Day 117 - Saturday, July 31, 2021


It rained again last night and the temperatures dropped unexpectedly into the upper 30’s. I was bearly comfortable only bringing my down quilt which is rated for 40°.  Luckily I had my bag liner which increases the temperature rating by another 10-15°. I may have to use my warmer sleeping bag if this trend continues 🥶.

Day 3 - Today’s hike continued from Full Goose  Shelter/Campsite (1916.2 NoBo) to Grafton Notch, ME 26 (1925.9 NoBo) for a total of 9.7 miles. We started hiking at 7:30 am. 



We are also hiking Mahoosuc Notch  aka the “Miracle Mile” which is known for being the most difficult or “fun” mile of the AT for its continuous  boulders on a steep decent that you encounter… let the pictures speak for themselves.



Yes, that’s me making my way down the boulder field




Hmm, now how am I going to get through that rascal?



…Or up that one 🤬!




Crawling through a crevice. 




That’s ice from last winter…




We had to take our packs off to crawl through… 😳.




Climbing up through a crevice. 




Finally made it to the end of Mahoosuc Notch, taking nearly 3 hours to climb, craw and traverse our way through the “Miracle Mile”. I’m not going to say that it was treacherous and dangerous or even insane… but why do I feel like Alex Honnold’s , who was the first to free solo-climb El Capitan, stunt double? 




Meet “Bulldog” who is a SoBo Thru hiker from Georgia. She began from Mt. Katahdin on June 6th … “hiking her way back home”. Happy Trails “Bulldog”.






Views from the summit of Old Speck. 






Descending from Old Speck.   




Back on terra firma… 🙏🏻  I’m glad that this one is in the books! 

I mentioned that we turned the slip/fall counter off yesterday due to the horrendous trail conditions -  we were both having difficulties staying vertical so it made no sense to run up a count that couldn’t be cashed in. We decided from now on we will just count all falls/slips and the one with less at the completion of the hike wins one all expenses paid dinner. Turtle Power had the obvious lead in the first round so he won a dinner. But he fell today so I have the current lead… probably won’t last long 😬. 


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)





Comments

  1. Splinter, those bolder climbs look insane!! Oh man!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unbelievable- the size of the “rocks” and you have much more to look forward to……. be safe Splinter and Turtle Power

    ReplyDelete

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