Date: 2013-07-15
From: Chet's Place - Lincoln, NH

To: Cascade Brooks
Miles today: 1.3

DAY 36- NEROMILES ON AT FOR DAY- 1.3MILES TOTAL FOR DAY- 4.6After a late night and not much sleep, I groggily woke up. Chet's place was super humid so I woke up pretty early. I got to my laundry and showered. When I was done with all that people started to move and wake up. I talked to Puck, Moon Watcher, and Shaken while waiting for my family to get there. We had decided the day before that they should come in and spend the day with us doing activities in Franconia Notch. It was nice talking with Moon Watcher because he reassured me of all the beautiful things I would see along the trail. I've got to say that the northbounders do a good job of discouraging us, telling us that we've already gone through the most beautiful section and that the rest is boring. Moon Watcher assured me that that isn't true and talked about the beauty in each state which was nice. I like to keep optimistic! When Gary, Brandon (little brother), and my Mom arrived they got to meet everyone and then we were off to get some good ole DD! Dunkin Donuts! God I miss iced coffee pretty much ALL the time. First we went to the Flume in Franconia Notch. The Flume is a short loop trail that follows beautiful cascades that carved themselves into the rock. I had been there before when I was a kid but it was even more magnificent now!After that my family treated Nightwalker and I to a ride on the tram up Cannon Mountain. At the top we got a beautiful view of the Franconia Mountain Range, what we had hiked over just the day before. I always love looking back and seeing what I've accomplished. It was a gorgeous clear day too. Perfect for views. We had lunch on top of the mountain, also their treat, and then headed back down. On the way down we saw a mother near and two cubs! My first bears on the trail! Well I guess not technically on the trail but my first siting of them in the wild! Definitely not how I had expected to see them for the first time either.Once we got down we had some quick errands to run. Nightwalker and I needed some more food and I needed to do a few small gear changes. At the camping store we saw the caretaker from Liberty Springs campsite. Didn't expect to see each other again! After that we went back to the same ice cream spot from the day before. No shame in that.It was really nice to relax and visit with my family, even if it meant doing a little extra hiking We went back to Chet's to pack up and head out. While packing we met two LASH's, Leprechaun and Fly. They were really nice and I wish I could've talked to them longer but we had to head out. That's really the only thing that sucks about meeting people going the other direction. You meet a lot of cool people and then you probably never see them again. We talked about trying to meet up down south though when they finished. We also said goodbye to the others who we would maybe pass down the road, and gave our steaks to Shaken and Moon Watcher.Once my family dropped Nightwalker and I off, it was mid afternoon. We weren't in much of the hiking mood so we literally hiked 2.1 miles and then set up camp. The first .8 miles being an intersecting trail to the AT since we didn't know where else to get dropped and would have to do that to get to where we left off the day before.A bridge had washed out over this river and there was a small reroute over a different part of the river. Not thinking too much about it we just decided to get across the river and camp on the other side to have a water source close by. We ended up camping right where the bridge had washed out and the remains of it were, not even thinking about the fact that it was the previous trail.We made a fire since we had time to kill and just relaxed. It was a nice Nero day. A REAL Nero haha. Barely any miles at all on the trail! That night I caught up on sleep and slept great!