I am stressed about the difficulty of the upcoming hike. I will have to hike 176 miles through the state of New Hampshire. In an earlier post, I discussed how the elevation changes as I move north.
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut had an average elevation gain and loss of 361 feet per mile. In Massachusetts and Vermont, the number increased to 425 feet per mile, and it was hard! Through the state of New Hampshire, the elevation gain and loss is a staggering 617 feet per mile!!
The craziest part of my anxiety is that I am not unfamiliar with the Whites; have hike Mt. Washington five times, not to mention I have done three hut-to-hut hikes through the White Mountains, unnarguably the hardest section of the entire trail. I think I am extra stressed because I know the Whites have some extreme weather. This week, Mt. Washington has a forecasted high of 35 to 40 degrees with the 40 mph winds, and it's July!
By 7 am, I am heating my breakfast and drinking a cup of coffee in the main room when Boomer starts racing around the hostel. He just got up and his shuttle is due to leave in 30 minutes. He grabs some protein oatmeal off the "free" shelf, and takes me up on my offer of snacks for the trail. 30 minutes later he starts to shovel the oatmeal in his mouth but the driver is already waiting. I give him a paper cup so he can eat his oatmeal on the road and I tell him to leave the bowl and I will wash it for him. We go out to the truck where I give him five Kind chocolate bars and an equal a number of assorted fig bars. He thanks me vociferously and reassures me that I'm doing fine and that I will have a good time in New Hampshire before he jumps in the shuttle and they take off.
I'm ready for my shuttle 30 minutes later and at the last minute I crush and stuff a big bag of potato chips on my pack to make it easier to carry, and grab some fresh snow peas and the last of the green beans from Captain Stash's house and I'm underway to Hanover.
The drive passes quickly. My shuttle driver is a young rock climber who's working at the hostel. He only has to work about 20 hours a week, in exchange for free lodging. Like the other employees here, they are all into rock climbing, as this is what this area is known for. He's going to stay here and work through the winter and get a job at a local ski resort so he can get free skiing. What a great opportunity for a young person!
I am on the trail at 9am and follow it out of town around the edge of the ball field when I realize I haven't downloaded any new audio books or podcasts to listen to while hiking. I stop and take a few minutes to download a bunch of stuff while I still have good service.
While downloading a couple of things, a woman passes me with a weighted vest and hiking poles. I say hello and start following her up the hill, where I hike up about 400 feet through a beautiful old growth spruce forest. The climb is steep and takes me over a lot of big rocks covered in roots.
At the most inopportune place for privacy, nature calls and I have to make a pit stop. I take off my pack and get ready to head deeper into the woods when a familiar face comes towards me down the mountain. I realize it's Marsupial. I last saw him in Cheshire, Massachusetts the day of Dad's stroke.
"Hey, marsupial!" I call.
He sees me and walks over. I ask if he's heading southbound now, and he replies that it's a long story, but he has to go back in town to finish some things that he didn't get done while he was there. I guess not everyone is as far ahead of me as I thought!
After I finish my pit stop, I throw my pack back on and continue up the hill. It is warm and not too hot, but it is humid! Before long, I am dripping with sweat. My pack weighs a ton because I have a full three liters of water and I'm loaded with three whole days of food, but I make it up the hill in pretty good time.
Two miles into my hike I see a side trail to a water cistern and I decide to follow the trail even though I have a lot of water left. I want to conserve what's in my bladder because the next reliable water source is seven miles and 2,500 feet of climbing away.
I push back the heavy wooden lid covering the cistern and am pleased to see that the water is clear and not too dirty with some floating debris, but not a lot of bugs. I drink a half-liter of water and filter another into my Talenti jar for electrolytes.
I return to the trail and continue up another 500 feet to Velvet Rocks. This is a popular day hike for locals because of the beautiful forest. The summit is unfortunately crowded with trees and there is no view to be had.
From Velvet Rocks I have a slight descent, and then walk on a relatively level trail for the next two miles, until I pass through a field.
I get lost for a moment in the field following a mown path through the chest- high brush. When it emerges at a road I can't see any blazes so I turn on my GPS and consult the FarOut app. It looks like I missed a turn in the tall weeds and I return pretty quickly to where I got off trail.
Shortly after the meadow, I pass another small stream and I stop to quickly filter another liter and drink half. A saying on the trail is that we pack our fears and mine is obviously a lack of food and water. I am nervous enough about the scarcity of water and the upcoming section that I plan on carrying a full load and filtering some at every stream crossing.
The next few miles pass easily enough as I wind up and down small hills for another 500 feet of elevation gain.
At 3 P.M I have hiked almost nine miles and gained two thousand feet when I cross Mink Brook. The water is really sketchy for the next 12 miles and 3,000 feet of vertical gain. All of the seasonal streams are reported to be nothing more than mud puddles, so I drop my pack and drink a liter of water and top off my bladder, the Talenti jar, and my one liter dirty water bottle. My pack is now going to weigh a lot more going up this mountain.
I'm surprised that the hike up isn't as bad as I anticipated. The elevation gain with this extra weight is certainly taxing but not too bad. At the top of Moose Mountain there are two peaks, named interestingly enough South and North Peaks, respectively.
The trail emerges onto a clearing with a view to the east, but the sky is really hazy and it's hard to make out much on The View. There are several little side trails up here and I start to go down one realizing it's not the AT, but when I turn around I find a small cache box. I sign the register and replace the box where I found it between a couple of big rocks before returning to the right trail.
The walk to the Moose Mountain Shelter is a mere .7 miles, and I am pleased to see I am the first one here at 5PM. I have my pick of sites, and I get a nice one right behind the shelter.
The shelter is perched on the ridge, a clearing front of the trees offers a gorgeous view to the east. The view is hazy, but the shelter is supposed to have amazing views of the sunrise! I have been dying for a good sunrise view.
I am eating dinner in the shelter when a woman walks by. She is looking for a tent site and I tell her I saw a couple down the hill. She goes and sets up her camp and then comes back up to join me as I'm finishing up my dinner. Her name is Mystic and she is section hiking from Connecticut the New York state line up to Katahdin.
I say good night and tuck in quickly before the mosquitoes can eat me alive just as the sun is setting.
Today's Stats: 10.5 miles, 3,015 feet gain
Trail Stats: 1,767 miles, 347K feet gain
Miles to Katahdin: 427
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