Living the Dream in New Hampshire Part 1: AT Flip Flop Days 77-84 – The Trek

Day 77

The only disturbance in the night we spent in the woods just beyond the Dartmouth ball fields was another hiker’s sleep apnea that made his snoring sound like a bear. Since the grocery store wasn’t open yet and wouldn’t be for another hour, Jingle, Subtitles, and I left our packs in the woods and walked into town for breakfast. We went to Lou’s and had a decent meal, but the free donuts they gave us were excellent. After breakfast I had to run a few quick errands. I got cash out of the ATM and stopped at CVS for some medication and a few other things. I met Jingle and Subtitles back at camp. Subtitles got us all water while I retrieved my bear bag and finished packing. 

The hiking today was nice. We didn’t really have any major climbs and the rocks helped break up some of the monotony we experienced at the end of Vermont without being difficult. We didn’t have much in the way of views until the last peak of the day, Moose Mountain South. From there it was only 0.7 to the shelter.

There are a lot of people at the shelter tonight, though most are on an organized guided trip. There are a decent number of thru hikers though. Steps came up with a plan to get us to Hikers Welcome Hostel in a few days, slackpacking the last 10 miles to get there.

Day 78

Water was going to be a problem today, but I carried enough to camp to get by. A lady leading the guided group gave us her group’s extra water, which was nice. There was also a trail magic cooler and a water cache at one of the roads. We took lunch at the turnoff for Trapper John Shelter. I went down to use the nice, new privy. At the last brook before beginning the climb up Smarts, we took a break and got as much water as we could carry. My water bladder leaked worse than it did yesterday, so I’ll need to get another bottle for longer carries.

The climb up Smarts was steep but not too bad for the first couple miles, and then it leveled out. We came to a view and I could see the end of the climb would be quite difficult. The trail was flat for a little while longer until about the last half mile where it went straight up. 

We were all lucky and got decent spots at the campsite area, which was pretty limited on space. I went up to the fire tower to catch the sunset. I met a Nobo named Doggone who had the same idea. We hit it off; I hope I’ll see her again. A Sobo, whose name I can’t remember, had set up camp in the tower but was super friendly and cool about not hogging the view. And what a view it was, a full 360. The sunset was gorgeous, if not overly colorful. This was my first good sunset on trail and a highlight of my hike.

Day 79

I slept really well and woke up to Steps talking to the Jingle and Subtitles. I packed up and ate quickly, and we were on trail before 8 in order to not fall too far behind Steps. We stopped back at the fire tower so the others could see the view. I was hopeful that Doggone was still there, but Doggone was long gone.

The climb down Smarts wasn’t bad at all, especially compared to the climb. After the descent, we just had a small hump to go over to get to the base of Mt. Cube. We stopped for water and a quick break before beginning the climb. 

A short way up, we came to the side trail to the Hexacuba Shelter. It is a unique, 6 sided shelter. It was 0.2 miles uphill, so I was the only one who went up. After the shelter, the climb got a bit steeper and more technical, but not as bad as Smarts. We had a few nice view points, and we arrived at the summit sooner than I anticipated. The view was spectacular, so we took our lunch there. It was one of the most peaceful experiences of the journey.

From the summit, we called our shuttle to get to the hostel. We hustled down the mountain to catch our ride. On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at a convenience store, and I bought an amazing steak and cheese sandwich. Upon arrival, we took the tour of the hostel, picked our bunks, and took our showers. Steps’ friend is going to slackpack us tomorrow to fill in the section between NH25A and NH25 highways, walking back to the Hiker’s Welcome Hostel, where we are staying. A trail angel made spaghetti dinner for all the hikers, and it was great to hang out in the yard with all of the hikers. Stingray and Hindsight came in and hung out, but they pushed on to camp at the next shelter. It was a fun night.

Day 80

I woke up in the middle of the night to a howling storm. I don’t think I’ve ever been afraid of a storm indoors before; I thought the roof might blow in. Waking up before my alarm, I got ready and went to the lobby for coffee. Steps pushed back our start time due to the rain, which was ok by me. His friend showed up with Dunkin coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and donuts for us and the other hikers.

When it looked like the rain was letting up a bit, we headed back to where we got picked up the day before. I took the lead and never lost it for long. I felt like I was running most of the time, unburdened without my pack. I didn’t need to stop except briefly to get my snack and water bottle out of my borrowed day pack. There wasn’t much to see, which was fine, because it was foggy and rainy anyway. It was a super easy stretch of trail, and I finished the 10 miles in just about 4 hours. 

After getting back to the hostel, I ate lunch and took a shower. We had a planning session with one of the hostel caretakers to map our route through the White Mountains. We also scrambled to figure out our slackpack for tomorrow and how to transition between Hikers Welcome Hostel and the Notch Hostel, where we had reservations for tomorrow night. The best we came up with was to have Hikers Welcome drop our bags at the Notch while we slackpacked north over Mt. Moosilauke and got picked up by the Notch’s shuttle at Kinsman Notch.

I got the 5:30 shuttle to the store to get some food for tomorrow and dinner for tonight. After that I picked up the Zoleo I had ordered and had shipped to Hikers Welcome. I am looking forward to zeroing on Thursday after tackling Moosilauke tomorrow. 

Day 81

I woke up super early, afraid my alarm would wake people up. I took my bag drop bag with most of my gear to the main area and settled in for coffee and breakfast. We left the hostel around 7, walking up the road to the trail head. Immediately on the trail, we had to ford a wide stream with no possibility to rock hop; I had forgotten to ask about the detour to avoid it. So much for dry socks. It didn’t really matter, since it was raining and wet all day anyway.

The climb up Moosilauke was long, but not difficult. It got colder as we got higher. After breaking above tree line for the first time, I put on my rain jacket to break the wind and retain some body heat. We of course had no views being in the clouds, but the summit was still neat to see. 

The top of Moosilauke was mostly flat for a while, and the initial descent was not bad at all. We got to the turn off for the shelter 1.5 miles from our destination. From this point forward we knew it would be tough. I had a quick snack and finished the last of my water.

We had heard that the Nobo descent down Moosilauke was sketchy, especially in the rain, and that it was much better to take that stretch of trail Sobo. With our hostel arrangements, we weren’t able to take advantage of the Sobo slackpack, but the descent was not as bad as it had been made out to be. We took the descent slowly and enjoyed the frequent views of the Beaver Brook Waterfall, one of the prettiest parts of the trail for me so far. We made it to the bottom with about 10 minutes to spare before our shuttle arrived at 2:00.

It was great to take a hot shower, dry off, and put on warm loaner clothes at the hostel. We took the 5:30 town shuttle into Lincoln and ate at the Mexican restaurant. It was good, but a little over-hyped. After getting back, I was still hungry and had a pint of ice cream before going to bed.

Day 82

I hoped to sleep in on my zero day, but I woke up sometime in the 6:00 hour and couldn’t get back to sleep. I gave up around 7:30 and went upstairs for complimentary self-serve coffee and pancakes. Subtitles made good pancakes for the four of us.

We took a midday shuttle into town. Our first stop was the outfitters where I picked up some long pants for the cold, higher elevation nights. Next I went to the grocery store and bought food for the next 2 stretches, 8 days total. Then I met everyone at McDonald’s for our pickup. I wasn’t planning on eating there, but I got two double cheeseburgers while I waited. 

After getting back to the hostel, I organized my food, glued the toe caps on my shoes, and organized my gear. I had some beers and dinner food I had brought back from the grocery store. I talked to my parents for the first time in a few weeks and went to bed early, ready to get back into the Whites.

Day 83

I didn’t sleep well after my zero; I was feeling anxious about the upcoming section. I got up around 5:30 to get breakfast and coffee and to make sure I was ready for the 7:00 shuttle. As a night owl, these early mornings have been wearing me down.

We got dropped off and ran into the Middle of Nowhere trail magic couple from Massachusetts. They recognized me and had read my blog post from that section. We didn’t stick around to get anything from them, as they were just getting set up, and we had a big day planned.

The beginning of the day was not bad. We were up and over Mt. Wolf in no time. We were still in a cloud for most of the morning but it cleared up late morning. We ate lunch under some power lines, sunning ourselves on the sunny rocks like lizards.  The power lines were not far from the first shelter for the day, which was where we needed to decide whether to stop for the day or push on to the next shelter at Kinsman Pond. Hitting this point so early in the day, we easily decided to push for the second shelter.

After lunch, we reached an alpine bog. It was beautiful with an open view of the mountain ahead. However, the trail was submerged in ankle-deep water. I tried for as long as I could to keep my feet dry, but eventually it became impossible; there were no more rocks, roots, and sticks to keep me above the muddy water. We had left some of our gear back at the hostel, and I regretted not bringing a second pair of socks.

In the afternoon, we began the difficult climb up Kinsman South. We hiked next to a nice waterfall for a while, but it was not as cool as the Beaver Brook Waterfall we saw the other day on Moosilauke. The climb got progressively harder, but the payoff on Kinsman South was totally worth it. We took a break to enjoy our hard earned view.

The terrain was still tough after that and it took longer than expected to get to camp. We found a tent platform for Jingle and Subtitles, and Steps and I found some hammock spots in the woods behind them. The campsite caretaker was nice and we got our thru hiker cards. I experimented with a falafel mix for dinner, and it was not as good as I hoped it would be. I wished I had brought more food for this short stretch; I’ll just have to eat a ton in town tomorrow.

Day 84

Camping at the second shelter set us up for a much shorter second day to finish the Kinsmans, so we woke up early to catch the 11:20 shuttle back to the Notch to take advantage of a nero day. The beginning of the day was difficult, descending from Kinsman Pond down to Lonesome Lake. On a particularly difficult section, I saw Steps take a scary fall, dropping several feet from a rock. Fortunately, he was able to twist in midair and deflect most of the impact into his pack. In a fall that could have ended very badly, Steps emerged with just a superficial scrape on his elbow.

We stopped at the Lonesome Lake Hut, timing it perfectly to get free breakfast leftovers. The hut “croo” also got out some of their dinner leftovers for us. Hindsight was there too; he had managed to get a work-for-stay spot at the hut the night before. After eating, we went down to the lake to drink in the great view, including a great glimpse of Franconia Ridge.

Lingering at the hut a little longer than we should have, we only had 2 hours to hike 3 trail mails and a 0.9 bike path to get to our shuttle on time. Thankfully it was an extremely easy stretch of trails, and we knocked out the 3 trail miles in just 70 minutes.

We made it back to our base camp at the Notch hostel, showered, and did laundry. I bought a frozen pizza for lunch and the others had pancakes. We finished repacking our packs and extremely heavy food bags, charged our devices, and rested to get ready for the next big 55 mile stretch through the hardest part of the trail thru the Whites. We had dinner delivered, and I had another pint of ice cream before bed.

Lack-of-Shower Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed the first few days of New Hampshire. This was the state that excited me the most when I was preparing for the hike. I was feeling good, and I was exactly where I wanted to be. The views were amazing, and the weather was refreshingly cool and clear until the rain arrived. My new shoes solved the grip and protection shortcomings like I hoped they would. I was tired and worn out, and the short days waiting out the rain and setting up the big push thru the Whites wasn’t as restorative as I had hoped, but I felt like I was ready for the rest of the Whites. But the Whites had other plans…