Day 135, miles today - 16.9, total - 1,904.6

July 31, 2013

White Mountain Hostel, Gorham, NH to Carlo Col Shelter.

I woke up this morning at 6:00. The  hostel made breakfast for everyone. It was very good. B-Rocket and I started hiking at 7:40. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.

We went through some low areas that had walk boards. Without them it would have been difficult to get through the muck and water in these areas.

We had a 1,750 ft. up to start our day. It was over 3.5 miles, so it wasn't too bad. We had some great views. We stopped for a lunch break at Dream Lake. From there we had a little more than 7 miles to reach the shelter. 

After lunch we climbed to the top of Mt. Success. From there we had a spectacular view. We were still able to see Mt. Washington. We stayed at the top of Mt. Success for a pretty good while. It was beautiful! From there we were about 7 miles from the Maine State line. We took pictures of each of us jumping into the air with the mountain view in the background.. We talked about staying there to watch the sunset, but with 7 miles to go quickly dismissed that idea. It was around 6:30 pm when we started hiking again.

As we were hiking we saw a grouse. It was walking on the trail, going away from us. It seemed odd that it didn't fly away. We then saw a baby grouse come out of the brush, cross the trail and then disappear into the brush on the other side. The mother continued to stand just a couple feet off the trail as we went by.

Our last 7 miles took a lot longer than we had thought it would. There were several really steep sections with large pieces of rock. It was very challenging to climb over. There was one place where B-Rocket took off her backpack and handed it down before climbing down. It was extremely difficult.

Two miles after Mt. Success we reached the Maine border. It was great seeing that sign. I now only have one state to go on this fourteen state journey. We only have about 280 miles to go. B-Rocket lives in Maine, so reaching it has even more meaning to her. She has been hiking home all along.

With it taking longer to hike the seven miles, we got to see the sunset after all. It was beautiful! We stopped to enjoy it for a few minutes. 

As we continued on it became darker. When we were under tree cover it was very dark. By the time we reached the Carlo Col Shelter side trail it was completely dark. We used our headlamps the rest of the way. We had a little trouble finding the shelter. There were a couple trails to choose from. We were walking through a very small stream, so we stopped to get water while we were there. After getting water I slipped on one of the wet chunks of rock. The rocks were the size of a small microwave. My right thigh hit awkwardly on other rocks. It was very sore the rest of the night. Hopefully it won't be an issue tomorrow.

When we reached the shelter at 9:15, we saw Not-A-Bear standing in front of it. There were a few other people asleep in the shelter.