The Whites are wicked rugged.

Day 105 - 8/3/10
I had a good sleep at the hostel. I actually slept outside in this
circus tent sort thing, and it rained so you could hear it hitting
against the tarp roof. I always enjoy that sound. I set my alarm for 6
because I wanted to get over Moosilauke early enough to avoid the
afternoon rain I saw in the forecast, so I was out of there at 7.

From Glencliff up to the summit was a gain of 3700 ft. in just under
6 miles, so it's a good climb. You get above treeline near the top,
and it was a strange experience. You start to notice the pines all
getting smaller, no more than 10-12 feet high, then they get ever and
ever smaller until they disappear completely and all that's left is
grass and rocks in a giant meadow. Because there are no trees to blaze
they instead put them on these homemade pillars of rock, sort of like
the stacks I'd mentioned in an earlier post, but larger. They range
anywhere from 6-10 ft. high and 2-4 feet around. It was so foggy up
there that you could hardly see the next pillar in the distance, but
you could see them. I imagined them to have torches on the top, like
beacons lighting my way. The top of Moosilauke was actually pretty
cool, even though it was too cruddy for a view. There was more stone
structures up there that looked like ancient ruins, some plaques, and
one other guy who was rocking out to some heavy metal music. Wouldn't
have been my music of choice to experience on top of a mountain, but
to each his own.

I hiked down and hit Beaver Brook Shelter right about 11, and decided
to take my first break of the day. There I met two other NOBOs, a
couple named Dormouse & Dirtstew. I only stayed for 15 minutes, then
went on to tackle one of the hardest miles of the AT, at least as a
NOBO. It was a drop of about 1700 feet in 1.3 miles, and along wet
rocks and roots. A lot of it you were using iron bars and wooden
blocks that had been drilled into the rock. It was insane, and
probably slowed me down to about a mile an hour. I did make it down in
one piece though, and stopped for a break at the parking lot near the
bottom. Some day hikers had just finished up their hike, and one came
over and gave me a turkey/salami sub he didn't eat. Bonus! It wasn't
the best sub I've had, a little floppy and wet. Sort of reminded me of
that episode of the Simpsons when Homer won't throw away the 6-foot
sub, and even hides it behind the fridge so Marge won't get rid of it.
Hope I don't get sick like he did.

Anyway after that it was only 7.5 miles to the shelter I wanted to
make (Eliza Brook). Psssh...only. I wish it was that easy. There was
so much rock, mud, roots, trees, up and down that it felt like an
eternity. Plus my boots were pretty wet, which was making my toes
throb, so it was a bit rough mentally. I finally did make it though at
5:30. Bodacious was already there and had his tent up, plus there was
a guy asleep in the shelter who I met later on named Zach. I made
myself dinner and set up inside the shelter in case it rains. A few
others came in afterward, Redwood and Hitch, two southbound
sectioners, both very nice. They thru hiked in '05 together.

Almost 8:30 now. Today was pretty good, a nice beginning, but sort of
a rough end. I did 17 miles in 10+ hours, which means my pace through
the Whites is definitely slower than my usual average, but I'm very
happy and proud that I managed that many miles in this rugged terrain.
We'll see where I end up tomorrow.

Total miles: 1797.6