Date: 2003-08-13
From: Osgood Tent Site

To: Carter Notch Hut
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: mist

Well, we made it to the Carter Notch Hut and got ¢work for stay¢ from the caretaker, Heidi. She¢s pretty cool, anyone who likes Norah Jones and Eddie from Ohio is OK! But I¢m getting ahead of myself, back to this morning. Of course it rained over night, so our tents got packed up wet (more weight). And it rained on us (poured actually) just after we started hiking, so we got soaked right away. A very wet start to what turned out to be a very nice, sunny day. The down side of today was that we got a bit distracted and went a few tenths of a mile down a steep hill before we realized we had taken the wrong trail. It was bound to happen eventually, we can only be perfect for so long¢¦ ;-) This was another tough day, even though it was only 10.7 miles. We had lots of wet ups and downs in the morning, and some tough climbs and a 1,000 foot, steep descent in the afternoon. We got to Pinkham notch at about 11AM, and by then the sun was hot and bright. We hung out there drying our gear, eating the all you can eat buffet, and making some phone calls. I was checking up on the new boots I ordered, I¢m wearing ¢Lowa Tempest Mid¢ boots, and I love them, I want another pair exactly like these. The first pair I wore on the trail lasted about 950 miles before the tread was mostly gone. The pair I¢m wearing now has 850 miles on them, some stitching is pulling out, and the toes are worn off from the rocks in PA (but my feet LOVE them!). I know¢¦ talking about boots is boring, but they are the best boots I have ever worn, and the tread will be getting worn out soon. My next pair is supposed to get to me in Rangely Maine (due to technical problems, they didn¢t get to me until Monson). But anyway, we sat in the sun for a bit after filling our water bottles, and started talking to a couple of hikers on the Pinkham front porch (love that sun). We talked about the AT, and how we had been at the same tent site last night. Then we talked more about our hike, and about the White mountains (which are so awesome when the sun is out). But finally we had to leave and hike up into the Wildcat range (another steep 2,000 foot up). It was an interesting mix of trails by water, steps up rocks with some rock climbing thrown in as a change of pace. But it all had awesome views, we could see Mt Washington and the ranges North and South of it¢¦ It was very cool to look back and see where we had hiked for the last couple of days, and to have the Sun out again! After a while, we were hiking down the trail, and along came a guy with a dog¢¦ No pack, no water, just a dog (no gear). We thought this guy was some kind of super hiker and asked where he was headed, he said, ¢just walking the dog¢. We just stood there with dumb looks on our faces trying to figure it out, then we gave up and moved on. In a bit we started hearing weird noises and when we walked around the corner we saw a gondola and lots of tourists. Duh, now it makes sense, it was a ski hill, with a gondola for tourists to see the views. At this point I was also hoping for a snack bar, but no luck so we hiked on. We climbed up to a wooden observation platform and took a snack break looking out at the mountains (and talking to other day hikers). I didn¢t know about anyone else, but I was hungry, I needed snacks every hour to keep my body fueled. Next we hiked up and over Peaks ¢E, D, C, B and A¢, then dropped down into Carter Notch. Dropped was a bad word to use here, I almost did that, I slipped on a wet rock and ended up sitting on my foot and and landing on my hands (sigh, add one more fall to my list). No harm, no foul, a tender knee is all I ended up with, so I continued dropping down into the notch. Carter Notch is by a pond, in a bowl shaped cutout, it is really a spectacular location (tomorrow we would find out it was even better when seen from above). We arrived at the hut and checked in with the caretaker Heidi, we asked if she had a need for any thruhikers to do ¢work for stay¢. She said she had a great need for us, so we didn¢t have to pay the $20 fee. It also turns out there weren¢t many guests (4), so we didn¢t have much work to do, but we managed to talk for hours before we stumbled up the hill to our bunks (checking out the stars on the way). What a nice relaxing evening, just what I needed. Note: Don¢t use rice milk for pudding (unless you have a straw)¢¦ I can¢t wait, more adventures coming our way tonight and tomorrow. There is a comet we should be able to see later, and more mountains to climb tomorrow. Life is good!