August 29

Chet's

We slept in a bit this morning.  Left the shelter around 10am.  The trail continued down the back side of the mountain, sharply and steeply, coinsiding with the Beaver Brook Trail.  The trail paralelled the cascades of the brook as we dropped further into a steep ravine.  In some places there were more of the steel bars, and in other places, wooden steps had been bolted into rocks.  Spray from the brook made much of the trail slippery.  It took well over an hour to climb down the 1.5 miles to Kinsman Notch.  We stood at the rode crossing and got a hitch into Lincoln, over 5 miles away.  The usual agenda.  Get some real food, resupply, Post Office, browse at the outfitter.  Over the past several days, we had heard from southbounders about a place called Chet's.  We asked around in town, and got directions.  He wasn't listed in my guidebook, just a word of mouth thing.  We arrived in the driveway.  A large carved wooden bear and an 'AT' logo told us we were in the right place.  Chet greeted us and asked us some questions about our hike, just to make sure we were real thru-hikers, haha.  He had converted his garage into a nice bunkhouse for hikers.  Artwork that hikers had made decorated the walls.  There were signatures all over every blank space inside, from hikers that had stayed there over the years.  I actually recognized some of the names from jounals I had read before.  The place was packed, and we pitched our tents in the backyard.  We had showers, did laundry.  Much needed showers and laundry.  There were some bicycles that we could use to make getting around town easier.  I really enjoyed meeting Chet.  He suffered an injury from some hiking equipment years ago, and isn't able to get out and hike.  Listening to him talk about the mountains that we were yet to climb, I got a real sense of how passionate he was about being in the woods.  The way he described some of his favorite moments in the mountains was truely inspiring.

Carefully coming down the Beaver Brook Trail on the AT in New Hampshire.