Day 143: 4.8 miles hiked (trail mile 1873.7)
Thankfully we only had five miles to Pinkham Notch Visitors Center this morning. When we arrived, Dallas, Lighthouse, JP and Zane, and Hangin’ and Belch were already there finishing up an all-you-can-eat breakfast. We sat down for brunch and chatted a bit with one of the kitchen croo who gave us a mound of candy to snack on from his own personal stash.
The Rattle River Inn hostel picked us up at 11:30 and took us by Walmart for a resupply on the way to the hostel. Upon arriving at the hostel, we went through the (very involved) intake process before being permitted to enter the common space: we left our shoes and trekking poles outside, hung our packs in the gear room, selected loaner clothes from a hanging rack, showered and deposited our dirty clothes in a mesh bag.
Once in our room we spent some time planning ahead for our next section and preparing for the Wildcats, the final 21-mile stretch of the Whites.
Some of our dearest friends and former roomies from Austin had collaborated on assembling and mailing us a box of goodies, so we gleefully munched on quality snacks and read the lovely notes they included in the box. We had resupplied at Walmart forgetting that we had this box awaiting us, so we decided to set aside an assortment of food to mail ahead to ourselves. There are going to be a couple small towns in Maine that may be a challenge for us to get a full resupply at.
We made a stir fry for dinner and as we were sitting to eat, Bug walked in! We hadn’t seen her since the Smokies and were overjoyed to learn that she hasn’t been too far ahead of us all along and get to swap stories. The Rattle River Inn sits right on trail but also shuttles guests to and from the Pinkham Notch Visitors Center as an included service for guests. Since Bug just stepped off trail a few yards to arrive here, whereas we shuttled from Pinkham Notch, she is still two full days ahead of us on trail. Ranger and I will return to this hostel once again, except this time on foot, coming out of the Wildcats.
Day 144: 13.1 miles hiked (trail mile 1886.8)
Ranger woke me up with Beyond Meat breakfast sausage biscuits and we prepared to depart on the 7:30 shuttle back to Pinkham Notch to hike a two-day section of the Wildcats. Thankfully our packs are lighter than usual since the hostel agreed to let us leave some gear and food that we won’t be needing for this overnight section before we end up right back at the inn for another night.
From the Visitor Center we hiked straight up a super steep two-mile climb into the Wildcats. All in all, it was a challenging day, and we averaged a little over one mile per hour thanks to the steep ups and downs, and the rain.
When we braked for lunch at Carter Notch Hut, the northernmost hut of the White Mountains, the rain began. We ate chocolate cake from the hut in addition to our sandwiches and started back out into the rain, equipped with trash bag rain skirts. Thankfully we started back off almost immediately with a big climb, so we warmed up quickly despite the rain.
On top of Mt Moriah, we were able to see Mt Washington, where we had been just a couple days before, and encountered some of our favorite views of the Whites. Knowing that we’d already hiked them and being able to enjoy the view with a sense of accomplishment, rather than the sense of a looming challenge, made the view that much better…
Toward the end of the day, we descended a wet, steep half mile downhill section that there was simply no other way down than scooting down on our butts. Some thruhikers, the youngest and most spry among us, engage in what can only be considered a controlled freefall down these types of terrains, but neither of us is willing to accept that level of risk.
We made it to Imp Shelter around 8pm and opted to shelter sleep because of the incoming rain. More often these days we try to avoid getting our tent wet to save on the added weight a wet tent adds to the pack. It is really a fantastic feeling to sleep dry and cozy in a shelter while it pours down rain outside. Tomorrow is sure to be a wet one, but we are still happy with our decision to break up the Wildcats into two days. Many people attempt to do them in one go. We ran into Hangin’ and Belch, and Baby Bear hiking on her own, and as they were undertaking this daunting task, but we would likely not have finished until midnight at the rate we were going and were not feeling up for a long night hike on this terrain.
One of the best info graphics I’ve seen describing the composting privy maintenance and process
Day 145: 8.2 miles hiked (trail mile 1895)
Rain pounded on the shelter all night and we slept soundly in our warm and dry corner. We almost never get to sleep in the corner of a shelter because we’re almost always the last to arrive and end up shoving somewhere in the middle. Tonight, someone pointed out that the edges are a double-edged sword, as you get more privacy, but you’re also more exposed to the mice that scurry around the perimeter of the shelter. Around midnight a man and his sons came into the shelter, clearly shaken, and woke everyone up talking about how their tent had collapsed in the rain. They eventually squeezed in up top, and everyone fell back asleep.
This morning we departed the shelter, stepping out into the steady downpour around 7am, and hiked until we were soaked to the bone. When we reached a swollen creek crossing without a footbridge our feet were already so drenched that the most obvious route was straight through the water. The last three miles, however, were the flattest we’ve had in over a week and we felt like we were flying.
Just after noon we came out of the woods to a short road walk to the Rattle River Inn where we are staying again tonight, this time in the bunk room.
We are feeling justified about our decision to break the Wildcats into two-days; it was hard. We showered and the hostel caretakers did our laundry. Ranger made us a delicious frito pie which we followed with a luxurious two-hour nap in our respective bunks.
Jay, the hostel caretaker, saw me writing something, evidently liked my handwriting, and asked me if I wanted to revise a piece of signage for $5 off our stay. I ended up going overboard and illustrating an AT-themed border for the sign and he liked it so much he knocked $20 off our stay!
To top off an excellent day, Sunshine, the live-in hostel chef, made some cinnamon rolls from scratch which I enjoyed as a late-night snack, straight out of the oven. Heaven.
Day 146: 11 miles hiked (trail mile 1906.6)
Ranger woke me up with another delicious sausage biscuit breakfast. We took our time getting out of the hostel this morning and it turned out to be a good thing. We made it less than ten steps out of the door when it started aggressively pouring rain. We turned right back around and stood around in the intake room for about 20 minutes, with Hangin’ and Belch. When it became apparent the heavy rain wouldn’t be stopping any time soon, we left our packs and shoes and poles and wandered back into the common area where we wiled away a couple hours watching a movie, catching up on the blog, and chatting with Baked Potato.
Around noon the rain tapered off and we begrudgingly headed out into what were sure to be heavily waterlogged trails. At least our upper halves would stay relatively dry.
1900 miles hiked!
We climbed up and up, hiking strong for the first five miles of decent terrain. It was so muggy out that when we stopped for a break, we were amazed to see steam wafting off Belch’s shirt in visible plumes into the cool, damp air. After that, the trail disintegrated into a poorly maintained, mucky, waterlogged, overgrown stretch where we had to take our time carefully picking through bogs, trails that looked more like streams, and felled trees. Toward the end of the hike, we just walked straight through the ankle-deep water that had drowned the boards that were meant to elevate hikers above the alpine bogs.
Submerged feet
When we arrived at Gentian Pond Shelter this evening, 12 miles in, we encountered Mama Bear, Baby Bear, Dallas, and a handful of other hikers. Just about everyone else had been caught in that downpour and every square inch of the shelter has clothes and gear strung up to dry. Too tired for anything else, we had a cold dinner and turned in, thankful to be sharing a dry shelter with comrades. This is a lovely shelter with a view, and we got to watch the moon rise over the distant mountains.
Day 147: 14.7 miles hiked (trail mile 1921.3)
Since Mt Success, our first climb of the day, is full of alpine bogs we pulled on our socks from yesterday, still as wet as when we hung them to dry last night. We set foot on trail at 6am knowing well that today would be a long day. Southern Maine is known to be the hardest part of the AT, and today’s stretch in particular because of the Mahoosuc Notch, a stretch of rock-crawling/bouldering that spans just under a mile, before a steep ascent.
We had also read of an unmarked, overgrown trail near the top of Mount Success leading just over a quarter mile to the remains of a plane crash from the 1950’s. This was not something we wanted to miss. Guthooks commenters said that the side trail required some major alpine bog bushwhacking and that you were sure to get very wet, especially if it had rained recently. We were already so thoroughly soaked by the time we neared the summit of Mt Success that it was no additional trouble at all to muck through some off trail bogs in search of this plane. Thankfully, the topo map on Guthooks provided a dotted line to what we supposed was the plane crash and we eventually found it without too much difficulty.
The plane was much bigger than we had envisioned and although it has been vandalized and stripped down over the years to its most basic structure it was still eerily intact considering it has rested here for over 80 years. Here are some details of the crash (thanks Amy!) https://www.scenicnh.com/blog/2010/08/mount-success-douglas-dc-3-plane-crash/
The summit of Mt Success
Funny little ladder boards assisted us in coming down the other side of the mountain
We crossed into Maine in late morning. It is so surreal to be on the final leg of our journey. However, it felt simultaneously more real than ever because the trail immediately became immensely difficult to traverse, more so than the Whites, or anything else we’ve experienced on trail. We encountered some serious scrambles that required much troubleshooting to safely traverse; a mere taste of what was to come in the infamous Mahoosuc Notch.
A bright spot in the day was encountering a grouse right on trail that fearlessly held its position so that we had to inch around it to pass.
Just before reaching the Mahoosuc Notch in the afternoon, we stopped at a sunny tenting platform to dry out our feet/socks/shoes, which was a morale boost before taking on the Notch. If we had timed things differently it would’ve been nice to sleep here and take on the Notch first thing in the morning. When we approached the Notch, a .8 mile stretch of large boulders sandwiched between two cliffs, we experienced an instant temperature drop of about 10 or 15 degrees. There was still snow and ice peeking out from beneath many of the boulders.
Through, not around
We collapsed our trekking poles and cautiously began the grueling climb/crawl. The whole thing took us just over two hours to complete and we rather enjoyed getting to traverse in a different way than usual. At one point, when I felt certain we must be over halfway through and wanted the endorphin rush of seeing progress reflected on the map, I checked Guthooks and was shocked to see we had made it less than a quarter of the way! After that I resolved not to look again.
Translating the X and arrow hieroglyphs was tricky, but when successfully located and interpreted correctly they indicated whether to go under, over, or around a given mound of boulders and provided some semblance of support in this choose-your-own-adventure maze.
Bouldering with a 20lb pack on proved cumbersome but Ranger managed to keep his on the whole way as a personal challenge, while I opted to shove mine ahead of me through some of the crawl spaces. Our only casualty was my knife, which and was lost forever down a deep, dark crevasse.
It was dusk by the time we finished the Notch but we opted to go ahead and climb the Arm—a steep ascent coming out of the Notch—to Speck Pond Shelter so that we would still have the option of hiking to Andover tomorrow, with Bethel as a bail out option. We said hello to Dallas, who appears to be the only person tenting on this side of the notch tonight, and started the climb. We made it halfway up before true darkness set in and we had to switch on our headlamps. The mica sparkled by the light of our lamps, and it felt magical.
Near the end of the climb, we started to hear thunder rolling in the distance, so despite our exhaustion we pushed hard to make it to the shelter, and hiked into camp around 10pm, 16 hours from when we began our 14 mile hike this morning. Unbelievable. The shelter was completely packed (by thruhiker definition, meaning people were body-to-body) and all the tenting platforms were taken so we dejectedly found a spongy, damp stealth site in the mossy overgrowth down by the water. It wasn’t until after we had fully set up camp that we realized we were in a tree graveyard and one giant, very dead tree was leaning heavily over our tent.
Too exhausted to move on, we made peace with our situation as best we could and agreed on getting a few hours of rest then breaking down camp super early so we could get out of there before the caretaker would notice our infraction. It rained gently for a while and there were a few big claps of thunder but by some miracle the storm just skirted us and eventually we slept.
Day 148: 4.6 miles hiked (trail mile 1925.9)
I snapped a shot of our stealth site after we broke down camp this morning. The pond is visible through the trees.
During our swift exit from camp this morning we ran into Gadget, and JP and Zane, who had apparently been among the sleeping bodies we had scanned with our headlamps last night while desperately looking for a place to sleep.
We hiked over and down Speck Mountain to Grafton Notch where the owner of the West Bethel Motel, who goes by the name Speedy, was to pick us up along with Hangin’ and Belch. On the last downhill stretch, I rolled my ankle for the first time in awhile and cried out of frustration and fatigue. Everyone around us seems a bit shell-shocked over the challenges of the last few days, and everyone is looking forward to a night in town. Once in the shuttle with Speedy, he pit stop by the Stop n Shop so we could resupply, and Dunkin’ Donuts, bless the man. Back at the motel we took some time to dry our gear out in the sun.
Moss Rock, Belch, Hangin’, and Goose waiting for pick up
AZ, our friend from the NY/NJ stretch who did so much wonderful trail magic for us and those around us, had returned to the area to continue supporting folks he had spent time with further south. This time, his wife Elizabeth came along as well as their handsome labrador Rangeley. AZ and Elizabeth picked us up at noon from the motel and took us to a little eatery a few miles away for lunch. It had a surprisingly good selection of plant-based options and we each had a tempeh BLT. We had a lot of fun catching up with these two wonderful people - this is just another example of the incredible bonds that form within the AT community.
Sticks, Elizabeth, AZ, Ranger
Back at the hotel this afternoon I took a nap while Ranger made us a fabulous stir fry dinner in the motel’s fully equipped kitchen. The portions were so big we had to eat in two phases!
Day 149: 10.3 miles hiked (trail mile 1936.2)
This morning Speedy drove us back to the trailhead with Hangin’ and Belch. We had seriously considered taking a zero, but the weather was too nice to pass up a hiking opportunity after so many so many days spent out in the rain. When we passed the Dunkin’ Donuts Speedy said “oops my car seems to be on autopilot” as he turned into the parking lot. When we returned with our donuts to the car told us he had a proposition. “If you’re interested you can stay in my brand-new hostel in Andover, Maine, 20 miles up trail from here, for the next three nights while I slackpack you over the next 33 miles. I won’t charge you a dime. All I ask is that you offer feedback and suggestions for ways to make it a great hostel.” What incredible kindness.
It was a resounding and incredulous YES, of course, and we even ended up leaving some of our overnight items like the quilt, tent, etc. in the car since we would be at the hostel tonight.
We had a great hike with Hangin’ and Belch and talked the entire way. They are an awesome pair from Jersey who are completing their hike of the AT after having to get off trail in 2019 for reasons outside of their control. They are vlogging their hike at: https://youtube.com/c/ItsWhoWeAre
Belch and Hangin’
At the 10-mile mark, just after passing a lovely waterfall gorge and a crystal-clear swimming hole, Speedy picked us up at the next road and took us to the inn.
So here we are in this 150-year-old recently renovated inn, in a newly outfitted room, with the entire place to ourselves tonight. We spent the evening hanging out with the caretakers, Maggie and Miles, a free-spirited young couple with a sweet little dog named Lucy.
Maggie and Lucy
Ranger made us all tacos with canned veggies and beans that we were able to scrounge up from the general store across the street. We are getting pretty good at coming up with ways to cook plant-based meals from convenient store options. After dinner, Miles showed Ranger how to properly hold a sitar, which they had brought back with them from travels in India.
Ranger and Miles
We cannot believe this incredible situation we have found ourselves in and are looking forward to a quiet night in our pristine quarters.