Date: 2009-08-14
From: Hikers Paradise, Gorham, New Hampshire

To: Etna-Hanover Center Road
Miles today: 130.6

It is August 14th 2009, and I am in Hanover New Hampshire our last town before we cross into Vermont. I am updating our journal on the free computers that are in the Dartmouth Outing Club's building in downtown Hanover after a delicious breakfast at Lou's Restaurant and Bakery down the street.ALOT has happened since the last update. We have traveled over and out of the Whites and are almost to our 3rd state heading southbound (Vermont).Here is an attempt to update you on our adventures!7/30: We hiked from Gorham to Imp Campsite, Nice day, pretty easy grade. Met up with Tumbleweed and his dad Shaw who is hiking with him through the Whites. Tumbleweed is recovering having gotten sick from eating something in town and took a zero day(hiking no miles) at the shelter to recover. We met the Ruin who is an older Irish guy who lives in Australia and is going Northbound on the trail.The Camp maintainer charged us half price (8.00) to stay for the night at the shelter (they charge all through the AMC shelters and tent spaces in New Hampshire) and our work for stay for the discount is to deliver a letter to another Camp Caretaker who is 20 miles south on the trail. We will be letter carriers on the Appalachian Trail for reduced camping rates :-)7/31: Rainy day: Hiked in rain to AMC Hut Carter Notch. The Carter Mountains weren't bad. got to the hut early 2pm lunch time and begged to do our first work for stay (thru-hikers can wash dishes or various other chores in return for eating the leftovers after the guests eat dinner and breakfast and sleep on the dining room tables that night.) We had pasta for dinner and Breakfast, it was nice to be out of the rain.8/1: Beautiful Weather! Hiked from Carter Notch: great day! The Wild Cat mountains were nice, big descent down from Wildcat peak E to visitor center at Pinkam Notch. Had lunch at Pinkam Notch and rested/ chatted with people, didn't leave till 5pm to hike 4 more miles toward Osgood, camped at a site 1/2 a mile from Osgood camp. The Beautiful views, the testing of myself, the encouraging of eachother were all part of this day!The A.T. is Amazing, my knees are sore.8/2: Hiked to Madison Hut over Madison Mountain. Rocky hiking in high winds. Thunderstorm warning and very windy we fought the wind each step of the way to the Hut. Due to the warning and all the hiking from Madison south would be above tree line on the presidentials we stayed at Madison Hut hoping for a nice day tommorrow on the presidentials. We ate alot of food at the hut and stayed with other Thru-hikers which was fun:Met SoBo(south bounders): B.B. (Bear Bait) and Gas Tank and Nobos (Skip and Truckin)8/3: Awesome DAy!!! so glad we waited for it on the Presidential mountain range. Beautiful weather, great views and Mt. Washington was awesome. So grateful to be here and be able to do this. Mountains all around for as far as the eye can see and a nice long hike above tree line with views and open air.8/4: Nice hike to steep cliffs to an easy hitch to Crawford Notch. Bunkroom all our own we had TRAIL MAGIC from Gale and her family. Both are wedding photographers on vacation in the Whites from Massachussetts they gave us steak tips, baked potato and celery. YUM! Great to shower and do laundry. Our tent came in the morning (we had been dealing with a leaky tent and then a wrong sized tent and finally we have our tent that for better or worse we will try to keep:-).. more to comeContinue-ing writing on 8/15 after we hiked into Hanover from Tiggers Tree House:8/5: 15 miles, we hiked from the Notch, best day of hiking so far in the whites, feeling good about our trail legs getting stronger. Trail Magic: Beer and sandwiches at the parking lot of Crawford Notch, we then hiked to GaleHead Hut and came just in time for dinner landing a work for stay and catching up with our friends Ron and Kim (tree-hugger and Petunia). We passed alot of Northbounders today, we are hitting the crowd. For the work for stay I took the disgusting job of cleaning out the "gack" bowl, which is a pan full of decomposing food bits that you have to scoop out with your hands. It was a messy but short work which did feel similar to the nickelodian gack that I used to play with as a kid, just with a greasy residue and a smell. Good food at the hut though:-)Thought of the Day: I am Grateful, a scamp, eating scraps & grateful.8/7: Hiked in after stealth camping the night before after the ridge. The Franconian Ridge was Beautiful!!! Views for miles around of mountains as far as the eye can see and great weather! Ron found a great stealth (he can sniff them out like a hound dog)and the morning of the 7th we hiked into a visitor center and had coffee then hitched into Lincoln.... Stayed at Chet's House in lincoln, an awesome guy who takes in thru-hikers for donations.8/8: Didn't leave Lincoln till 6:30pm, Anya and I rode our bikes down to see Harry Potter while Ron and Kim went to Church. We then Just hiked a few miles and stealth camped near the road.8/9: Hiked over the Kinsmans, stopped at the last hut and Anya bought a loaf of delicious bread for us that they gave to us for 3 dollars. The Kinsmans weren't too bad of a hike. Met a big group of North bounders at Eliza Brook Shelter, it sprinkled thru the night as we slept in our fairly dry tent.8/11: Hiked from Beaver Brook shelter where we slept last night (the day before hiking up the side of Mooselack Mtn, a fairly steep ascent) hiked to Ore Hill Shelter 16 miles: a big day for us.WE HIKED OUT OF THE WHITES!!! After having spent a dry night in Beaver Brook as it rained all night. Mooselake was steep but not as bad as nobos made it seem. Southern New Hampshire is great! The trail feels easy and flat, not the root and rock trail of Maine and the Whites... GOOD TRAIL.Im back in the forest and it feels good. I like this forest feel, I'm thinking I want to live up to my name as Mtn. Yogi and for my next trail book that I carry to read as I hike I think I want to get "Light on Pranayama" by B.K.S. Iyengar so I can practice pranayamic breathe work as I hike.It felt good on the flat trail, Anya was tired by the end of this day and the last 2 miles were hard on her. It rained tonight and had rained for an hour during the day, just enough to get the trail all nice and muddy. It's flat though ad thats all that matters, easier hiking.8/12: 12 miles to sleep at the Fire Wardens Cabin at the top of Moose Mtn. This was a harder hike, we made it though!Anya's feet hurt her, my heels are rubbing and our shoes are falling apart, anyas more than mine.8/13: Whew. What a day and what a FANTASTIC place to stay!Anya and I hiked 17miles today! Our longest mileage yet! Got a late start around 9am (as usual, we will have to start waking up sooner if we want to comfortably pull high mileage days as it takes us an hour to pack up and the daylight is getting less) Anya's favorite phrase to me in the morning when I attempt to rouse her from sleep is "5 more minutes".We had heard about a trail angel by Lyme-Dorchester road who gives out ice cream at his house and with that motivation we quickly walked southward. We arrived at a field after descending off of Mt. Moose and walking for a couple more miles and see a sign that says water and shows a picture of an ececream bar with an arrow. We follow the small side trail to a blue house and meet Bill, a grandfather from Massachussets at his families summer home. The home has a pretty yard with flowers and a little boy around 2 years of age greets us wearing a jesters hat "His trail name is the Joker" his mother says. Bill comes out with ice cream bars and we also buy 2 sodas. We chat with Bill and his family (keeping a little distance as we can smell ourselves, and we smell badd.. 5 days on the trai will do that to you) After an uplifting snack we try to hitch into Lyme which is 3.5 miles away and Bill had said it was an easy hitch. We need more snacks and quick food to get us to Tiggers tree house or to Hanover. We could not Get a hitch, after trying for 40 minutes with barely any traffing going our way and no one stopping except one guy in a company truck who said he can't give us a ride as it was a company truck. We decided just to hike on with no snacks and just cook the last of our dinners if we got hungry. We hike on towards moose mt. Meeting a nobo couple who had stayed at Tiggers tree house just the past night and they said there was all you can eat icecream there. COuld it be True?! I try not to get my hopes up too much... We talked about the idea of going all the way to the hostel today as we climb Moose Mtn. Anya and I get in a fight, probably from being stinky, tired and hungry, we had spent alot of time trying to hitch but have not yet seen our friends tex or Ron and Kim yet. We make it to the shelter and there is only an older section hiker there.Anya turns on her phone and has reception and suddenly she gets a call from Karen at Tiggers Treehouse and we decide to make the extra 5 miles an go in tonight. it's 6:40pm by the time we eat some food and we hike out ending the hike with our first taste of night hiking using our headlamps to see in the dusk and darkening trail. We get there at 8:40pm and call and get picked up.Tiggers Tree House is AWESOME!!Karen and Ralph are feeding Curtly (a SOBO thru-hiker we had met a bit ago who is healing from a staff infection in a wound on his ankle.) Karen says that since she is feeding him she will feed us all and we enjoy salad, a delicious stew, bread and sliced tomatos for dinner!! FANTASTIC!I get to shower and they have a freezer for hikers with cartons of ICE CREAM:-)I love this place, Ralph and Karen are truly trail angels. They let us stay in the Teepee which is a trailer with a bed in it for R.V. camping. It is very nice, like our own private room. 2 northbound sisters are also there and say that we will be able to pick up our mileage as we are over the hard part of the trail. This hostel is a work for stay and Ralph and karen do all this out of the kindness of there heart, helping many a starving or injured hiker. I feel like this place is a little heaven. I eat my fill of ice cream and get to sleep on a matress, ahh life is good.We spent a zero day at Tiggers on the 14th and ressupply our food and fix our gear (we both have boots coming in the mail latter on as well) we also meet up with Ron and Kim who stay there for the day. Today is ath 15th of August we hiked 7miles into Hanover and stopped for lunch at Romanos Pizza enjoying a free slice of pizza for thru-hikers that the nice guys at the pizza place give hikers and buying some salads and more pizza for our lunch, I update our journal the rest of the way at the library and now we head on. we will be in Vermont later today and onward to GA. Were still going, there were alot of South bounders who have dropped off it seems going through Maine and New Hampshire but we are still going strong and we are both having fun. We had beautiful weather through New Hampshire, were smiling, well fed and ready to hike and take it all in.Much love to Friends and readers.-Joshua (Mountain Yogi)Anya and Josh SObo 09'