Day 133 - Glencliff Hostel to Oleson's Pond

Before I forget, here’s my list of food I’m bringing into the Whites (around mile 1,781):

• 9 Nature Valley granola bars
• 3 Hershey bars
• 2 12-ounce packages of raisins
• 16 slices American cheese (sharing with Dave)
• 17 packets maple brown sugar oatmeal
• ½ tub peanut butter
• ½ bag chocolate chips
• one zipoc of Cheezits

Hope it’s adequate, but if not we can buy leftover food and snacks at the huts -- not to mention visit the snack bar on top of Mt. Washington. And if we manage to get a work-for-stay, we’ll get dinner and breakfast, too. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Hit the road at 6:15 to climb Moosilauke. It looked pretty impressive on the profile map. Was actually less than two hours to the top, but some solid climbing along the way. Foggy/misty and very windy at the summit. My first time above treeline! Didn’t get the full effect because there wasn’t a view. Pretty cool, though.

Murph on the Moosilauke summit

Then it started to rain, which wasn’t good news for the steep, rocky descent. At least no thunder. Murph and I took it slow, then waited out (or tried to) the rain for a bit. Dave showed up, and I had one of my wet rocks fits. How does he put up with me?? It was not as bad as I expected going down, though it took a long time.

Rain stopped. We went down to the Lost River Gorge snack bar where Murph was meeting her friends who are taking her to the summer camp she works at for a week. We probably won’t hike with her again, since she thinks she’ll get back on the trail where she got off instead of jumping ahead to hike with us. Very sad! I will miss her especially. But we’ll definitely see each other again.

Blur, Murph, and Longshanks

Her friend’s husband gave us a ride into North Woodstock to resupply. Then we got back on the trail. Knew we wouldn’t make it to the shelter, so we just started walking. No miles to finish, no pressure. I was more relaxed than I’ve been in ages. Tough climb coming out of Kinsman Notch, but nothing too dramatically different from what I’ve seen thusfar. I think I can handle these White Mountains after all!

Walked for about an hour and found a great campsite. Didn’t see anyone since we climbed out of the notch. Nice, cool weather. Early to bed!