June 8
End: Gentian Pond Shelter
Miles: 13.7
Total: 3760.1
I woke up from my sleep feeling a little refreshed. I had slept through my alarm, which was now going off at five in the morning. Motivated to get into town (Gorham, NH), I packed up and left. The hike down to US 2 was quite easy, and I got out to road and stuck out my thumb.
Within thirty seconds an Escalade pulled over and I met Rich Labonville. I explained that I needed to get to the Walmart on the far end of town, and he readily agreed to drive me all the way. We talked and he was blown away by the scale of my trip, even more than most people. We raced through the parking lot and he dropped me off.
Happy as could be, I got myself some ice cream, cookies, and a vegetable platter, and went to town on the bench inside the store. A few people stopped to talk to me, including a rather odd fellow who walked off hurriedly in the middle of our conversation and then returned later with a bit of a crazed look in his eyes.
Eventually I left and started trying to hitch back the other way. Pretty soon I hear a honk and look over to see Rich in his Escalade waving at me. Surprised, I join him again and we visit his store where I meet a few of his employees. I was interested to learn that they make the chaps the President of the United States uses if he ever uses a chainsaw. Not sure how much of that President Obama does, but I’ll bet Rich made a killing the eight years before that.
He ended up driving me to the post office where I got new shoes, and then back to the trailhead. I really lucked out. Thanking him, I sat down to eat the rest of my cookies and then get going again. I had a bit of a road walk to do before my climb back up into the woods. Not used to the pack weight, I had to stop and rest often.
I had big plans to go far, but was soon thinking of cutting my day short due to my heavy pack. When it started raining, I was just trying to get to the next shelter. Checking my phone, I was dismayed to find Gentian Pond still a couple of miles away. It really started to rain hard, much harder than what I had experienced in the White Mountains.
I had had quite enough. After a week of rain and almost impossible terrain I just didn’t really care about putting in miles or making schedules anymore. I finally got to Gentian Pond Shelter, hung up my wet clothes (which was everything), put on my long johns, crawled into my sleeping bag and took an incredible nap. It might have been the first nap I had taken during the day on the trail and it was very nice, especially with the rain continuing outside the shelter.
Eventually Conquered, the section hiker I had met at Rattle River Shelter, showed up. I got myself up to cook dinner, and even later Parkside showed up. I had been reading his signatures in registers for about a month, and it was great to meet him. I was surprised to find that he had been behind me, but he explained that he had seen his friend Catwoman off before getting on the trail again. The three of us enjoyed the view from the shelter, and I got back to sleep.
