8/10/00
Day 140
North Woodstock, NH
1794.4 miles

The passage of eleven days since my last entry pretty much describes how much I've felt like writing lately.  I did manage to get off another email update from Hanover, so I'll just pick up the story from there.

I did not, in fact, spend an extra day of rest in Hanover.  The weather forecast was so nice, compared to what I'd seen in most of Vermont, that I hated to waste a good hiking day in town and opted to do a short 10 miles to Moose Mountain shelter.  My plan for the next few days actually was to do low-miles and see if I could get my energy back.  The following day I did 12 miles to Smarts Mountain and stayed in the Firewarden's Cabin on top.  I arrived early enough to get a nice view from the tower before it started raining that evening.

The next day I had planned to do another 12 miles to the Ore Hill shelter, but on the way there I passed a group of about 10 young boys and 2 counselors of some sort who were headed there.  When I got to the shelter there was already a group of about a dozen older scouts in residence.  I asked to speak to the adult leader and asked him if he was aware that this was the peak season for both Northbound and Southbound thru-hikers to be passing through on this section of the AT?  After I went down to the spring to get some water, I checked my guidebook and decided my best option was to make this a 20-mile day and continue North to a hostel at Glencliff.  As I headed there, I ran into yet another large group of boys on the Trail who were headed South to the Ore Hill shelter!  I hope all three of these groups annoyed the hell out of each other.  And maybe the leaders would get a clue that they might choose better places to camp than shelters intended for long-distance hikers on the AT.

Now that I was further North (Glencliff) than intended, it didn't seem to make sense to go next (as I had planned) to the Beaver Brook shelter only 8 miles away, so I decided to make it a 17-mile day to the shelter after that, Eliza Brook.  Unfortunately this involved climbing up and over Mount Moosilauke (4,800 feet).  The climb up was long and tiring, but the descent down the North side has to be the hairiest thing I've ever done wearing a full pack.  There were some impressive sections where they had chisled out the rock faces to place wooden steps.  My knees took a real beating going down that and it held my absolute concentration the entire way.  So I was pretty tired by the time I reached Eliza Brook.  But the good news is I would have been worn out by it under the best of circumstances, so maybe I'm past this low-energy thing.