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New Hampshire .. continued

August 4, 1997

What a great few days I've had! I met such nice people in the huts. Yesterday we stayed at Zealand Hut. It was a great flat hike there from Mt.Webster. My knees loved it! I've met so many Nbounders that I can't even keep track of them. We skipped Galehead Hut and camped up at Garfield campsite. Nice uphill to get there, Straight Up! From there we ended up climbing Mt. Garfield and Mt. Layfayette then going down a side trail to town because the weather was super nasty and Smiles didn't want to cross Franconia Ridge in yucky weather. So we'll go back up the side trail and finish that up tomorrow. We first went in North Woodstock on Saturday and stayed at the Cascade Inn. It wasn't very nice, or friendly. We paid the same as everyone else there and they put us in shitty hiker rooms. We then heard about a Bob Dylan concert and decided to stay an extra day to see the show. We hitched over to Loon Mountain and met up with Steven who runs a hostel there. He told us we could work for a while and see the show for free! YAHOO! We handed out fliers and did some odd jobs, then got to eat all we wanted and see probably the best Dylan show I've ever seen. He did a great Tangled Up In Blue! The opening band was good too, Good Old Boys I think they were called, from New Jersey. He then paid us to help clean up this morning. Loon Mountain is great! They have the lifts open now for mountain biking and they have cross-country riding, horse-back riding, and in the winter, skiing and snowboarding. FUN! Steven got us mountain bikes for the day, so we are going to go and play now. I'm going to attempt to do the downhill and go up the lift! We finally caught up with some Sbounders! Lil' Legs and Mudlark, we also met Thunderbolt and his dog Liam, and Nigel. Lots of people are heading up to the Great Went. It's going to be so great! Well, I'm going mountain biking! YAHOO!

August 10, 1997

Wow, I don't remember the last time I wrote, probably at Loon Mt. We had such a great time there! Steve was so nice and helped us out a lot. We left Loon Mt. and hiked up Mt. Layfayette, our last 5000 footer, then over the Franconia Ridge. It was so Beautiful! Perfect views all the way around! We could still see Mt. Washington! Mt. Layfayette was really crowded, at least 20-30 people we're at the top. We met Cat and Scat going down Little Haystack Mt. Must have talked to them for at least 45 minutes. We then happened to come across an amazing camping spot over on Mt. Lincoln and decided to stay there for the night. We were low on water and some day hikers helped us out and gave us some. The sunset was great! Lil' Legs and Mudlark slept outside on a huge rock and Smiles planned to also sleep outside, I however set up my tent. It's great-I can look at the stars from the inside of my tent. Smiles joined me in my tent in the middle of the night because it was so cold out. Then we saw parts of the sunrise. I kept falling back asleep, then waking up for a few minutes and watching, then falling back asleep again. The next morning we hiked down Franconia Ridge and over to Lonesome Lake Hut for lunch. What a great hut! It had the greatest view of Franconia Ridge and the Cannon Cliffs. I had so much minestrone soup that I almost got sick when I started hiking again. I also saw this guy who just keeps popping up on my hike. I first saw him way back on Old Speck, then at Pinkham Notch, now at Lonesome Lake. He works for the AMC and is always out running around. Must be a pretty nice job. I then hiked up Mt. Kinsman to Kinsman Pond Shelter. I stayed there with Lil' Legs and Mudlark. Smiles moved on to Elisa Brook Shelter. We camped with Green Man, Easy Chair and 12 LOUD kids. I hiked to Elisa Brook the next morning and took a short 15 min. break then moved on towards Wolf Mt., which was supposed to be nothing. It just kept going up, up, up, then a little down, then up, up, up, then a little down. I also realized right after I left Elsia Brook that I forgot to fill up my water bottle and only had 1/3 a bottle, and I hadn't eaten lunch and didn't want to without water. So I tried to hike fast, but that just made me more thirsty, so I just cruised along. I met some Nbounders who said I would come to 2 stagnant ponds, then a stream. So I came to the nasty, dirty puddles and expecting a stream I drank the rest of my water, but, "THERE WAS NO STREAM". So I walked the remaining 4 miles with no water and no lunch. I was so worn out, and thirsty. I ate the one thing I had that would make me the least thirsty and give me energy-a Hershey Bar. It helped, I cruised pretty fast for a while, then met The Condiments-Grey Poupon and Ketchup. We talked for a while then I moved on to the road, considering going into town. I got to the road and there were 6 Nbounders there. Jimbo offered me a ride into town. I thought about it. I didn't want to just disappear with Lil' Legs and Mudlark behind me, but I just didn't feel like hiking right then. I then found out that Leftover (Scott) and Lucky were taking 2 weeks off in Hanover. I had to met Smiles there in a couple days and it would be great to see Leftover and Lucky before heading off to the Went. Then I could met my family before Mt. Moosilauke and they could have a chance to see above tree line. It's so beautiful up there. You get to see the ecosystems change as you ascend and go into the Boreal zone, then the Alpine zone which is so beautiful! Then finally, above tree line. You get to walk with nothing around you but the wind and the sunshine(if you're lucky). Everyone should experience it! So I got into N. Woodstock, again, and decided to make my way to Hanover. I didn't realize it was 75 miles away. I got directions from Jimbos wife, then headed out, still hungry. Everyone said it would take at least 6-7 rides and I would never make it in 1 night. I went into Roadkill Cafe and the manager said he would take me as far as he could. He was nice, he took me about 15 miles then dropped me off and he even gave me a Dead bootleg! YAHOO! It has a super nice Scarlet on it. At that point I got a little worried for a second. I was on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Within a few minutes I saw a Jeep and stuck out my thumb. She pulled over and took me about another 15 miles and dropped me off, again on the side of the road with nothing all around me. Then again, in hardly no time a car drove up and picked me up. It was great! The second I stepped out of one car another almost immediately pulled up and took me further along my way. This one, my 3rd ride, took me all the way into Hanover and dropped me off in front of Dartmouth College, about 1 1/2 hours after leaving N. Woodstock!YAHOO! There are 3 houses that I knew of at Dartmouth that housed hikers. First I went to the Foley House, no luck. Then the Tabard House where I met Yaholla, a Nbound Pedro, Predator, Boogie, Lazy Lightning, and a whole bunch of Nbounders that had been there like 2 weeks, but no Leftover and Lucky. They told me to try the Panarchy House, so I headed over there. And, to my surprise I walked to find Sneaky, Trailvis, Rabbit, and Leftover & Lucky. It was so nice to see everyone again and to give everyone hugs and catch up on what had been going on. We all hung out and everyone decided to stay an extra day. We went and saw Contact-which was pretty good-it brought out a really good point. But Sneaky and Trailvis left this morning And Smiles should be here on Tuesday. So I'm just going to hang out until then, do some laundry, write postcards, etc, then ... It's off to the Great Went!!!

© 1997 Megan Hearn