Appalachian Trail Adventure Day 13 (6/29/21)

Grafton Notch to Carlo Col Shelter 

14.1 Miles

I know that it says just above this that it was a 14 mile day, but I can assure you that it felt a lot tougher than that. In fact, I think it was the toughest day since the Bigelows. Probably not coincidentally, this was the first day since the Bigelows with 6000 feet of elevation gain.

Mark from West Bethel Motel was once again awesome, being flexible with my drop off time and getting me on trail by 8 AM. My first task was to climb the last remaining four thousand footer in Maine, Old Speck. That was a tough climb, and I took it slow. Unfortunately, there was no reward, as the mountain was in the clouds. I wasn’t upset, though. I had hiked Old Speck with my friend Sylvia a few years back to finish my New England 67, and that was an amazing day. I figured that I have seen Old Speck at its best, so it had nothing left to prove to me.

The descent from Old Speck was very steep, and I had to take it slow again. I knew that today was not going to be a big mileage day, so I wasn’t worried about going slow. I just wanted to avoid a catastrophic fall.

After descending Old Speck, I met a guy who qualifies as not only the rudest hiker that I have met on this trail, but quite possibly the rudest hiker that I have ever met. He looked a bit like Tom Selleck, and I encountered him just before the Speck Pond Shelter. I said, “How’s it going?” and he just left his headphones in and ignored me. I knew that he knew that I was talking to him, because we were looking right at each other. I tried again, and he ignored me again. I then proceeded past him and went to the shelter for lunch. He showed up there a couple minutes later, and I tried saying hello a third time, but he ignored me once more. I have to admit that I wasn’t all that sad when he missed the excellent water source at the shelter.

I stayed at Speck Pond for an hour waiting for Bear to show up. I chatted with some day hikers and northbounders that came and went.  After an hour, I decided that I had to move. I had no idea how far Bear was behind me, and I couldn’t hang out all day. I was unenthusiastic about going down Mahoosuc Arm and into Mahoosuc Notch alone, but I had little choice.

The Arm was just as bad as everyone said. It was an extremely steep descent, and I took it very slow again. A lot of times, I clung to trees around the outside of the path rather than risk the rocks in the center. It certainly didn’t help that the rocks were wet. There were a couple places where I had no choice but to get on my butt and scoot down.

I did figure out a new equipment trick. The sun was beating down at various spots, and I didn’t feel like taking my pack off to get my hat. Thus, to protect my head from getting sunburned, I took my bandana and wrapped it around my head. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I put on sunscreen today to protect my arms.

Right before starting the hardest part of the hike, I accidentally slammed the right side of my foot into a rock. That caused some pain that lasted for a while. My trail runners are light and fast, but they don’t off the protection of full hiking boots.

Mahoosuc Notch is a series of boulders that goes on for about a mile. It is considered the most difficult mile of the Appalachian Trail. There are a number of things that I have always heard about the legendary Mahoosuc Notch:

1: You can’t use trekking poles in the Notch.

2: You will have to take your pack off to squeeze through caves in the Notch.

3: There is year-round snow and ice in the Notch.

4: The Notch acts like a refrigerator as the boulders keep temperatures down.

5: It takes a couple hours to navigate the one mile of the Notch.

6: It is easy to lose the trail in the Notch.

Some of these turned out to be true; others were less true. Not only were trekking poles usable in the Notch, I found them to be vital. You don’t actually have to take your pack off, either. I only took it off once, and it was while I was going the wrong direction.

The refrigeration is absolutely true, as the temperature was significantly lower in the Notch, which was welcome. In fact, that lower temperature also meant that the part about snow and ice was true. There was snow under the rocks of the Notch.

It was untrue that it takes two hours to go through the Notch, as it only took me about an hour despite getting lost once.  However, it is absolutely true that it is easy to lose the trail in the Notch. I certainly did. I got lost for maybe ten minutes and had to backtrack to find the trail again. Truthfully, I think I would have given Dragonfly a heart attack if she saw some of the leaps of faith that I was making between boulders.

Once I made it through the Notch, I had a hard climb out the other side. I stuck in my headphones and began climbing. I knew time was of the essence if I wanted to make it to my goal for the night, Carlo Col Shelter, with daylight left.

Thankfully, Bob Seger gave me a boost. I was climbing when the song “Like A Rock” came on my playlist. I thought a number of the lyrics, like “I was lean and solid everywhere” and “My walk had purpose, my steps were quick and light” really fit my life as a hiker.

I have always felt that Bob Seger has the best songs about getting older. Songs such as the aforementioned “Like A Rock” and other songs like “Against the Wind” and “The Fire Inside” really reflect on the experience of aging and reminiscing about younger days. Of course, despite my challenges of keeping up with younger hikers, I am still pretty proud to be where I am, so I don’t wax too nostalgic.

Fulling Mill Mountain was the first mountain after the Notch, and I really enjoyed the summit area there. It was an alpine bog, with bog bridges to convey hikers through without damaging the fragile alpine ecosystem.

Sometime after that, I encountered another grouse on trail. At least I think it was a grouse. It could have been a pheasant. Maybe even a partridge, although I didn’t see a pear tree around. Whatever it was, it sat in the middle of the trail until I got close, then it flew up into a tree. I went through quickly to ensure that it didn’t come back down and attack me.

As I was hiking along listening to my music, suddenly I heard a noise that I had never heard before. It was an electronic noise, so I checked my phone, although honestly I wasn’t sure why my phone would be making noise in airplane mode. I quickly confirmed that it wasn’t my phone, but then what was it? The only other electronic device I was carrying was the Garmin. I checked that, and sure enough I had received a very nice and encouraging text message from Dragonfly.

I next arrived at the Full Goose Shelter. It has a clever name, being between Fulling Mill Mountain and Goose Eye Mountain. There were some northbounders there, and they asked me about a tent site down in Mahoosuc Notch. I told them that I hadn’t seen it, and they decided that staying at Full Goose was preferable to chancing a camp site they knew nothing about.

I left Full Goose at 4:45, needing to do about 4.5 miles over four small mountains to make it to Carlo Col. The four mountains were the three peaks of Goose Eye and then an unnamed fourth peak.

The Goose Eye peaks were actually relatively easy and quite rewarding, with vast open alpine area. The only problem was that I needed to do a blue blazed side trail to the summit of West Goose Eye so it would count for my New England Hundred Highest list. It was actually the second NEHH peak I have tagged on this hike, with Baldpate being the first.

The fourth peak definitely felt like a PUD, which is hiker slang for Pointless Ups and Downs. Still, I made it over. On the way down, I went to lean on a tree and the tree came right out of the ground, roots and all. I told the tree that it obviously wasn’t familiar with Bill Withers.

As I was hiking down to the shelter, I was thinking about how certain hikers have catch phrases that are largely associated with them. For instance, Ali’s was, “Oh baby!” Medicine Man’s is “Full send.” Bear’s is “I’m so thankful.” I don’t think I really have one.

The Carlo Col Shelter was a long downhill walk off trail, so that wasn’t great. I did meet a really cool crew of northbounders there, though. There was Wrong Way, so named because she often gets lost. There was Yawp, Wrong Way’s boyfriend, who is called Yawp because he likes to scream in exultation on mountaintops. There was also Girl Scout, so named because he enjoys Girl Scout cookies. Finally, there was Oogie Boogie, so named because when he slips on trail, it looks like he is dancing. He has sadly never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas.

I have an answer on one of the previous flowers. The second flower on Day 3 is a Northern Purple Pitcher Plant (not a People Eater). Thanks iNaturalist for that one.

Thanks Dagnabit for the recent comment!

Always remember that you can’t take flight until you spread your wings!