I was up at 4:45 (easy to do when you fall asleep at 7:30) and hit the trail around 6. I needed to get to a side trail just beyond Interstate 93. The descent was fairly gentle by New Hampshire standards although somewhat hard on the knees. It was five miles down, then about a mile on the side trail heading south to get to a highway where I hoped to hitch a ride to Lincoln.
Two problems: the highway in question is fed from the north only by I-93 – and I-93 also has a Lincoln exit, so no one heading to Lincoln would be coming off the interstate. And even if someone decided to go out of their way to give me a ride, there was just no traffic at first. I walked along the wide shoulder (a bike lane) and counted to fifteen then looked behind me. If I saw someone coming I walked backwards with my thumb out. I repeated this pattern endlessly. I probably walked two miles before someone stopped. There were more and more resorts and motels along the highway as you approach Lincoln, which increased the odds that someone was driving there anyway. Jeff and his daughter Hillary picked me up. As with many drivers, they were planning a short hiking trip later in the summer, so maybe that’s why they felt the urge to stop for me. Like many others, they also drove by me, then two minutes later came back the other way to pick me up. Hillary gave me a packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwich (really? They make these things in factories?). They dropped me off at Flapjack’s Pancake House, since that looked like a good place for breakfast.
There were about twenty people lined up outside, so I beelined over to The Moon Cafe instead. I first plugged in my power bank, then ordered and sat down. I spent about a half hour in there, then went to an outfitter in the same building to ask about poles.
The guy in the shop was very friendly but that shop only carried outdoor clothing, not gear. We chatted for a quarter hour since he had done a ton of hiking in New Hampshire and Maine. Then he directed me to Lahout’s. After finding the right Lahout’s (only one of their stores carries poles) I presented my broken poles to a staff member assuming he would agree with me that I needed new poles, but no, he went back with the pieces and came back with two working poles that can extend to the required 120 cm for my tent. Best of all, there was no charge! When someone comes in with broken poles and decides to get new ones, I guess they keep the pieces that are still in working order and use them for later repairs.
I resupplied at Price Chopper, went back to the cafe to pick up my power bank, and headed out. The road out of the town that led towards the trail was far off but I found a bypass road nearby that led to it, so I walked that, again watching for rides. After ten minutes a van pulled up. The driver said he just had to pick up his son and grandsons and then would take me to the access trail. So overall, hitching worked out, but not nearly as efficiently as previous times, and once again people went quite far out of their way for me.
It was almost 2pm by the time I was back on the AT. Since stealth camping really doesn’t seem like an option on these steep slopes, my choices were a campsite 2 miles and 2500 feet up, or a shelter 9.5 miles and 5200 feet up. The shelter was almost certainly a bad idea. So around 4 pm I reached Liberty Springs campsite, where Beck, the caretaker, welcomed me. I paid my $5 for a site, filled my water bottles (including a brand new Smart Water bottle and a brand new one liter root beer bottle I had already had the great pleasure of drinking on the way up) at the spring, and headed to an empty tentsite.
The spring water was ice cold and delicious.
All the tentsites are on platforms. I had assumed that I couldn’t put my tent up on a platform because I need to use stakes, but I just hammered the stakes in the gaps between boards, and the tent went up beautifully, my six million dollar man poles and all. (I assume most tentsites in the Whites will be on platforms because level ground is practically nonexistent here.)
I took my food and stove to the cooking area, figuring I’d meet people there. The four Quebeckers I’d seen when I arrived were cooking and eating so we spoke in French for a while (I didn’t have to keep asking them to repeat questions, so I think my francofrere from last night just had a strong rural accent). Later a father in his 50’s and his son arrived. The father does waste management management (he manages waste management) for the state of Massachusetts, which means a lot of helping municipalities figure out their approach to waste reduction, recycling, etc. Very interesting work. The son was in commercial HVAC, quit that because of a shitty boss, has moved into building maintenance, and plans to become a professional welder. The dad and I had been talking about how AI is going to replace many jobs, but the son’s career choices all seem to be relatively immune to AI taking them over. Rhe dad’s daughter is doing a PhD in Physics, and has been to SNoLab, the Sudbury neutrino observatory. I mentioned Mildri being a midwife and Wolf studying neuroscience, and we agreed that our kids at least had chosen careers or areas of study that might survive AI taking over much of the knowledge economy.
Today was probably the fewest miles of any day on trail other than nearos where I was heading to a hotel or hostel, but it was the right choice. I’m going to take the Whites at a sustainable pace. If that means I finish in the first week of August instead of the end of July, so be it. It’s nice to finish the day not exhausted, have time to socialize, and still get to bed before 8:30.
Mile 1819.8 to mile 1827.6 = 7.8 miles
Another alpine lake
My repaired poles
One of many fancy hotels in Lincoln
Interesting and productive day.