Success! Goose Eye! & The Notch!

Day 113 - 8/11/10
Man what a day. Lots of milestones and lots of fun. I had a slow
morning, not leaving until 9 with the others. After maybe a half miles
I fell behind when I stopped to check my phone and see if I had
service so that I could publish my post from yesterday. Fortunately
where I stopped had a signal and I was able to put up the blog.

I didn't catch back up with everyone until the top of Mt. Success, a
cool spot at 3565' with flat rocks and nice views. I sat down, took
off my boots and socks to dry them out, then had a snack with the
others. When I walked up I had had my music playing, so I confessed
some of the guilty pleasures I have on my voice recorder that I've
been listening to. Sinead O'Conner's "Nothing Compares 2 U" was
probably the most embarrassing, but since they all found out I figure
you can know too. And hey, it's a good song.

A little more than a mile after Success was the New Hampshire-Maine
border, so we stopped there for some photos. Can't believe I'm in the
last state now. So that was one milestone, then only a few miles later
we hit 1900 total. Not a special number by any means, but it's always
cool when you get to a new series of hundreds. Anyway, right when you
cross into Maine it throws some tough stuff your way. A nice friendly
greeting and introduction. There's steep wet rocks you have to slide
down, boulders to climb up, and just all around tough terrain. Fun
though. And there were some excellent mountains not too far into Maine
as well, Goose Eye east peak and north peak. You get rewarded with
some great views on top of both. Similar to Mt. Success with flat
rocky tops.

As I was coming down the northern peak, crossing on some of the bog
boards, I misjudged the mud and instead of only submerging a couple
inches I went in all the way up to my knee. It was incredibly deep,
and when I pulled my leg out it was covered in stinky mud. That was a
bit of a bummer. Forced me to make an unscheduled stop so I could take
off that boot and sock and then clean off both. After that it wasn't
too much farther to the next shelter, Full Goose, so I stopped there
for a lunchbreak before I entered Mahoosuc Notch, described in my book
as, "Most difficult or most fun mile of the AT? Make your way through
a jumbled pit of giant boulders." Sounds like fun right?

Around 4:15 I left the shelter and made my way to the Notch with
Ichabod, Fynious, and The Crusher. When we got there we timed
ourselves, we'd been told it would take at least an hour. What a blast
we had going through there. It really was very tough, with hand over
hand climbing, squeezing through tiny caves, jumping from boulder to
boulder, and so on. All that stuff made it so much fun, and even
though it took over an hour it felt much shorter than that. Got some
great photos throughout as well.

When we had made safe passage all the way through we stopped at a
stealth site that another hiker was at, Rocket. I had met him way back
at Upper Goose Cabin in Massachusetts, and I'd seen him through the
Whites a few times. We all set up our tents here, made dinner, then
had a nice little campfire and good conversation. Even though I hiked
in wet boots all day, and I didn't put in the miles I had wanted to,
it was still an awesome day. Tomorrow I'll hopefully get a chance to
see my Dad at Grafton Notch and maybe grab lunch or something. Getting
late. Time for bed!

Total miles: 1905.7