August 30

The Whites

We got up this morning and started getting everything packed up.  Tink headed out with a few other hikers we all knew to slackpack the 17 mile section to the next road crossing that led back into Lincoln.  We used some clippers at the hostel to shave Apache's head.  We got a ride back up to the trail head where we had left off yesterday.  The four of us guys headed out down the trail.  We were now on the Kinsman Ridge Trail section.  What happens up here is the AT is concurrent with other named trails.  In the book it tells you when one trail ends, and another begins.  In the woods, the signs don't always say 'AT' on them, so it's important to know what trail you are on, and what the next one you will follow is called as well.  They also use fewer blazes up here to mark the trail.  They're usually frequent around trail intersections and road crossings, but I think the assumption is once you start down the trail, you should know that you are still on the white blazes of the AT.  We had a few miles of fairly easy climbing, then a short descent down to Gordon Pond.  Apache and Slims were ahead of me, but I saw their packs at the start of the side trail that went down to the pond.  Chet had told us yesterday that this pond was a great spot.  I dropped my pack and headed down the side trail looking for the guys.  This trail was narrow in places, and very muddy.  One slip of my foot and I sank into the mud up over my socks.  Ugh.  It was only supposed to be 0.3 miles to the pond.  I started to wonder how far I had gone.  Just a little bit more.  Maybe around the next bend.  Finally, I started counting my paces.  After I reached a count that I figured was an additional tenth of mile I gave up and turned around.  After all, I saw on my map that this side trail went on for about 5 miles, eventually back down to the road.  I must have gone a mile past the pond.  Almost back to the AT again, I was about to cross over a small stream, and I saw another trail.  The first time down the trail, I should have made a sharp left after crossing the stream, instead of the right that I had taken down the bank of the stream on the way down.  After about 100 feet, I popped out onto the edge of Gordon Pond.  It was a beautiful setting.  Many places for tent sites all around.  Mt. Wolf rising up on the other side of the pond.  I headed back to the AT, passing another Dartmouth group along the way.  Slims and Apache were putting on their packs.  I had missed them when I went too far down the trail.  Rainbow had caught up by this point too.  It would have been an ideal place to camp, but with the large group headed there, we moved on.  The climb up Mt. Wolf wasn't terrible.  There was a nice view at the top.  I could look back down to where I was at the pond only a bit earlier.  We had about 3 miles of downhill to cover before arriving at the Eliza Brook Shelter.  This shelter was a brand new rebuild.  Really nice.  Well maintained tenting area.  Good water source at the brook.  Bear box for our food bags.  Technically, we've been in the White Mountains National Forest for several days now, in a thin corridor since leaving Hanover.  But now it finally began to feel like we were in the true 'Whites'.  We were starting a section under the supervision of the AMC.  The Appalachian Mountain Club, or as they are sometimes called by hikers, the Appalachian Money Club.  Although our campsite at Eliza Brook was a no fee site, there will be many campsites and shelters in the next week or so that have caretakers on site, and charge fees to stay there.  There's a lot of reasons for doing this, which I don't have the time to get into right now, but very generally speaking, it usually occurs at the most high-use sites to help with maintenance costs.  After dinner, we all perused through our guidebooks to try to plan out our day to day milages through the next sections of the Whites.  We pretty much figured that we'd have to split up a bit to better our odds at finding places to camp.  We couldn't exactly roll in to a shelter with 4 or 5 of us and all expect to get a work for stay.  Nor could we all camp in the backcountry together at some of the hidden 'stealth' sites along the way.  The more I tried to plan things out, the more complicated things got.  And up here, plans change.  The weather and the terrain can force you to adapt in an instant.  Oh well.  I knew I didn't want to spend a mint going through here, but I trusted that things would work out just fine if I just paid attention to my body's limits and paid attention to the weather, and played it smart.

View toward Mt. Wolf from Gordon Pond.