Hanover, NH to Pinkham Notch, NH

Day 2, Sunday, September 4

Velvet Rocks Shelter to Trapper John Shelter, 15.2 miles

I sleep almost twelve hours until just before 7 AM before I get up and pack. I’m hiking twenty minutes later. The next shelter is only 9.5 miles away, but I’d like to get to Trapper John Shelter, another 5.7 miles beyond that by late this afternoon, if possible. But 15.2 miles on the first real hiking day of the trip may be too far to tackle. It will depend on the terrain.

I cross the first road at 8:30 AM, and take a nice long break at 9:30 AM to finish off the rest of my Subway sandwich from yesterday and drink a quart of Gatorade. It’s also nice to get out of shoes and socks for a few minutes. I’ve crossed several fields already this morning, and my feet are damp from the heavy dew and high grass.

As I cross the next road I see what looks like a Ford Crown Victoria parked to my left at an odd angle in the middle of the road with its flashers on. I’d been hearing what sounded like an amplified voice to my right for the last ten or fifteen minutes. It keeps getting louder as I climb the ridge. I can make out that the voice is female, but I can’t tell if it is just a loud radio or some other kind of establishment with a loudspeaker that is close to the trail. The breeze is not completely in my direction, so I can’t make out what the voice is saying. I keep hiking.

Another mile up the ridge I can still hear the voice periodically. I stop to catch my breath and for the first time the words are very clear. The voice is telling someone to “Come out with you hands up!” The voice is telling someone to turn sideways as they come out the door with their hands up and lie down on the ground and that they don’t want to hurt them. Uh Oh! Sounds like a police standoff. I learn later police are attempting to arrest a man accused of discharging a firearm into a motel room in Lebanon early this morning.

I stop on the flank of Moose Mountain later in the morning to change my socks. I’m working hard to prevent blisters on this trip. At 11:45 AM I reach the side trail to Moose Mountain Shelter. I decide to push on. The water source for the shelter is supposed to be a little further north on the AT, but when I reach it, it is disappointingly just a wet spot on the trail. So it looks like I’ve made the right decision to push on. I’m going to need water this afternoon at some point.

After another thirty minutes, I take a nice long break at 12:15 PM. There is a nice breeze blowing over the ridges. The temperature is cool, but very sunny with puffy white clouds in the sky. In ten minutes I’m ready to hike again. I can tell that my running over the summer is paying off.

Just before the next road I pass the first of many Dartmouth College freshmen orientation groups out for backpacking trips this weekend. I stop long enough to say hello and wish them well.

It’s a nice drop to Goose Pond Road, before another smooth mile of the AT. The first big tough uphill climb of the trip comes next, an almost 1,300 feet climb to Holts Ledge. I pass a couple of SOBO’s and day hikers coming down. My water runs out on the climb, so I hope the next shelter has a decent water source.

I now only have a half-mile downhill to the shelter trail. The shelter sits .3 miles off the trail, and there isn’t anyone there when I arrive. The water source is great, so I clean up and cook supper. I’m finished by 5 PM. I take my time eating, letting my Lipton dinner cool some. I always seem to burn my tongue or the roof of my mouth the first time I cook on a trip. I guess it’s because I always underestimate how hot boiling water is. Plus I’m usually hungry and in a hurry to eat and get some additional fluid in me. There isn’t anything that tastes better than hot soup or broth off a Lipton dinner. But I’m not going to get burned tonight!

The temperature today probably didn’t get above seventy degrees. Its 62 degrees at 5 PM. Could be a cool night for sleeping. There haven’t been any bugs or mosquitoes to speak of the last two days. I’m thankful for that. That’s a huge contrast between now and July. Between bugs and high temperatures, Vermont was miserable in July.

I climb into my sleeping bag at 6:30 PM. Two SOBO’s come in at 7:30 PM, long after I’m asleep.