When the daylight is bright enough to pack without a headlamp, I pack while watching the antics of the many squirrels and chipmunks inhabiting the area, and hit the trail at 6:40.
The day promises to be warm and it's slightly humid so I don't mind putting on my hiking clothes, still damp from yesterday's exertion.
From the campsite the trail the trail starts straight uphill, and climbs up to Mt. Hayes. The trail crosses several false summits until reaching the peak.
The climb up is steep in places but gradual for the most part. The trail passes through spruce forest and crosses several large rocky outcrops, worn down by tens of thousands of feet walking across the surfaces.
The Mount Hayes summit is nothing to get excited about. The only way to delineate the peak is a sign marking a cross trail. The trail descends from the mountain for a mile at what is supposed to be a stream crossing but ends up being a couple of muddy puddles. I need water and I'm able to find shallow pool that is fairly free of debris, and filter a couple of liters of water and eat a snack before tackling the next climb.
The trail starts up a rocky face where I have to scramble a couple of times. After 500 feet of climbing I come to a huge rock ledge with beautiful views of the northern Presidentials behind The Carters in the foreground. I can see Gorham In the valley below. I take advantage of the 5g Network to upload two days of blog posts before continuing another 200 feet up the unnamed peak.
That descent down this unnamed mountain is typical White Mountain hiking. I encounter a few tricky drops where I have to use my hands and boot scoot, but it's not so bad. At the bottom, I come to a stream but the only water is a pool that is covered in spruce needles. I guess I'll have to wait for the next water source a few miles away and be judicious with my water consumption for the next 1,000 foot climb.
My climb up the mountain is pretty in a couple spots, but mostly just more of The Big Green Tunnel - a nickname for the Appalachian Trail. There's some rocky ledges with views to the south and west. The climb is challenging but not the worst I've had in the Whites. At the top, the rock ledges are in the direct sunshine, and without a breeze it's rather hot, but still quite pretty. I have hiked six miles at this point and feeling great. I think I finally have the right timing and amount of electrolytes and carbs and other macros, and my legs are getting the job done without too much work.
The trail goes around the beautiful Page Pond, where there is a resident moose that visits the pond in the evenings. I don't see a moose, but the pond is very big and pretty, with loads of dragonflies zipping about over the water.
The trail leaves the pond and goes up another 800 feet along the tree-covered ridge before starting a mild descent towards another pond. The app shows the trail skirting Dream Lake, but a sign says the AT has been rerouted, avoiding the lake. Apparently maintaining the trail through the bog is a lost cause, so the AMC decided to take the high road and reroute the trail to go up above the pond.
After another mile and a half, through some very frustrating twists and turns on an extremely narrow trail encroached by raspberry canes and witch Hazel I come to Upper Gentian Pond. Like the other alpine ponds, Upper Gentian is very pretty, albeit small. It looks like this is the water source gor the next few miles, but I decided to hold off on collecting water from the bog directly. I will go downstream and take my chances, hoping for a better source downhill.
So, the stream that I followed downhill is the outflow of the bog and Is not flowing at all. There are pools of stagnant water littered with debris and lots of bugs floating on top. No thank you!
As I'm walking down along the stream that is a bug-infested swamp, a hiker comes towards me. He is the first person that I have seen since yesterday afternoon. I was starting to think that I had been transported to some parallel universe and I was no longer on the Appalachian Trail.
We say hello and I tell him I haven't seen anyone all day. He is with his tramily (trail family) and the rest of them are at the Gentian Pond Shelter just up the trail. He is in search of fresh water and I'm sad to tell him that the last decent water source was two and a half miles ago, and that the only water source uphill is another bog. He wrinkles his nose and says that he is worried about Giardia. I tell him that he should be fine as long as he filters the water appropriately.
He turns around and we talk as I follow him up the trail. We cross a stream that looks like a bog outflow, and I tell him that I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do but in the meantime I'm going to stay here and take my chances on the water.
I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the water. What I thought was a blog outflow stream tastes delicious after filtering, and it's cold too. That means that it's not all bog water but mixed with some fresh water. While I'm filtering my water I'm trying to figure out my next step.
If I don't stay here at Gentian Pond, the next shelter is 5.2 miles away. Not a problem, but it's already almost 4 pm and I have about four hours before it gets really dark. I should be able to do that even if Mount Success is as bad as the comments say it is. The only thing is that my legs are getting tired. I've already done 3,000 feet and the haul over Mount Success to the next campsite is an additional 2,300 feet of climbing, which is a lot to do before nightfall.
Screw it I'm gonna go for it! The worst case scenario is I have to stop along the way and set up my hammock. If I go a couple of miles and think there's no way I'm going to make it up and over before dark I will just stay on this side of the mountain. In preparation I take some caffeine electrolyte tablets. I'm may pay for it later, but it will give me the extra pep that I will need to hike until dark.
Going up towards Mount success is no joke but similar to the other climbs in New Hampshire. It's my new normal. The hike is steep and slippery with all the dirt and pine needles on the rocks. It's 1,100 feet of gain over 1.5 miles, but most of it is in the first 8/10 of a mile. After that it's a lot of bog bridges and small climbs up to the top.
I get to the summit of Mount Success at 6:00 p.m. and the sun is starting to drop over the mountain ridges south of Washington. It's absolutely breathtaking up here with a wide expanse of rock faces mixed with the low scrub of spruce and blueberries and cranberries. There are several boggy areas with bog bridges connecting the rocks
I can't understand what all the hoopla is about. This hike hasn't been any worse than any other hike so far, and it's actually been a little fun. I grab some cranberries and blueberries and realize that I have to hike 32 minute miles to make it to the shelter by full dark so I pick up my pace as I go down the mountain, praying that I don't have any crazy rock scrambles to impede my process.
It's easy going for the first half mile or so but then it gets a little crazy. I come to a rock wall and there is a rope hanging down the face. I don't really need to use the rope; I think it's more for the people who are descending southbound and I think that it would have been a great thing to have a few of these ropes when I was descending Carter a couple days ago.
I'm making decent time but then I get to the most insane jumble of huge boulders. I can't even tell which is the best way to descend. It's such a huge maze of some of the biggest rocks I've scrambled over in my life. This is going to take me a few minutes! In between the rocks are huge gaps. If I fall down in between any of these I have no idea how I could get out. I end up making my way down but I think I've put a couple of scrapes in my backpack in the process.
A quarter mile later I walk along what would normally be a waterfall but it's dry. This region really needs some rain, but I hope it quits until I get a little farther away from these rock scrambles. A new wooden ladder scales a rock wall, and at the top I see a sign. Wait!! I am in Maine!!! This is so amazing. New Hampshire was gorgeous but boy was it hard. I don't think anything's going to change in Maine. If anything I think it's going to remain difficult for the next 200 miles.
I take a quick picture and video because I need to get to the shelter. I only have a few minutes before sunset and I still have a half mile to the shelter trail and then an additional hike down the mountain to the shelter. I round the corner and come to the Ledges. These are another big jumble of rocks. Welcome to Maine!
It takes me a few minutes to negotiate The Ledges because I go down one way and then realize that there's no way I can continue on this route so I have to go back up and around and down.
A few minutes later I get to the side trail for the shelter. The sun has already set and the light is very dim under the dark canopy of the spruce trees. I still have just enough ambient light see the rocks so I don't pull out my headlamp.
I arrive at the shelter at 8:15 just as full dark sets. Tents are set up all around the perimeter, and the shelter is empty, so I'm going to be a shelter rat for the night. I have one cup of water left and I'm too tired to eat so I set up my sleeping pad and change into my sleeping clothes and skip dinner, which I will probably pay for tomorrow.
At nine o'clock I am snuggled in my down top quilt. I am so tired, but finding it hard to unwind. You know when you are exhausted but your brain is still really wired and it's hard to power down? I start doing some deep breathing exercises to calm my body and I start getting cramps in my back. It's no wonder; carrying that backpack up and down all those rock scrambles really stressed my muscles. I sit up and do a couple of stretches and then I am back down and out for the night.
Today's Stats: 15.4 miles, 5,430 feet ascent
Trail Stats: 1,917 miles, 390K feet gain
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