Date: 2012-08-20
From: Mount Washington

To: Mount Washington Auto Road
Miles today: 11.5

SOS here:NR, WWWII, Boots & Slippers had much more fun being tourists than hiking the last 2 days of our section hike in the Whites. Today I duplicated all but 2 miles of Trail Boss's and Buck's last two days from Mount Washington to Pinkum Notch. It was almost all down hill.. over a mile down in 9 miles. Oh my aching knees. It was no Lake Champlain or a Ben & Jerry's factory tour for me this time.I planned to hike 13.5 miles but I was hiking so slow, it would have been dark before I arrived at Pinkum Notch. So I called Trail Mama and told her to meet me at The Mount Washington Auto Road where the trail crosses 2.2 miles from the entrance to the Road. Trail Mama as usual would have been there but the lady at the entrance gate said she had to be out by 7:00 PN. Trail Mama missed me hiking out of the woods by 2 minutes so I hitched a ride to the bottom where she was waiting on me. Two roofers working on one of the buildings at the top gave a ride to the bottom. It took me 11 hours to hike 11.5 miles - this included running the last 1 1/2 hours to truly to be at the pickup spot.The views, like yesterday, were spectacular because the first 9 miles of the hike were above tree line. It was the second day in a row that Mount Washington was cloudless, warm and unlike yesterday no wind. Mount Washington is now in the past and in the two days of hiking down from her I hiked 24 miles. Glad to have those miles behind me.Tomorrow I start my deja vu portion of the Whites. I will hike the same miles I hiked in my first section hike with my hiking buddies. I am curious as to what my times will be to hike this portion as compared to the first time. I will let you know. NR - I bet I eat at Greenleaf this time.What I have learned about the Whites is that most hikers, including me today, underestimate the time it will take to get from point A to point B. I have observed in the last two days individuals hiking who sould not have picked this portion of the AT to hike. Even I today missed the time it would take me to hike the 24.5 miles. I will work to get better. Good Night. Trail Mama:Well, I made it down the auto road one more time...the scariest part was meeting a large water truck exactly where I was hoping to meet NO one. I was on the drop off side so just stopped and let big water truck figure it out. He was spraying water on the dirt road and I thought ...oh, great! ... now I get to drive on narrow slippery dirt...but I made it. Up top, I climbed the short rocky distance to the highest point for our picture...see above...and then came on down to the bottom to the country store where I had a nice conversation with the lady working there. We both love to read to school classes so were comparing notes on that. That is one thing I am so looking forward to when this trip is over...Grandkids, pencil Oma in for reading at your school...I have lots of new books! I couldn't believe my ears when SOS called while I was waiting for him at Pinkum Notch Visitors Center and said he wanted me to drive up the auto road and pick him up...but of course, I did just that. The lady did not charge me the $25 fee which was nice of her. I drove up this time to Old Jackson Road to wait. While waiting a lady came over while her husband and son hiked into the woods and talked to me. When she found out that I had my own poles in the back of the car, she said,"I have new hiking sticks and don't know how to use them...would you show me? I said, of course and she brought one of her poles over. I showed her how to adjust the height and explained that people hold them in different ways and she needed to find her most comfortable way. She was appreciative and I was pleased to find another way to help a hiker! I waited until 2 minutes to 7 although I knew it took 5 minutes to get down the mountain. I made it down behind 2 other cars and pulled into the parking lot to wait on SOS to walk down...hoping that he could get a ride and he did! Back the 1 1/2 hours to our old room 214 in the Parker Motel where Margo was waiting. We talked a little and then off to sleep.