Date: 2008-06-28
From: Spec pond

To: Carlos Col Shelter
Miles today: 93.1

The Mahoosuc Notch... the hardest section of the entire 2175 miles... so they say. The Mahoosuc Notch is a field of boulders between two mountains. The boulders are literally the size of houses. The notch was formed by glaciers millions of years ago. On a larger scale it looks like rocks just stacked up on eachother for a couple of layers. In reality it is a jigsaw puzzle (for anyone attempting to hike through it) of tunnels and crevices to weave through in order to pass through the other side... there are no alternatives to passing through the Mahoosuc Notch on the AT.I hiked the Mahoosuc trail and the Notch last year with my friends Jeff and Brad. I think it was in July when we did our north bound Mahoosuc hike. Shortly after entering the notch we came across a female moose that had fallen in to the boulders. One of her rear legs was broken in half and she had deep wounds on her head and body. The moose was trapped right in the middle of 4 giant boulders (the size of small lawn sheds). She kept slamming herself in to the smooth sides of the granite to find a way out. She was making painful, agonising groaning sounds (we had originally thought it was a bear as we approached the situation). This was a 2000 lb. animal in a state of shock... we carefully planned our alternate route. As we were headed north we climbed up the east side of the notch to get around the mooose. We stepped over fallen trees and moss ledges and hung from roots to avoid slipping between the moose and a rock. We snapped some pictures and moved on to the Spec Pond campsite about 3.25 miles out. Spec is maintained by caretakers throughout the summer. We told the caretaker and he assured us that the Maine wildlife / rangers / fish / game people would take care of it (put the moose out of her misery).As the year has progressed my friends and I have had many discussions on what they may have done with the moose. Did they shoot her? Did they cut her up and take her out of the way of the trail? How do you remove a 2000 lb. animal out of somewhere like the Mahoosuc Notch in the backwoods of ME? We never came to a conclusion...... I have come to the conclusion! During my stay in Monson ME (the 3 days that I lost my wallet) I had the opportunity to meet some north bound hikers that had just passed through the notch several weeks earlier. Three or four of us were eating the most amazing all you can eat, home made, $7 breakfast at Shaws when Dawn (one of the hostel owners) asked Dozer (north bound thru hiker) if the moose carcus was stil there. He started to describe the condition of the body and said it was mostly down to just bones.At this point I began to wonder if they could be talking about my moose ,the one I saw in the notch. Someone (probably another south bound hiker) asked what they were talking about. Dawn began to tell the story of a moose that fell in to the notch last July. She was explaining that it's body rotted all summer in the blistering sun and hikers had to smell the corpse throughout the duration of the entire Mahoosic hike.I interjected ansd calmly said... "I was in the notch when that moose fell in there". Dawn asked me to repeat what I had said... she was shocked that she had come across a guy who had actually been there when the incodent happened. She to had been talking about it over the past year, every hiker that stayed in her hostel had somethinmg to say about the giant rotting moose that they had to walk over (or around) in the notch.I was praised and made to feel famous amongst the small underground hiker community. It felt good to have everyone interested in my story of that day in the notch. I have told it many many times now..."at first we thought it was a bear, it was making growling sounds. We were ready to encounter the bear around the bend... but then".Every north bounder that I come across on the trail (probably 20+ at this point) mentions the surprise in the Mahoosuc Notch and tells me that there is a dead moose in the middle of the path. I used to follow up with my story, but I gave up some time ago. Today I hiked the notch again. It was an awesome time. I hiked with Mango, ATG and Bird Man. Bird man is not a thru hiker, he is part of a group that records bird data for the state of ME. He gets paid to hike mountains and log bird stats etc. Mango and I appropriatly named him Bird Man... hes an awesome guy (about my age) and we have become close friends just in 2 days.We came across the moose area. Someone had strung up some prayer flags around her. Prayer flags are little colored flags each saying a prayer. They hang like a string of lights or penants. The skeleton of the moose was curled up like any 4 legged animal might when laying down to sleep. Dawn at Shaws in Monson did tell me that someone had cut the mooses throat in order to kill her. After putting her out of her misery the decision was made to let nature take it's coarse.The whole scene was sureal. There was slow thick fog moving through all morning. The mooses positioning was peaceful, I was glad she was at rest. The prayer flags were nice. Once again I snapped a few shots with the camera and moved on. Out of some weird repect I chose not to walk over her. I took the same path that Jeff, Brad and I had created last yuear. It was kind of cool because thoudsands of people had used that same path to ghet around her all last summer. It was well beaten down in all areas and easy to acess (compared to when we first pioneered our way through last July).Other than the notch being a great time... it rained all day. There was thick fog all day. While summiting several mountains I was pelted by heavy horizontal rain on my left side. I have been soaked to the bone since 9:00 this morning. I have no dry clothes left. I'm running low on food and I lost my wool hat wich holds/held great sentimental value to me.I am at Carlos Col Shelter. I am within 5 miles of the NH border! Tomorrow is a toss up. I'm waking ATG and Mango up at 5:00am to attempt an 18 mile day in to Gorham NH.There are 3 kids who just graduated from high school staying in the shelter with us. All 3 of them are from Boltonm MA... within 45 minutes from where I lived... pre hike. ~Santana~ "by myself but not alone"------------------------------Have a spare PocketMail laying around, sell it back to us and help those in need.DeleteReplyForwardSpamMove...Go to Previous message | Go to Next message | Back to Messages | Full HeadersCheck Mail ComposeSearch Mail Search Mail Search the Web