Date: 2009-07-30
From: Carter Notch Hut

To: Gorham, NH
Miles today: 15.2
Weather: fog

It rained all night long¢¦pretty heavily most of the time. By breakfast it seemed to be tapering off and by the time I was ready to hike out it had completely stopped. But¢¦the evidence of the full night of heavy rain was sure still visible on the trail. Where trails had been the day before there were now streams and ponds. It was a sloppy, wet mess to say the least. When you leave Carter Notch Hut headed north you are greeted almost immediately by a 1,400 foot climb in 7/10 of a mile. That¢ll get your heart going early in the morning. I made it to the top in under half an hour and knew that I had the most difficult climb of the day behind me. There were a fair amount of possibilities for good views today, but we were basically hiking inside a cloud until well into the afternoon when we had already lost most of our elevation. I saw Buckeye a couple of times today, but no other NOBOs until I got to the parking lot at US 2 near Gorham, NH. I took another spill today¢¦my worst one yet. This one kind of scared me. I had come to a spot in the trail where it dropped down 3 or four feet and I began to negotiate the drop when one foot slipped completely out from under me and I was immediately in a free-fall. I felt a sharp pain in my right leg and heard a loud pop as I went down. It is amazing how much can go through your mind in a split second as you¢re going through something like that, but I remember thinking I had broken my leg. I rolled over the rocks I had slipped on and fell the 3 or 4 feet and did a face-plant into the muddy trail below. Thank God it had been so rainy for so long and the trail was as soggy and wet as it was, because when I got up and took stock of the situation I could see my face print in the trail. What scared me the most though, was when I saw that 6 inches away from my face print was a rock. I¢ve said many times when I¢ve given talks about hiking the trail that a hike can be ended in a split second because of something like this. Once I had a few minutes to evaluate things, I realized I hadn¢t broken any bones and had probably just strained my knee a little. I was able to walk on it just fine, with a little limp, which was good because I had about 5 more miles to go to the road crossing. As I was approaching the road crossing, I saw trail magic that I had seen before. It was the same cooler and sign I had seen as I was approaching Gorham, NH about a week earlier. It was put there by the family of Kuru and Snorkel¢¦the same ones I had given a sandwich to at one of the huts in the Whites. Well, when I got to the parking lot they were all there along with Buckeye. I was glad I got to meet them and thank them for the trail magic. Plus¢¦they gave me a ride from the parking lot to the hostel I was going to stay at that night. Once I checked my email I realized Amanda (from my 2007 hike) would be coming over to visit the next day, so I decided I¢d take a zero the next day, rest my knee, visit with Amanda for a while, and get all resupplied for the next segment of the trail. What perfect timing! I got settled in at the hostel at White Birches Campground, got my shower, did laundry, dried out my gear, etc., then got a ride to town for supper. After supper I called Kim and the girls and talked to them for a little while. All-in-all another great day on the trail¢¦except for the fall coming down off of Mount Moriah of course.