Day 131
We got up and had coffee with Toni this morning and Warren offered to give us a ride back down to the trail as he was going in to Hanover anyway this morning. We ran into several hikers this morning, including Connect 4 who we hadn’t seen since Shenandoah! We left town around 11 am after a serious lack of motivation and since Nokey was feeling under the weather still. We walked the road for a bit before turning back into the woods and climbing up to Velvet Rocks Shelter. The trail here was poorly blazed, if at all, and incredibly eroded and had many footpaths everywhere! We went up to the shelter and had read in the book there was another loop off the north end. Once again, it was not blazed and had many paths. It was a total waste of time and a pain. We found the AT again and then had a hell of a time finding our way for several hours as the same lack of maintenance and multiple footpath problem continued. We passed a cemetery and some empty trail magic before begin another climb where we decided to take a break. We sat for an hour in the calm pine forest and chatted with a local for a bit before heading on to the base of Moose Moutain. We filled up our water in the brook and talked with Zorro and Cheddah for a while before heading up the hill. New Hampshire doesn’t do switchbacks, so all our climbs have seemed so steep today. This one was no different! When we got to the south peak we saw some old plane wreckage from the 1940s and then had a slight downhill followed by yet another steep hill to Moose Mountain shelter. It was a rough walk with six extra pounds of water, but I was glad to have carried it up for cooking. Great Lakes and Tall Grass also made it in for the night. Tomorrow is full of steep climbs, but they promise views! I didn’t take any photos tofay as there weren’t any views.