Day 107A & B - Sunday/Monday, July 18-19, 2021

Sunday’s “Zero” was a nice break. We took  this time to  do laundry and finish our tentative hiking itinerary that takes us through the Whites, over the President’s and into Maine. New Hampshire and Maine have their own system on the AMC website where you need reservations to stay at Huts and Lean-to’s aka shelters. But of course their on-line reservations is not working, let’s blame that on the pandemic, and they are not open on Sunday’s. We have to call tomorrow to finalize our reservations. Hopefully the Huts & Lean-to’s have vacancies for the dates we need? 

Out next hike will take us over three days & two nights continuing from Franconia Notch (1820.0 NoBo) to RR Tracks, parking, Ethan Pond Pond Trail (1847.4) for a total of 27.4 miles. Due to the parking logistics we are hiking this section SoBo. This hike will also complete our approach to Mt. Washington. 

We wake up today, Monday, and it’s pouring…. still, again 😵‍💫! So we decide to drive to the Ethan Pond Trail entrance to see if the rain will let up… it didn’t. The radar doesn’t look good for at least the rest of the morning and today’s hike would take approximately 7.5 hours under dry conditions. And we still had to make our Hut/Lean-to reservations. We decided to take another “Zero”; we really didn’t have much of a choice. Two “Zeros” are still a “Zero”. 

We finally got through the AMC reservation phone call line and made all the necessary reservations to get us over Mt. Washington and checked into a hotel. 

Thankfully there was a hiking outfitter by our hotel so we were able to resupply and we bought some additional equipment… 

If you can’t beat them… join them 🙄😉!

Tomorrow’s a new day. We’re all packed, actually we were all packed last night, to put boots on the trail first thing; all we need is a little cooperation from Mother Nature 🙏🏻. 

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋

“Acts of generosity in this wild and primitive setting…where basic amenities…are intentionally absent–are often received in a heightened sense of wonder and gratitude by hikers. These acts of generosity are referred to as “trail magic.”

                     (Appalachian Trail Conservancy)