| September 25, 2005 |
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I'm getting ready to go into Gorham.
I'm leaving Gentian Pond Shelter at 7:30am. I have about 9
miles to go today. A beautiful sunrise this morning. I
was able to see the clouds lying down in the valley and around the
mountains. It's pretty cool this morning, not as quite as cold
as it was yesterday morning, but it's cool enough that I've got my
rain pants on and my rain jacket and my gloves. My feet are
cold, but they'll soon warm up. |
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The climb from the shelter hasn't been to
bad this morning. It's been up hill, but it's been roller
coaster and some big boulders, you have to climb up over. It's
a beautiful morning! Sun still shinning on my back which makes
it feel better. I'm at Moss Lake which is about a mile from
the shelter. If it continues like this, I'll be able to make
some good time today. I do have a fair size mountain to go
over. |
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I'm shedding top number 2 and that is a
good sign. The trail has been real good. 2 big boulders
not much, mostly pine roots and a big pine forest with a lot of new
undergrowth of spruces. Not to many hardwoods yet. |
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I had some floating bridges coming the bog
after I got off the hill. This is a pretty little swamp
with a lot of pine trees in it and some underbrush. but it's a lot
of moss and grasses. Really pretty! |
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I'm passing Dream Lake. Tough
climb from the creek up, but I'm on some solid rock on the smaller
mountain. I see a lot of yellow in the spruces. Maybe
they're dying off or getting ready to lose some of their needles.
I've never known them to do that. A yellowish orange in
color. I can see from here a paper mill, might have been the
one I saw yesterday. |
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I am on the Locket Ledge and I can look
down into the valley see lot of mountains, the tree tops of the
pines, the trees that are broken off, the bare rocks in the
mountains, to my right I see the town where the paper mill is, and
the mountains way off into the distance. I can to the south
east the Endrow Sodden Bridge which I will cross. I can also
see bits of red leaves in the trees below me. Here again I'm
looking at mountains way off into the distance, just beautiful.
A little on the cloudy side today, I don't know if it's bringing in
some rain or not. They grayish in color. |
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Just met Colorado and Marsh Mellow going
north. They skipped the NJ section. Seeing a little bit
more red in the trees today. It has been colder than all get
out the last couple of nights in the shelters. I've been
really cold in the mornings. It's not very warm right now.
The air is blowing is what make you cold. |
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Coming up through some rocks, I've been
doing some rock hopping. I'm in a hardwood forest now, mostly
maples, an oak, white birches and beaches which I haven't seen for a
good little while. |
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I just about had a near collision with the
ground. I was hiking down a slight hill and caught my toe on a
broken off root and when to take the step and toe wouldn't move and
I fell right into a tree. Thank heavens the tree caught me or
I would have been looking at the ground. |
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Hiking through some swamp land on
boardwalks and you can smell this dank musty odor. I've come
4.9 miles and Gorham is 6.3 yet to go. I'm at the Trident Col
Tent site area. Going up Cascade Mountain now. It's not
big boulder hand over hand rock climbing, but it has some big rocks
in it. It is straight up the hill. There is very little
soil on these rock ledges for anything to grow in. It's mostly
decayed mosses. Getting into a lot of yellow maple trees and
beach trees that already have started to turn. I just passed
Grasshopper on her way north. It was good seeing her again.
That is the first I've seen her since Dalton Mass. We
exchanged information about the trails. |
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This is interesting, I came through an area
where I happened to glace up and saw all this white stuff and it was
nothing but white birches in the area and briars as underbrush.
Now I'm going through a woods that is nothing but spruce, tall
mature spruce and it amazes me how much the woods change just in a
short amount of time according to altitude. |
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I'm on top of a large rounder boulder
looking out over a river and a town. I think it's probably
Gorham. The mountains in the background are almost fogged in
at the top. That's probable the bigger mountains that I'm
going to be going over in the Whites. I bet we get some rain
tonight. |
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The stems on these ferns are higher than my head.
Of course they've all turned brown now from frost bite. I
finally made it to the top of Cascade Mountain. Huge big
rounded rocks, like hiking on cement. A lot of dear moss in
this area, small shrubs and ferns. A few pines here and there.
I have to go over Hayes Mountain, then on to Gorham. I'll have
to hitch a ride into town. What do you know, I finally see an
oak tree, mostly oak in this area. I don't see any maples at
all. You can tell I'm further south, I just got through
picking a new teaberry right of the vine and eating it. I met
3 section hikers coming off Mt. Hayes. They said I had about a
mile and a half all down hill. I love it when they say all
down hill because I know that they're lying straight their teeth.
It's never all down hill. Down off the mountain the ferns are
still green too. |
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I like this area, it's all woods, it is flat at this point,
beeches, a lot of white paper birches, a lot of oaks; I can hear the
nut falling. I like pines, but I got tires of hiking through
of nothing but pines all the time; they were close up to you, and I
enjoyed the aroma, but you couldn't see through the woods because
they were so dense. Here the trail is good and that
means I can look up and not watch my feet closely. |
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Coming out to a dirt road, I think this is Hogan's
Road. I'm looking at Mt. Washington now and I can't even see
the top of it. it's so fogged in. I'm at Route 2 going into
Gorham, NH. I'm staying at the Top Notch Inn on Main Street.
I'll probably zero tomorrow. It's supposed to rain anyway and
this will give me a chance to go to the pose office and get all my
stuff together and get my clothes washed and cleaned. It's
been a good Sunday, fairly easy day. I'll talk to you probably
on Tuesday. |
|
Swing'n Jane |
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