Date: 2004-09-14
From: Osgood Tent Site 

To: North Carter Mountain 
Miles today: 16.2

Mt. Washington from Wildcat EStart: Osgood Tent Site @ 0802Finish: North Carter Mountain @ 1855Miles: 16.2Weather: OutstandingBreakfast: Strawberry CIB, Strawberry PoptartsLunch: 12¢ sub-sandwich, Brownie, SnickersDinner: 34 loaf zucchini bread, Velveeta Shells & Cheese, Starcrunch, Fudgeround, SnickersTrail Conditions: Hard. Got lost in the morning and took wrong trail. Gondola-Blazed out of Pinkham Notch. Tough climb out of Carter Notch.Animals: Frogs, Birds, Dog.People:Blues Brothers, Ranger Jan, Jim Herman, Ruth, Moonpie, tourists, Michelle (gave ride).For the first time all trip I got lost. DOH! There was a trail junction at the tent site and instead of going straight I took a left. After about three miles I found myself at the AMC headquarters on NH 16, four miles away from the trail. I cursed my error several times and decided not to back track to the AT. I road walked about 2 miles and was finally able to get a hitch to Pinkham Notch and the trailhead. Not quite how I wanted to start the day. All things told though I walked the same distance as the official AT.I met up with the Blues Brothers and Ranger Jan at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. They were in the middle of a debate about hiking out of Pinkham Notch or taking the gondola at the ski resort and relieving ourselves of a two-mile climb. Vince and I are purists at heart and have made every effort possible to follow the AT it in it¢s entirety up to this point. I was already somewhat frustrated with my self as I had missed part of the trail this morning. However, I didn¢t feel guilty as it was an unintentional mistake and I still covered an equal distance of ground. But now I was being coaxed into purposely skipping a part of the trail, albeit only two miles. Ranger Jan and Nick were in support of the idea, Vince was on the fence, and I was deciding the vote.After careful debate and much deliberation I decided on taking the gondola and by-passing Pinkham Notch. The ¢Gondola-Blaze¢ if you will. Here are the factors that swayed my yes vote: (1) I¢ve never been on a gondola before and there are none as you move further north, and I missed other gondola rides in Vermont.(2) It was free as Ranger Jan kindly offered to pay for the ride.(3) It was a gorgeous day and not a cloud in the sky. I could see everything I¢ve walked for the past three days going on the gondola.(4) There were no views going out of Pinkham Notch on the trail.(5) It seemed like fun and would add to the experience of my hike.Here are the factors that compelled me to want to say no:(1) I had already missed part of the trail today. Now I was going to be missing more of it.(2) Taking the gondola is a cheap excuse for being too lazy to walk.(3) If the gondola never existed would I be having this debate? No.(4) I can¢t stand other hikers that have intentionally missed large parts of the trail by blue or yellow blazing. Wil I be a hypocrite if I do this? Blues Brothers & Ranger Jan boarding the GondolaAnd so it was, I Andy Brown, intentionally bypassed 2.7 miles of the AT and rode the gondola. And I have no regrets about it. Going Up!There are two schools of thought when it comes to thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. The "purist" mentaility suggests that you hike the whole trail following the white blazes, without intentionally omitting sections. Whereas, the philosophy of ¢hike your own hike¢ (HYOH) it is OK to blue-blaze (take side trails to shorten your hiking distance) and yellow-blaze (hitch a ride and completely omit a section of trail.) and yet still consider yourself a thru-hiker alongside of someone who has hiked the trail mile for mile.I am definetly a purist. Not only hiking the trail, but in life. Simply put, why would I want to half-ass anything I do? On this trip I have hiked with many people, and heard of many, that intentionally blue and yellow-blaze simply because the terrain is too hard, they are behind their friends, or got too drunk/stoned in town. That really frustrates me, because each is a pathetic excuse for not committing yourself to finish - in its entirity - what you started. I call HYOH a good excuse for being a lazy hippie.Several case in point hikers include a gal who has yellow- blazed nearly a 1,000 miles of this trail and when she¢s not doing that she is getting stoned out of her gourd. Yet she has absolutely no problem calling herself a thru-hiker and uses HYOH as her justification. Even more irritating is when people blue/yellow-blaze and lie about it. For example a dude has missed about 500 miles of trail and mysteriously jumps ahead of people or catches up to them and says he¢s hiked everything. Bullcrap. When I¢ve been walking about 20 miles everyday I know if they would have passed me or not, especially when no one did when I hiked those miles. There are many hikers that I have been surrounded by that have skipped huge parts of the trail, denied that they have, and will call themselves thru-hikers.I think it gets to me as much as it does because I know there are people out here who will be walking every mile of the trail and overcoming many obstacles to do so. An injury delayed my hike and has threatened to end my hike, I¢ve been hospitalized with intestinal problems, I currently have a cold, and two inflamed Achilles tendons yet I have and will walk this whole trail except 2.7 miles. My buddy got tonsillitis his third day out, had surgery, rested at a strangers house for three weeks and has hoofed every mile up to this point. Benny Green from my home town, who is in his mid-60¢s, made it two Delaware Water Gap last year before breaking his arm. He started the whole thing over again this year and is now nearly completed despite serious knee problems. He¢s hiked the whole thing.The fact is there are people out here (same as anywhere in life) that will take short cuts, repeatedly and with no shame, simply because the opportunity exists, and lie about it. Then there are also people who will do the trail once and do it right. These are people that are committed to a personal goal and rise to great challenges, rather than backdown from them. p>I don¢t feel particularly guilty about gondola blazing. It proved to be a very fun experience. Nor do I feel, like for some reason I ¢deserved¢ to get to so that because of any hardships I have overcome. It was strictly a rational choice. So anyways¢¦.I was starving hungry and had purchased a sub sandwich at Pinkham Notch. I then bought a brownie at Wildcat Ski Lodge. Before the ride up I consumed then both and my stomach was happy.After the snack break we made our way to the gondola. The four of us got in a car and the attendant put our packs in the car behind us and we could retrieve them at the top. The ride up was a lot of fun and there were gorgeous views of everything we had hiked over the past several days. As we progressed higher we could see corridors of trails leading into Pinkham Notch and I could see just how far out of my way I had actually gone, and it was quite a ways.We got off the summit of Wildcat E pulled our packs out of the other gondola and I chilled on the summit and stretched for about 20 minutes. It was another incredibly beautiful day and not one cloud had passed over Mt. Washington. I was feeling quite tired and a little beat down so I was in no rush to go anywhere too quickly.I slowly moved across the peaks of Wildcat Mountain toward Carter Notch. There was a wonderful viewpoint overlooking Carter Notch and I could see the concave face of Carter Dome, the 1,600-foot climb I would have to make out of the notch. Carter Dome...I hiked up thatI enjoyed another nice rest break along the shore of Carter Lake and at Cater Notch Hut. I ran into a fellow named Jim Herman there who was out with a group of school kids for several days, he is a teacher. We got to talking and he was a Peace Corp volunteer in the early 1970¢s on a remote island in Micronesia. He said it was a fantastic experience and encouraged me to give the program thought. I have been considering joining now for several years and will likely sign up following graduate school. Carter MountainsAfter our talk I headed out of the notch. It was a ridiculously long and steep climb and I was grateful to get to the top. In route I ran into Moonpie, a NOBO who finished in early August. She was super nice and said she would swing by "The Barn", a hostel I¢ll be at tomorrow.Up top I ran into Ruth, John, and a thru-hiker. I told them I was going to be bivying on the rock outcropping atop North Carter Mountain, so I could claim that space. I was feeling very very tired and was walking exceptionally slowly. I passed over the summit of Mt. Hight which had a wonderful 360-degree view and you could see Gorham. I hiked on over the summit and down into Zeta Pass. I loaded up on water there for the night and tackled Carter Mountain. About 25 yards shy of the summit of North Carter Mountain was a rock out cropping with a 180 degree view of the Whites. On the summit I cooked up and ate my dinner with the company of Ruth. Ruth is an area native and a nice gal. She had extra food and offered me a full loaf of homemade zucchini bread with cranberries in it. It was awesome and I devoured three-fourths of the loaf on the spot.I can¢t believe how incredibly hungry I have been thru the Whites. I have eaten prodigious amounts of food and only been hiking half of my normal miles. Perhaps that goes to show the difficulty of the terrain?After eating I made my way back to the rock ledge and threw down my bed roll and sleeping bag. Off to the east was the twinkle of lights from North Conway and the stars and milky way shown brightly in the clear night sky.I am very glad I picked this spot to stay for the night. I have seen several shooting stars already and hopefully more will come. Tomorrow I will be through the worst and best of the Whites. Then it¢s off to Maine!