(Trying to post quickly from top of Moody Mtn  Got my pics on wrong dates for last post–too bad  Don’t have time or patience to change it. Oops!) Also excuse typos. Not proofing.

Day 32, July 31, 9.7 miles

I went canyoneering today.

The whole shelter was up at 5 am and 8 of us hiked out this morning by 6 am. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We hiked for 1.5 miles to the infamous Mahoosuc Notch. It is dubbed “the hardest mile on the AT.” It is literally a jungle gym in the bottom of a canyon. Giant boulders that must be navigated under, over, through and around. We all stuck together today to try to work as a team to get through. A couple of SOBO’s came in to the shelter last night and said it had taken them 6 hours to cover the 1 mile in the notch. Oh my!!

We were all a little scared and excited. We hit it straight on and strapped our poles on our packs and tackled it. It was both challenging and fun. There were places you had to take your pack off and squeeze under boulders or through cracks in the boulders. There was still ice under some of the boulders. It was really cool and fun (albeit pretty hard work) until Poego slipped and took a very hard fall. He banged his knees and face planted with the right side of his face. We all stopped for about 30 minutes to make sure he was gonna be ok. It shook him up pretty good and his face looked pretty bad, but he managed to pull it together and continue on. We still had Mahoosuc Arm (a very steep and grueling climb) and Old Speck Mountain to conquer. We made it through the Arm and up Speck, but coming down Speck, Poego took another hard fall. He’s pretty bummed up, but ok.

We completed our 9.7 mile day in 10 hours and was picked up at Grafton Notch by Earl (aka Bear) who brought us to his hostel in Andover, ME. It’s quite run down, but he and his wife, Marge (Honey) are both in their 80’s and are super people. It was a nice surprise to see a couple I’d met back in Gorham who are finishing their section hike staying at the hostel also. They are both late 60’s to early 70’s–nice folks. Also a surprise was to see Pilgrim. A guy I’d met on the trail back in 2013 who was doing a thru-hike and became very ill in Andover, ME and had to get off the trail. Well, he’s back here in Andover to finish up. His wife is here and is planning to slack pack him the rest of the way to Maine. It’s good to see them.

The weather could not have been better. It was a beautiful day, but glad it’s done.