Hardest Mile of the Day.

Day 104 - 8/2/10
I've become a fan of using this phrase. I'd prefer to use it early on in the day, but sometimes you don't until the last mile or two. Those ones are tough. Fortunately today it was early, but I'll get to that in a minute.

My sleep was alright, but not great. The wind was blowing around on those rocks, making my tent walls flap around. That isn't what made me have a tough sleep though, I think it was just one of those nights. I woke up a little past 7, packed up, and probably left close to 8. I started by climbing uphill, passing the north side of Jacobs Brook, then heading up to Hexacuba shelter. Funny name, right? I didn't stop in because it was .3 off the trail, plus it would've been too early to break, so I pushed onward and upward over Mt. Cube. That was probably the hardest mile of the day right there, although it was a lot of fun. There was beautiful granite stone that I was constantly walking across, so smooth that it was almost counter-top quality. I guess after years of constant footsteps that will happen. When I reached the top there was a nice view, so I stopped, snacked a little, and aired out my t-shirt, which by the way I'm loving. I went with a bigger size than before and it's nice and loose, but not exceedingly so. I was getting a bit tired of how tight the previous one was. While up on Mt. Cube I also messed with my camera and discovered it has a timer, so I set up a little stand and took a cheesy contemplative picture of me in the distance.

I left there around 9:45, heading downhill for quite a while. When I was about halfway down I met a couple day hikers who asked me some questions, then a little after that I met another batch going up. Three younger kids and a chaperon. One of the young guys was huffing and puffing, and asked me if he was almost there. I tried to give him a positive answer, because he did have a tough few miles to go, so hopefully he made it up there with a smile still on his face.

When I came close to the road crossing there were two different moments of trail magic. The first was a case of Budweiser, which I didn't take advantage of because 1. they were warm, and 2. it would dehydrate me. But the second trail magic was some PB crackers and fresh veggies, cucumbers and tomatoes, so I took a cuke and a packet of crackers, then headed out. It was pretty much uphill to the shelter from there, Ore Hill was the name, and when I got there I stopped in. There I met a nice guy named Steps who is doing a section from Hanover to Franconia Notch, as well as Stubs who I had met the other day. I ate some lunch while they finished up, so they left before me, but within 5 minutes of them leaving a couple came in. Mr. H and Skimmer from Florida. I talked to them for a while, mostly Skimmer because Mr. H was getting the water.

I left there with 7.5 miles to Glencliff with the hostel, pushing to make it asap because I wasn't sure if I'd be staying or not and wanted to take full advantage of things if I was going to run after a few hours. There wasn't much to see in that section anyway, but a little after Mt. Mist there was a viewspot that also said "Beware of Tourists". The view was okay, it was mostly obscured because of trees, but through it you could see Mt. Moosilauke to the left. It looked huge, one of the first big climbs of the Whites at about 4800 ft. I made it to the road at around 4:30 and walked the .5 miles to Hikers Welcome Hostel. I grabbed a soda, plugged in my phone, then waited to take a shower. I decided to stay after the shower because I saw on the weather report that it'll probably rain tonight. Hopefully it'll pass by morning because I want to leave here early and get over that mountain by 12. I've heard it can be "treacherous" going down, so I'm a bit nervous, especially if the weather is bad. I'll just have to take it slow and extra careful. Anyway I'm getting tired so I'll probably go to bed soon, but not until I write all the stealth sites into my guidebook. I found the list here after all!

Total miles: 1780.6