dropped me off at the trailhead where I was picked up yesterday. At 5:50, 16 miles and some 4,000 feet up and down later, North and South Kinsman summited, Bookie will pick me up at the next trailhead, Kinsman Notch. ¢Carry your headlamp,¢ Bookie said. ¢It¢s a tough section. A hiker didn¢t finish until 9:30 a few days ago.¢I am carrying my ten essentials bag. My teensy headlamp is inside. Maybe that¢s my excuse. Maybe it¢s Sean¢s fault. I was thinking of him and so much wanting to be on time for dinner.Remember Margaret/Banshee, the young professional baker and 2009 PCT hiker we had hosted before she started her PCT hike? She not only brought us baked goods three days ago, she said, ¢Scout, I¢m hiking in to Lonesome Lake Hut with my nephews on the 3rd. I¢ll leave you surprise treats.¢So at mile 2.7, more than 1000 feet climbed, the hut is right next to the trail. My gosh, I even wrote about Margaret¢s surprise on my map! But head down, thinking of Sean, of 5:50, of not wanting to need my headlamp, I just booked by the hut. It wasn¢t until lunch, 6 miles later, that I remembered.Dang! What a doofus! I felt terrible. I wished Margaret were here so I could apologize.I sat talking to a nice northbounder, Malink. He recited a Scottish nursery rhyme about ¢Malink¢ and it had the word ¢farted¢. And then it hit me. Has it already occurred to you?¢Malink, can you do me a favor?¢ I told him about Margaret¢s surprise treats at the hut six miles ahead for him. (Frodo: Wait a second! What does ¢farted¢ have to do with this??) ¢Would you pick up the treats? Tell them Scout sent you; that I¢m a doofus. Enjoy them. It will make me and Margaret happy.¢And the favor I wanted? ¢Here¢s my phone number. Please take a photo and text it to me.¢True to his word, Malink did. Here are the photos he sent. http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...At the same shelter where I had lunch, I had word from one of my trail peeps, Cuckoo. It¢s often odd how we communicate out on the trail. Cuckoo carries a full paperback book with her. She¢s a voracious reader, devouring books like the rest of us do town food. When she finishes, she leaves the book in one of the lean-to shelters.Ten days ago she was swallowing whole Shipping News by Proulx. I recommended The Time Traveler¢s Wife. The last time I saw her five days ago she¢d bought that book and was raving about it. Cuckoo doesn¢t sign the lean-to registers. But there was a sign of her here at this lean-to, just as sure as if she had written a whole page. There were two torn-out sections of The Time Traveler¢s Wife. ¢Cuckoo was here!¢ I thought. It was just as if she was sitting there for a moment.The trail down off Kinsman after lunch was discouraging. Work those poles hard, plan every step. No falls! Slow, slow. I will not need my headlamp. I want to be there at 5:50 when Bookie shows. I want to be showered when Sean shows up. I never, never want to be ¢Headlamp Man.¢ And then around 4:00 pm the trail gives me a gift. I haven¢t been tracking the trails left to the highway and I came upon a trail sign. As I approached it, I thought, ¢Please let it be under 5 miles. Please have a 4 in front. The sign said 3.3 miles. Thank you, trail gods. Thank you, feet.I do get to have dinner with Sean and Dave. Dot and Frankenfoot surface at the trailhead a day¢s hike behind me, and we five have a joyful story-laden dinner together. I do get to call Frodo.  http://www.trailjournals.com/j...And today (the day after this journal entry), on the top of the last of the big White Mountains, Moosilauke, I got to sit with you all and finish my musings of yesterday.By the way, did you notice my restraint? I had the opportunity to use the word Fart more than once, but I didn¢t.