Book 3, Chapter 7 – Appalachian Trail – Southern NH & Rattle River to Rangeley, ME – August 14-25, 2022 – 97.4 miles

This AT outing is the longest I’ve done so far – 2 weeks. A couple of highlights:

I completed the state of NH

I hiked over a notorious tough climb in southern NH – Mt. Moosilauke

Conquered another tough section — Mahoosuc Notch & Arm — the Arm is also known as the “hardest mile of the entire AT”

And stepped foot on the AT in Maine for the first time.

I hiked with my new hiking partners Lynn and Mary, and another new hiking partner for the first time, Alina. this was my 2-week sabbatical from work this trip.

We stayed here in North Woodstock, NH, close to the southern end of the Trail in NH. We would stay here the first 2 nights and do 2 slackpack days to finish the southern end of NH for me.

our cabin

The motor court grounds

Day 1: Getting ready for our first “warm up” hike — a 10 mile slackpack going southbound from NH 25 to NH 25A. NH 25A is where I started back in June heading southbound. We all agreed that this was our easiest hike of the 10 days we hiked. It was “all up hill from there” as they say!

Still all smiles!

Just a stroll through the forest!

With a little relaxing by the cabin pool — getting psyched up for Mt. Moosilauke the next day!

Day 2 (9.5 miles): Kinsman Notch south to NH 25. 9.5 mile slackpack. An early view up Mt. Moosilauke

Climbing Mt. Moosilauke

We headed southbound over Mt. Moosilauke. I had watched some YouTube videos that made this hike look harder than it truly felt. Apparently the Trail can get pretty wet from the stream that runs alongside of it on the north side of the mountain, but it wasn’t too bad for us this day.

Lynn almost there!

I love hiking above tree line! Reaching the top of Mt. Moosiluake.

Made it! Almost 5,000 ft. “Bagged” another 4,000 footer in NH.

As always, the views are outstanding from atop of these balds! Just taking it all in.

… and down the othre side! Again, love being above treeline!

Day 3 (7 miles): We next jumped up to about 32 miles into Maine, and headed southbound over 4 days back into the northern part of NH. We started at Grafton Notch and first hiked up Speck Mountain, another 4,000 footer.

That’s where we are headed – Speck Mountain!

Our initial plan was to stop hre for the evening at Speck Pond shelter, but we decided to hike on a few more miles and tent at a camp site closer to right before the infamous Mahoosuc Notch.

But first, a visit down to Speck Pond. Maine is famous for it’s many “ponds” — whic we would call lakes!

Speck Pond

Lovely place for a lunch break before pushing on to the hardest part of the day – Mahoosuc Arm

After climbing down Mahoosuc Arm, which, in my opinion was the hardest part of the whole trip, we tented at a large tent site right before the Notch. About a dozen or so thru-hikers came in through the night and were gone before we even got up.

Day 4 (7.1 miles): And let the fun begin! The Notch is known for it’s house sized boulders that we had to pick our way up, over, under and around for 1 mile. Took us over 3 hours to do!

These next handful of pics are of the “longest mile” on the AT known as Mahossuc Notch — known for it’s house size boulders that we had to climb over, under, down — as you will see…

Mahossuc Notch

Mahossuc Notch — and yes, this IS the Trail!

Mahossuc Notch

Mahossuc Notch

Me getting ready to go under one of the boulders

Mahossuc Notch – strategizing…

Mahossuc Notch

Alina making her way through Mahossuc Notch

Lynn’s turn – Mahossuc Notch

Mary stretching it! Mahossuc Notch

Mahossuc Notch… me going under another one

Mahossuc Notch — continues!

Made it! Phew!

It took us about 3 HOURS and 20 minutes to go this one mile!!

But the day had just begun! We still had 6 more miles to go to the shelter for the night. We crossed over some alpine balds next.

mountain foliage

boardwalks across the bald

… and bogg boards to walk across. Some of which could be very slippery when raining! This was a very loooong day — we hiked another 6 miles for a total of almost 11 hours. It was getting dark, and had started raining earlier in the day by the time we reached Carlo Cole shelter. The shelter was almost full so Alina and I decided to pitch our tents, in the rain. In the morning we woke to this…

By the time we got into the shelter it was full and raining – hard. Alina and I opted to tent rather than trying to squeeze any more people into an overflowing shelter. But here was the result by morning — …a stream running through my tent! Needless to say EVERYTHING was soaked!

This was the side trail the next morning — the water was about half way up our shins. Once we got back to the AT we were faced with blowing wind, fog and still some rain and a straight up rock face that we needed to climb. It was at that point we decided to head back to the shelter and give it another try tomorrow. This would be my first, unplanned “zero day” on the Trail.

Day 5 (0 miles): We headed out the next morning, in the rain, with the side trail literally turned into a creek only to face this right off the bat — “The Cliffs” — this pic doesn’t do it justice the steepness of this climb — truly straight up. It not only was raining, but windy and socked in (this pic was taken the next day!). We got part way up and decided it was not wise to climb and decided to head back to the shelter for an unplanned “zero day.” We spent another night at this shelter. Only 2 other hikers came in this evening — seems everyone else was staying put where they were for the night too!

Myself and Mary having a snack before mustering up the energy to set up camp in the shelter for another night.

hung things out to dry (at least a little!) and tucked ourselves snug in our down quilts waiting out the rain.

Day 6 (5.2 miles): Take two! The rain stopped and we conquered the Cliffs!

Rocks & roots, roots & rocks, up, up, up!

Trying to capture the steepness of the Trail

I just love this pic! I would title it “Girls of Old” It reminds me of pictures of women hikers back in like the 30’s & 40’s with their unmatched hiking clothing, but smiles on their faces!

Another candid shot

This day we crossed back into NH. I hiked only a short 5 mile day into Gentian Pond Shelter. Mary, Lynn & Alina continued another 4 miles down a side trail to get a hotel room in Gorham for the night. They hiked a section I had already done the next day, while I hiked on into Gorham on the AT (a section they had alredy done) the next day.

Contemplating it all

But first, a lovely restful afternoon sitting by Gentian Pond. These 2 weeks of hiking were actually my sabbatcial from work — so I took some much desired time alone with Jesus on this beautiful afternoon!

My home for the night.

Day 7 (11.8 miles): I finished the state of NH by hiking the last 11.8 miles back to Rattle River trailhead where I started NH 4 years earlier. While it was a most challenging state, it also was absolutely GORGEOUS! I connected back up with Lynn, Mary & Alina and we drove on up to a hostel in Andover, ME where we showered and spent the night. We originally planned to stay here for 4 nights but the accommodations were just too small. We found a hotel at a reasonable rate further up the Trail in Rumford Falls, ME and decided to make that our home base for the next 2 nights. Picnic in a park in Rumsford on our planned “0” day.

Day 8 (0 miles): After driving to the hotel we took a planned zero day to do laundry, resupply food and rest up for the last 4 days of hiking. One of the things we did was orient ourselves to the area where the next sections of the Trail would be in Maine. We took a drive up to this beautiful overlook, only to discover that this was where we would be ending one of our days a couple days from now! I found NH beautiful, but I am quickly falling in love with the state of Maine as well!

Taking a tourist pic as civilized ladies!

End to another great day of hiking back at Height of the Land

Height of the Land

Day 9 (10.3 miles): The next 4 days we slack packed (meaning just day packs), heading further north into Maine. this day we picked back up at Grafton Notch and hiked to East B Hill Road. We hiked up and over the East & West peaks of Bald Pate Mountain.

climbing up — the Trail was pretty narrow here!

Bald Pate Mountain

Bald Pate Mountain

Climbing Bald Pate Mountain

we look like ants! That rock face was HUGE!

Looking back over the West Peak where we just came from.

Yes, conquered another one!

Happy Hiker!

But the hike continues. Rebar steps were quite common to see along the Trail this trip — lots of flat slab rock face to climb up and down.

In addition to rebar ladders, wooden ladders are provided at times as well — I think we each were starting to get used to this form of “hiking!”

Day 10 (10.1 miles): East B Hill Rd to South Arm Rd. Another slackpack day.

Resting at the top of Moody Mountain.

What goes up must come down

A nice surprise waterfall along the Trail!

Alina soaking her tired feet! I should have joined her!

Getting close to the end of another day of hiking.

Day 11 (13.2 miles): South ARm Rd. to ME 17. The day started off a bit rainy, but cleared up. The sun was going down by the time we finished. This was bringing us back up to where we drove a couple days before. Beautiful views!

Frieinds…

…contemplating the day

We could have sat here all night – we were tired!

Life is good! End to another great day of hiking back at Height of the Land

We then drove further north into the little mountain trail town of Rangeley, ME. Everyone was so friendly!

Our cabin at Town & Lake motel and cabins.

This was our home for the last 3 nights — great little cabin.

Day 12 (13.2 miles): ME 17 to ME 4. The last and final day. Lynn, Mary and Alina decided to sit this one out. It truly was one of the easiest stretches I’ve done this trip. I was actually able to keep a 2 mph pace and finished by 1:30. I met up with a thru-hiker about 1/2 way in and we hiked on out the rest of the way together making the day go by even faster.

Sometimes, once in awhile, the Trail is well, just a smooth, pleasant trail!

Fall is starting to show it’s colors in Maine!

Sabbath Day Pond

It even had a little beach!

This was the largest pond I think I’ve seen so far on the Trail — it’s called Sabbath Day Pond — a perfect name for the last day of my hiking sabbatical!

All in all, another great section hike on the AT. We had our traditional celebratory dinner in Rangeley.

I now have 1,806 miles and 10 of the 14 states completed with approx. 384 more miles left to finish the Trail. I will do one more outing this Fall, the state of CT, and hope to have the Trail completed in its entirety by 2024. Until next time — “Kool 91”