On August 23

Speck Pond Shelter to Full Goose Shelter
Miles: 5.1
Hours: Forever

Today I hiked through the Mahoosuc Notch.  The guidebook describes it as 'widely known as the hardest mile of the Appalachian Trail'.  Wikipedia refers to it as the 'killer mile' of the Appalachian Trail.  It took me 4.5 hours to traverse one mile of trail.  I was scared.  I cried.  It is the first time that the trail has brought me to tears.  To be fair, many people enjoy the mile.  Some people think it is like a boulder jungle gym, a challenge, a puzzle.  I can see how that is possible, but it was not my experience.

The Mahoosuc Notch is a canyon the trail crosses through.  In Maine Notch=Gap=Col=Valley.  Col is a new vocabulary word for me that I learned from Maine.  There is technical climbing work to do in the Notch, over boulders and sometimes under boulders.

There were times I had to take off my pack and push it through a canyon in front of me, and times I lifted it over my head to rocks above me and climbed up after it.  Hikers say that more than half of hiking the Appalachian Trail is mental discipline, and that was certainly true today.  While there were maybe four places that were more technically physically challenging than anything else I have faced on the trail, my mistake was that I let the Notch get into my head.  First, I was really tired today.  Then I knew that a man had hiked from Key West in Florida and planned to hike all the way to Canada.  Two weeks ago he hiked through the Notch and it scared him so badly that he quit and went home.  I thought that if it shook him up that badly, after hiking all the way to Maine from Florida, it must be scary.  What pushed me to tears, though, was that somehow my pack was mis-adjusted and it caused my three little fingers on my left hand to go numb.  That was really scary, and it was dangerous.  At first I didn't know what was causing it, or if it would get worse, and also, it is hard to pull yourself up rock ledges when you can't feel all of your hand.  And then I started to feel sorry for myself that I was by myself, and no matter what you are doing in life, if you feel sorry for yourself for anything, but especially for being alone, your day isn't much fun.

Finally I finished the Notch and started the last mile hike down to the shelter and it rained, making the trail slippery, so I slowed down even more.  When I reached the shelter it was already dark and there were three people asleep.  I set up my sleeping bag, ate a cliff bar and slept.

At 1:00 AM I was dreaming that I could hear a hiker coming down the mountain behind me.  I could hear the click. click. click. of the trekking poles getting closer as they came down the rock.  Then in real life a mouse ran over my head!  I sat up, yelling.  But of course I was swaddled in my sleeping bag.  I didn't really wake up until I was sitting up, and then I was afraid that I had knocked the mouse inside my sleeping bag when I sat up, so I started thrashing my arms around.  But of course the mouse was long gone.  I tried to sleep again.

Me in my sleeping bag in the shelter this morning, before the mouse/trekking poles dream.  Kinder took this picture.  It was cold at Speck Pond shelter this morning, but warm in my sleeping bag.

Speck Pond

I used this tree on the left as a spiral staircase, wrapping my arms around it and using it to pull myself up the rock.

Pictures of the Mahoosuc Notch.

 See the white paint arrows showing the trail?

This is one wall of the canyon-I didn't climb this, it is just the view.

More Notch.

See the two blazes? Go over these boulders-have fun.

 Finally out of the Notch.