Mailing Address

The weather was nice - sunny but not too hot. The trail is amazingly dry. Just a few muddy places.

Vermont and New Hampshire don't seem to have blueberries. The raspberries are finished and blackberries are not ripe. We found a purple mushroom! Now we are looking for a blue one and we will have a full rainbow of mushrooms. The variety and numbers of mushrooms is amazing.

We found a great flat place after 7 pm and stuck up the tent. When we heard cars we realized that we were close to Goose Pond Road. We had a nice evening.

We met another couple, Fuzzy and Snuffles, who are roughly our age. They started the same day that we did then flipped to Mt Katahdin and are hiking back to their home in VA. They knew our names from another hiker we met on day 2 and they had read them in the register. They warned us that double digit days are hard to do in NH. They also said they paid $51 per person per night for three nights in the huts!

Today was absolutely beautiful. Flowers are blooming in the boggy areas and we saw lots of little critters. We walked on "The Ledges" above a peregrine falcon hatching rookery. We really wanted to see falcons but maybe this is the wrong time of the year. Several places we saw large chunks of pure white marble. It looked like the remains of snow banks.

When we got to NH25A we saw a sign for pancakes so two day hikers, Curtis and Ann, drove us down to the Sugar House. Pancakes were not being served but we bought several sodas and maple sugar candy. When we got to the next road, NH25C, three 2002 AT hikers were providing trail magic by cooking lunch for the hikers! As we walked up on person said he recognized us from a picture on AWOL's trail journal. He was AWOL's friend and was there for AWOL who was right behind us. This was the second time we got AWOL's trail magic before he did! We ate and thanked Arrow, Whakapak and Giggles and started up the hill.

Off in the distance we could hear thunder and it moved rapidly in our direction. Soon the flash and crash were directly overhead and we, of course, got dumped on. It was one of those rains that was so much water in a short time the trail like was running like a stream. But the most amazing part was that at the top of the climb the tallest tree had just been hit by lightening and bark was stripped down the length of the trunk in 3" swaths.

The next road, NH25, led to Glencliff so we walked to the very busy hostel. The trail magic van arrived at the same time we did and the three said they were cooking dinner for us!

After dinner two people drove up to drop off winter gear for another hiker, Sean O. The woman looked at us and said she recognized us from Sean O's pictures! Twice in one day!

We showered in the outdoor shower and slept in the hostel loft.

We officially entered the White Mtns with our ascent of Moosilauke Mtn at 4810'. This was the first time that the AT is above tree line and the alpine tundra is beautiful. Everyone else thought so too. There were 25 people at the top of the mountain.

We found trail magic, Arrow again, as we reached NH 112. He met AWOL at the road and had set up his cooler and BBQ. We stayed and chatted with them until Arrow left taking AWOL to town. Some people have to work on Monday - we get to climb another mountain!

Then we started up South Kinsman mountain. It was described as a rock scramble both up and down. It was a steep, rugged rock scramble (picture a waterfall creek bed). Then we got a thunder shower before we reached the peak. Slow progress changed to slower progress. At the top we did get great views though.

By the time we got to Lonesome Lake Hut we weren't sure if we could get to the road before dark. We asked staff about the upcoming trail and got the answer we wanted - the trail was easier than what we had been on.

We upped the pace and made it to the road at about 7 pm. Oops, we didn't think about the road being Interstate highway. We walked another .8 mi to a parking lot; no people there, so we tried a local highway. No action there, so we hiked back to the freeway off ramp and finally got a ride into town but had a little trouble finding the hotel. We checked into the hotel and headed for the tavern to eat. AWOL walked by and we invited him to join us.

Whew, what a very hard day. But we made it to a delicious meal, warm shower, and a good bed. Now we realize that a 15 mile day in the Whites will be torturous. Our muscles feel overworked after hiking this long!

When Marcia retrieved our email we had several interesting messages. Patience, the young Israeli with whom we hiked, is getting near the Mt Katahdin. Tipperary, the Irish priest, is just a few days behind us. We promised to give a presentation to the local Sierra Club chapter after we finished. The coordinator needs a brief description of our presentation for their newsletter. We knew that we needed it and now we have his contact information we left at home.

The weather is gorgeous and a perfect resting day.

We heard about great appetizers for happy hour at cheap prices at the tavern. We decided that sounded good. When we arrived we found several other northbound hikers we knew, local trail supporters, and a few south bound hikers. Cheap food really brings out the hikers.