Date: 2015-07-11
From: Carlo Col Shelter

To: Baldpate Shelter
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: light rain

Had an extraordinarily hard hike today. I started at 7.30 and finished about 6.30, and I definitely didn't linger around for lunch. The trail was just relentless. The only easy parts were on the boardwalks, because at least that was mostly flat.I set off when the weather was just warming up. I got to the top of the first peak and the bright morning sun was shining down on me. I remembered the weather report for this weekend, 90 F for Saturday and Sunday, with humidity. They were spot on. It was extremely hot all day, and I sweat a huge amount. I had to drink so much water that I had to refill my Camelbak twice, which has never ever happened before.The morning hike was pretty rough going but not unexpected. At this point I am definitely used to having to work a lot harder for my miles. At one point I was climbing up metal rebars cemented into a rock face. A few times I was going up or down big log ladders. There was plenty of bedrock to hike up and down, and of course slip all over. There were also a few boggy parts, surprisingly on the very top of some of the mountains. The wooden planks have sunk in or vanished completely in some places, so I had to be really careful with my footing. I reached the first shelter some time after ten. I didn't stop for long, as I knew that the hardest part of the day was still to come. The trail was much the same- lots of giant slabs of rock to slide down or climb up, surrounded by pine trees on either side. Occasional planks to walk across usually dried mud sections. Eventually I hit Mahoosuc Notch. I have been hearing about this section for a long time. It's infamous on the trail. I quickly discovered why. It is a mile long section of the trail that is just absolutely rocky chaos. There are giant boulders everywhere and the trail doesn't seem to be anywhere. As I stepped into the notch, I immediately felt the temperature change. I even saw big clumps of ice under the rocks later on. Not Yet joined me and together we very slowly made our way across the minefield of giant rocks and giant holes. There were many points where a hiker could get into a life threatening situation just by slipping or landing badly. Plenty of times I was leaping from rock to rock. Or I would jump to a rock to find that the other side was a sheer face drop of about 15 feet. Every couple of feet I had to reconfigure my route. My pack got stuck endlessly. Twice I had to take it off and slide it underneath giant rocks and then crawl in after. At one point I had to haul myself up onto a rock and lay on my stomach, and drag myself along, because the overhang of the rock above me was too big for my pack to fit. Repeatedly I was using my hands and sticks to get some kind of leverage to pull myself up or across. It seemed to go on forever. There was a point when I thought it had finished, but it hadn't quite and I was so angry about having to clamber some more. It was absolutely exhausting and made my knees ache in the most painful way. It finally did end, and then we had to climb up again on Mahoosuc Arm. Another bare rock face lined with pine. It's definitely easier to go up the rock than it is to go down. I ran out of water half way up this mountain, with still 2 more miles to go to the next water source. Fortunately most of the section was in the shade, but by the time I did get to the water I was completely parched. I was nearly tempted to drink from one of the muddy rain puddles on the trail, but managed to hold out. I had lunch about 2ish, when I got my water and went to the shelter. From there it was another long climb, but it felt better because I had gotten some of my energy back (and lots of water). From Speck Mountain, it was about three miles of annoying downhill. There were enough rocks and a sharp enough gradient to make it very painful to my knees. I eventually made it almost to the bottom, where I had to stop again for more water.I crossed into the carpark and road about 5. I knew I only had a couple miles left, but after such a long day, I wasn't hiking particularly fast. When I eventually got to the shelter, Not Yet was already there. We have been leapfrogging each other for the past few days. I had instant mash again for dinner. I realised that I have enough food to skip Andover, except for lunches. I don't have enough lunches to get me to the next town, Rangeley. So I think I will have to stop in Andover tomorrow, but I don't know when that will be. My shoe repairs held out today, and had significantly less dirt when I emptied them out. I will probably have to see it up again soon, but it's doing the job for now.