Summary: 8/29 Last state, Maine! Summary: Random campsite: 1900 Mahoosuc Notch: 1914.4 The morning was fairly cold which means we moved a bit slowly to get ready. The first few miles to the shelter to were great. Maybe the White Mountains really would respect state borders. The first climb, though, was Mount Success. It felt shorter than the Whites, but strangely familiar. At the top we met a new nobo, Frozen, having lunch at the top. He got his name from accidentally freezing his Sawyer filter on his first night on the trail so he had to ask everyone else to borrow their filters until he was able to replace his. The hiking still was fairly good until the Maine border(!), which was cause for the extreme celebration of stopping for five to ten minutes to rest and take some pictures. We stopped for lunch at the Carlo Col Shelter trailhead. Tyler ran down to get some water and we took a longer break there (the more pragmatic, not joyous spot) for lunch. Emily said she was feeling tired from the slack pack day a couple of days ago, but she still was hiking extremely fast given the increasing difficulty of the terrain.Â
We started climbing Gooseye, a mountain Tyler previously hiked on a classic Hutchison quick family jaunt that took ten hours. The trail slowly became steeper and rocker until we were climbing boulders with rebar and wooden ladders and descents with wooden bridges covered in slats to, presumably, slow your descent when you start to slip to your death. This went on for the three peaks of Gooseye, coupled with some high elevation swampy bogs that we had to get creative to circumvent.Â
*My. Washington is clear for the 4th day in a row!Â
At Full Goose Shelter, the last official stop before the much feared and talked about Mahousuc Notch, we ran into Frozen again. We had talked about pushing for the notch that day. He was still going to push for it, but we were worried that it was a bit too late. We descended from Full Goose to the Notch by 6 and decided the chance of the sun going down while we were navigating the mile long boulder maze was too risky. There was a nice stealth spot right before the Notch and we were the only people there. We had packed out just enough water for dinner and rehydration. So, home for the night was built. Â
