7-31-09 day 59
start: Hikers Welcome Hostel @ Glencliff, NH
end: Chet's Place @ Lincoln, NH
daily mileage: 9.5
total mileage: 793.1
We left the hostel in the rain this morning and road walked a detour to avoid a flooded river crossing. I guess we did it to avoid soaking our feet, which became laughable as the day, and rain wore on. First order of business was to climb Mt. Moosilauke. This was easily the biggest mountain we have had, and will be one of the biggest on the trail. we climbed 3500 ft up to an elevation of 4800 ft in the driving cold rain. It made you want to give a beastly animal roar and tear down the mountain with ever step. We felt like wild men, MOUNTAIN MEN! I got up ahead and once I hit tree line the weather was insane. It wasn't so much raining anymore because I was inside the cloud but, cold wet mist and sleet were blowing horizontally. Visibility was about 30ft. I came this far up shirtless and felt massively pumped so I decided to make the summit half naked. The barren cold summit was wild and I felt incredible. I touched the sign and gave a Tarzan yell...OK everyone I know that was intense, but now we need to settle down.
After waiting for a minute for Disney I decided I was cold after all and put some clothes on and headed toward the treeline to wait. After 30min I was very curious as to what was taking so long to I popped back up to the summit in case he was waiting there. Well he wasn't and I was freezing so I decided to head down for good and hope he caught up. After a while of descending and seeing no sign of Disney I had a feeling I might not be on the AT. The fact that there were no white blazes was also a clue. Though, I figured whatever trail I was on was going down the mountain anyway so it had to lead to something. Toward the bottom I hit a sign that pointed to "Ravine Lodge" and I said, "Great, people!" After that, and a sign pointing to "Parking", I now had budding hope that I would not freeze to death out in the woods. The people at the lodge showed me a map and what trail I had gotten on coming down the summit and that I was about 4 miles around the base from the AT. I wasn't about to hike back up and over to the AT so I called the phone that Disney had with him and left a message saying I was headed straight into Lincoln, NH, where we planned to go that day anyway.
I got a quick hitch and after asking directions at a tattoo parlor I made my way through town to Chet's Hiker Hostel. After a shower and dry clothes Disney came walking in still soaked and cold. While I was waiting a little off the summit on the wrong trail, he had passed by and went down the AT. Figuring he was still behind me he went all the way down to the road, and was extremely confused when I wasn't there either. He had no cell reception so he couldn't get my message, and not knowing what else to do waited by the road for 2 and a half hours, in the rain...ugg sorry man. He finally hitched in and we reunited. Chet is awesome and super chill. Micha, Rabbit, and Shenanigans are all here, we even got guitars and had a jam session. Good stuff after a hard day.
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