Date: 2015-07-23
From: Hall Mtn. Lean-to

To: The Cabin, East Andover
Miles today: 16.3

I wanted an earlier start & managed to get out about 6:15. Windy & a little cooler. I had easy Trail for the first 5 miles. Almost immediately, I started getting into trail work situations. For the most part, I resisted, because I had a long day planned.My first plan was to get to Grafton Notch, stay at the Cabin near Andover, & take Friday & Saturday to get to Gorham, so I could go to church in Berlin. That's a pretty rough trip under the best of conditions, & my knee kept telling me "No!". As important as going to church & the fellowship of other Christians is to me, I have to recall that the other meaning of Sabbath is a day of rest. And that's what I really need again, already. My right knee is always very stiff in the morning, but loosens up by afternoon if I don't push it too hard. So I'll see if rest helps. I still wanted to push for Grafton Notch, so that I could start out reasonably fresh on the Mahoosucs. In the course of the day, I decided I'd try to lighten my load for the Mahoosucs by taking no-cook meals & sending my cooking gear on to Gorham. In the early part of the day, I composed a paragraph or two on a philosophy trail maintenance. The phone ate it; so I'll start over. What I was observing was that the heavy sawyers don't always cut with regard to restoring the existing trail. Whenever there is a blow-down, hikers find a way [sometimes multiple ways] around it thru the surrounding woods. I think most of the time it is best to cut out the obstruction as quickly as possible & return to the previous trailbed [blocking off the ad hoc trails if necessary]. The chainsaw guys need to be followed quite soon by the clean-up crew who make this possible by trimming brush & small limbs. The Hall-Wyman Mtn. part of the Trail hadn't been trimmed for a long time -- lots of viburnum & other woody plants growing too close that encourage hikers to move the trail over [usually down-hill] into a more tender environment. I think the trimming should be done so that a hiker with trekking poles won't be continually tangling elbows with the plants. That also means that the sawyers should cut back the heavy logs at least 6 inches outside the path -- it's the same number of cuts, just placed differently. On a related item, the Trail crews spend huge amounts of ingenuity & effort building stone steps, even high up on mtns. Yet a large number of hikers don't seem to like walking on them, making new trails in parallel. I'd also like to see them put more effort into maintaining the logs & planks thru bogs ¢ designed to keep hikers out of the mud & from damaging sensitive plants. Even just putting extra rocks in the middle of mud puddles would help. Otherwise, hikers devise other trails that not only damage the environment but eventually cause their own muddy conditions. The ideal would be to devise a way to drill drains in each of the muddy spots [I don't mean the ones that are a genuine bog environment they want to preserve], but I'm sure that's not possible.I remembered the Trail over Wyman Mtn. & on to Surplus Pond & East B Hill Road as pretty easy, but very little was as I remembered. Going up & over Surplus Mtn. seemed to take forever, with many more false summits than show up on the map. I kept meeting hikers [whose names have been lost with my other data] who reported phenomenal times coming over from Bald Pate Lean-to ¢ nothing that corresponded with my time!When I finished lunch at Frye Notch Lean-to, it was 3:45. Just after leaving, I met a young hiker who said he'd come over from the next shelter in 1.5 hours. I said, "I'd better double that." Actually, it took me 3.5. I just don't see how he could have done it that fast, altho it is the kind of trail that is easier in his direction. Some of these younger hikers just hop from rock to rock down mtns. in ways I just don't dare.From the top of the Mtn., I tried calling the Cabin about staying there [& hopefully getting picked up]. The owners are trying to retire, so they say "Call for reservation". But I couldn't get good enough service. When I got down to Bald Pate Lean-to, I tried again, but no luck. Even less luck down at the road. By that time it was getting dark. Not much traffic & no one who wanted to stop. Grafton Notch is known as a bad place to try to hitch-hike, but I tried anyway. After almost a hour, I was ready to look for a place to stealth-camp near the road crossing. I decided to try one more time & lucked out. I thought the best way would be to head for a hostel in Bethel, but the guy who picked me up was willing to take me all the way to the Cabin [even tho we'd be going past his house in Rumford on the way]. So I called them as soon as we got close enough to US 2. The proprietors' son Don [who also works at the local Post Office] said to come on, even tho it would be after 10:00 pm. My driver does trail maintenance on Mt. Speck & was interesting to talk with.When I got to the Cabin, I found there was only one hiker in the dormitory ¢ I tried not to disturb her too much. After what seemed like along day, it was good to be there.