Day 142: Leaving Things Behind

Hiked 14.9 miles, staying at White Mountain Hostel.

I had some errands to try to accomplish in town today when I got there.  As I mentioned yesterday, getting the work for stay meant that I stopped earlier than expected and got a super late start today.  This meant that I had to book it all day today to get to town before things closed or do a nero or zero tomorrow to get stuff done in the morning.  I decided to try for the former. 

The pond at Carter Hut

On the way up Carter Dome, looking north up the notch

Looking across Carter Notch at Wildcat A

Another man in the mountain?

After sweeping the bunkhouses and dining room I quickly filled my water and took off.  The first and longest climb of the day was up to the top of Carter Dome.  The dome is fully exposed on top and provides a 360 degree view including Mt Washington.  It is starting to shrink in the distance now.  I caught up with the other thru hikers there and stopped briefly to enjoy the vista.  Humen is in the same boat as me and is pushing hard to get to town as well.

Looking back at Washington from Carter Dome

To the right of the above photo

To the right of the above photo, Mt. Hight with the Carters behind

To the right of the above photo

I descended Carter Dome and then went up Mt. Hight.  It was here that I decided to take a short break.  I reached for my water bottle and realized it was missing... I had left my full water bottle behind at the Carter Hut.  Awesome.  Well it was 5 miles back at this point and I wasn't going to do that.  Luckily I did have an extra water bladder, but it was just empty.  Nova happened along while I was figuring things out and kindly gave me some of her water which was enough to get me over South, Middle and North Carter mountains to the next water source.

To the right of the above photo

To the right of the above photo

Looking up at the peak of South Carter

I hiked into the campsite here and grabbed more water.  Humen had caught back up to me while I was doing that and we hiked the rest of the way into town together.  He took the lead and set a very fast pace.  We only had to climb over Mt Moriah and then it was downhill for the rest of the way.  The beginning of the long descent was steep but it flattened out slowly but surely until we were cruising down a very pleasant trail.  For the last few miles there were hardly any roots or rocks and we turned on the afterburners. It was a lot of fun to be able to hike at a four mph pace again, the terrain hasn't allowed me to do so in a very long time.

Climbing Middle Carter

On top of Carter North

We got to the road and stuck out our thumbs.  It was a tough hitch and we were there for a while before getting picked up finally by a lady in a pickup.  She works on a farm and gave us each a fresh picked tomato and ear of sweet corn when we got to town.  After quickly stopping for ice cream we went off to do our respective errands.  I then hitched back to the hostel.

On top of Moriah

Someone created a Risk board on the floor of this shelter

It is mostly section hikers staying here tonight.  Why Not and I are the only northbounders and there are also two southbounders.  Everyone relaxed in the living room for the evening and I called it an early evening as I was completely wiped from today's race into town.  Humen and most of the rest of them ended up heading back out of town and camping just beyond.