Friday, July 22nd

Lyme-Dorchester Road (1771.6 mi) to Hikers Welcome Hostel (1795.4 mi)

Hiking Miles: 23.8

Total Ascent: 6,500.7 ft

Total Descent: 6,589.6 ft

Total Grade: 549.1 ft/mi

Steps: 57,485

FLEETWOOD MAC – You Make Lovin’ Fun

Gator/Sunrise: I woke up just before 4 am in the dark, then packed up a wet tent from last night’s rain storm. I was low on water so I made sure to fill up at the stream just down the path from where we stealth camped for the evening. At the base of a large hill leading to Smarts Mountain, I spotted a cooler, hoping it contained trail magic. I recall being extremely disappointed when I lifted the cover and saw assorted trash. All the food and drink had been consumed, and the cooler looked like it had been there awhile in that state and ready for pick-up..

On the bright side, the morning was pleasant and the moon above at 4:30 am was beautiful – I had to stop and capture the image. For some reason, the sounds coming from the woods were much different than any previous morning on trail. I know it sounds obvious, but it felt and sounded like my pre-trail morning walks in Hollis. Although I will admit I had not seen an orange lizard in all the miles I hiked in the woods back home like the one shown below.

I came upon a pretty cool rail climb just before 7 am, still in Lyme, NH. These little trail aids are not only helpful, but they are rather fun to climb.

Today was going to be a long one mile wise. Our goal was to reach the Hikers Welcome Hostel for two overnight stays, and an opportunity to slack pack Mount Moosilauke tomorrow with Sean, Jess (Croc’s friends from college), and their two wiener pups (Demi and Danica). Not only was it a near 24-mile day, it was extremely technical (WELCOME TO NEW HAMPSHIRE). By mile 16, my feet were sore and in pain from harvesting blisters (some of them open sores) from the wetness and tough terrain.

When Croc and I were just 5 miles from our destination, I felt as if I could not take another step, so I stopped to rest on a log. I immediately went into problem solving mode trying to figure the best way to make it to the hostel. Getting rest, a bite to eat, and a finding a ride easy enough would be like hitting the jackpot with the way I was feeling. I was totally willing to backtrack the next day after slack packing Moosilauke to cover any ground missed if that was the case. Croc tried hard to locate an Uber or a local trail angel. He even reached out to Sean, who gladly would have picked us up, but Sean hadn’t left his home in Maine yet, and would likely be arriving late to the hostel.

That’s when Croc came up an insightful thought. He suggested I rest awhile, air out my blisters, apply some ointment (which I carried in my med kit), and change into some fresh Darn Tough socks. Trust me, I was open to anything at that moment, and his suggestion made total sense. And it worked! Having a twenty minute rest, soothing medication, dry socks, and the determination to hike through the pain, I felt relatively good. We cruised up to Mount Mist, and almost missed seeing the sign (bright orange). I even found myself jogging at times and enjoying a long downhill descent (only a few steep spots) to the main street leading to the hostel. Thank goodness for Croc because had I pressed on without applying care to my feet, I may have required a day off to repair the damage.

The hostel was exactly what we needed. I love it when they have a fridge and freezer stocked with goodies, especially drinks for purchase. We received a tour of the facility (having many outdoor amenities) before we selected two bunks within their newly built barn which I will talk about later. Then shortly after we settled in, Sean and Jess arrived with their pups, and they too settled into a camping spot. They nestled their tent in one corner of the backyard, a perfect remote spot whereas they had their dogs. We all retired for the evening because we anticipated an early start in the morning and a steep climb up Mount Moosilauke. Today was indeed challenging (tough), however overall it was a good day.

Croc: I woke up to the sound of hikers being dropped off in a parking lot a little ways down the path from our tent site. I stared with envy knowing they were probably dry and had a nice sleep in town the night before. It didn’t help that I was rolling up my wet tent and stuffing it into my bag, probably adding a few pounds of rainwater to my pack weight. To make it even worse, there was a cooler labeled “trail magic” right off the trail in the same parking lot, but it was filled with trash. Not a great start to the day.

I started my climb up Smarts Mountain, and I’m glad we waited to do it this morning. It was a fun but tough four-mile hike to the top, and I’m not sure we would have made it the night before. It would have been really cool to camp up in the fire tower, especially with the storm, but we had plenty of nights left to camp with some views.

There were actually trail maintainers out very early this morning, creating steps for the mountain incline. I’m not sure how they organize their volunteer efforts, but it must be a lot of work to get everyone on board on the same day and to haul all the supplies up the mountain.

I didn’t take many pictures or videos today since we had to put our heads down and push nearly 24 miles to reach Hiker’s Welcome Hostel by tonight to meet Sean and Jess (a couple from college who would be joining us for tomorrow’s hike). I finally caught up with Gator, and he was in rough shape. His feet were blistering badly, but we still had several miles to go. To make it worse, we were in one of the worst areas on trail in terms of cellular service. I kept trying to call Sean and Jess to determine their ETA and possibly see if they could pick us up a few miles before Hiker’s Welcome Hostel at a crossroad. Unfortunately, they said they were coming very late and hadn’t even left their house yet (three hours away). I also tried to text a few drivers and a couple of Ubers, but to no surprise, there were none available in the area. We continued on since there was nothing we could do and we’d ultimately need to reach our destination in some form.

About five miles from the hostel, we reached NH Route 25C, a popular road where we thought we could track down someone to drive us to the hostel. The hostel was right on trail, but we were just five miles short of that location. After a few “attempts” to hitch a ride, we had no luck and no cellular service. We contemplated visiting Green House, a restaurant/dive bar right down the road, to grab dinner and wait it out (and maybe use their phone to find a ride), but ultimately decided to embrace the suck and keep going. This at least ensured that we’d definitely get to the hostel on time.

Although it was only five more miles, Gator’s feet were killing him, and we had a daunting-looking mountain coming up: Mt. Mist. Lucky for us, some of the most daunting-looking mountains on FarOut end up being nothing more than a hill, which was a pleasant surprise when we reached the top and almost “mist” it because we didn’t believe that was the top. I don’t think it made Gator feel any better, but at least it wasn’t worse. Gator was a champ and trudged along, even doing his jog here and there on the flat parts. We finally heard cars again, which meant we were almost back to the main road, aka only a quarter mile from the hostel.

When we made it to the front of the hostel, the caretaker greeted us and gave us a quick tour of the place. We hadn’t been to a hostel in a while (mostly hotels), so it was a nice change of pace, especially since they had the system where you could grab anything out of the fridge and just add it to your honesty tab. We made sure to first sign ourselves, Sean, and Jess up for the slack pack the next morning and then made our way to the fridge. We also signed up for their evening ride over to the nearby town where you could buy pizzas, sandwiches, beers, and other amenities from the convenience store. As we waited, we found some bunks in their separate renovated barn/house that wasn’t attached to the actual hostel and unpacked our bags to start airing out our wet gear.

Sean and Jess still hadn’t arrived, so we went on a ride into town to grab some beers, Gatorade, and food. It was a fun dinner experience because all the hikers gathered around a table in the backyard and shared stories about their hikes and how they planned on tackling the Whites. It was like a temporary trail family.

A few hours later, Sean and Jess finally came (with their evil dogs), but they brought gifts like candy and trail mix that was graciously added to our food bags. Since they had their dogs, they had to set up their tent and sleep outside. However, I wasn’t going to give up my comfy bed just to camp with them outside. Plus, their dogs barked all night, so I knew I didn’t want to deal with that.

I did feel bad going to bed only 15-30 minutes after they arrived, but it was nearly 9:00 PM, which is well past hiker’s midnight. They might have had the opportunity to sit by the campfire, but I think they went to bed right away as well.

Odd side story: A hiker named Optimus Grime, whom we met early in our trip back in Harper’s Ferry (he showed us our rooms and tried to make us breakfast that we didn’t want), was arrested here only a few days earlier. Apparently, he was kicked out of the hostel because he was drinking and smoking heavily and became incredibly aggressive and disruptive. The caretakers asked him to leave, so he stole a guest’s wallet and took off, only to be caught wandering around drunkenly and eventually arrested. However, they released him the next day.