7/7 Day 126 Imp Shelter to Trident Col Campsite – 14.9 miles
Fairly easy morning back into Gorham, with the exception of
the bugs—mosquitoes and gnat can all die, period. On a more positive note, we
had made it through the Whites! From day one, the White Mountains of New
Hampshire intimidated me. I didn't know what to expect. Instead of doing the
research and looking up pictures of what to expect, I decided to be surprised,
and scared, and I’m so glad I did. The Whites were truly amazing, both
intimidating and beautiful. Now, back to today—we had climbs, up and down, all
day, kind of boring actually. We camped with our new gang, Giussepi, Howbout,
Sharpshin, and Kestrel. As amazing as this hike is, at this point in the
journey you start to think of the finish and going home. I’m not going to lie,
home is sounding pretty good these days.
7/8 Day 127 Trident Col Campsite to Carlo Col Shelter – 10.1
miles
It rained hard all night, still raining this morning—16th
day in a row. Today was a really tough day both mentally and physically. According
to…most everyone, entering southern Maine was to be one of the most difficult
sections of the entire trail, and I would have to agree. The plan today was to
hike 14.5 miles but that didn’t happen. Everything was wet, including us. The trail
included large rock drop offs, which can be really tough when rocks are really
wet, especially if you’re short and have to have assistance just to keep
hiking. I’m not going to lie. Today was one of those days that broke me, and
yes, I cried. It was already 5 o’clock, we came out on this small cliff with a
view of the sun, and I was trying to hide the fact that I had been crying, for
no real reason, but when I tried to hike ahead of the others, I couldn't find a
way down. I thought about throwing my pack down and trying to shimmy between a
few rocks just to fall or drop down. Instead, my loving husband, being quite a
bit taller than me, found a way down and allowed me to step on his shoulders
and knees. Not far from the drop we came across the Carlo Col Shelter, which
wasn't our original destination, but we knew that if the terrain was anything
like what we’d been doing we would never make it before dark. The last 5 miles
had taken us 4 hours and it just wasn't worth the risk of injury to keep going,
not when we were so close to finishing. Please don’t misconstrue my honesty,
there was never a point on this trail that I ever considered quitting; however,
today was a rough day, and not just for me. We all had our own mental battles
to face. We were tired, we were wet, and after a few months on the trail, a
part of you just wants to rest and be in the comforts of home. For tonight, we
settled for a shelter, safe from rain, surrounded by 20-30 French immersion
students.
7/9 Day 128 Carlo Col Shelter to Speck Pond Shelter – 9.5
miles
More rain again today. Tough climbing and hiking to Full
Goose Shelter, and then even tougher hiking through the Mahoosuc Notch, which
has been dubbed the “the hardest mile on the AT”. Our little gang of 6 tackled
it together in 2 ½ hours. A continuous misting rain graced our presence through
the notch, combined with the dampness from the water running through the ravine
and the ice in between the crevices, making our rocks both wet and cold. I have
to give a huge thanks to Giussepi and Howbout for giving me a hand over several
of these rocks. I’m sure I could have done it on my own, but with a lot more
time and a few more scrapes and bruises. As much as we laugh and talk about the
trail, parts of the trail can be dangerous, especially with bad weather
conditions. We have been very fortunate throughout this whole adventure to
never have any major concerns, and the notch is one of those iffy places. The
Notch was fun for about an hour, and then it just started to get annoying
because you just couldn't get anywhere fast. To keep our spirits high, our
lovely friend, Kestrel, in his best Australian accent, came up with a game
similar to Marco Polo but in place of Marco Polo, he would yell Kanga and we
would yell Roo. This may sound silly, but this game continued throughout the
rest of our trail experience.
Okay, so once we managed to escape the dreaded notch, we then had to conquer the, not-so-very-spoken-of, Mahoosuc Arm. The arm of mahoosuc was a straight up slab of rock, combined with portions of waterfalls, which I would highly recommend for wonderful physical activity, when not wet. The assent was tricky in that you really had to watch your footing, walking not up the middle of the rock/trail, but on its sides to try to find some kind of grip. The hike was tedious and we were tired and wet. Once we made it the shelter, we were disappointed to see that there was nothing to see. We had heard that Speck Pond was absolutely beautiful but all we could see was mist. The spring near the shelter provided us with lovely yellow water, which we filtered and drank anyway. Then we spent the night answering questions and making conversation with 4 south bounders before finally falling asleep.
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| Sharpshin and Kestrel |
Love and prayers always,
Wide Load
“One day it started raining and it didn’t quit for four
months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain…and
big ol’ fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to
come straight up from underneath.”
Forrest Gump
