Today's miles 3.8. AT miles 1698.9
We had a lazy start this morning, the Inn at Long Trail where we planned to stop for lunch didn't open until 11:30. We only had 4.3 miles to walk (3.8 AT miles plus 0.5 side trail) so we didn't need to start walking until 9:30. It was downhill to US4 road where we found some soda cans trail magic from Forget me Knot. We'd met her a few times, she'd been hiking the trail but came off to work summer camps to raise more funds to continue her thru hike in the fall.
From the road it was an up and over. We passed Maine Junction where the Long Trail (the trail running concurrently with the AT for the last 105 miles) left the AT. Maybe the trail conditions might improve a bit from now on, it's been very eroded the last few days with a double trail, double the usage. Not long afterwards we took a half mile sidetrail down the Sherburne Pass Trail, again very eroded, to the Inn at Long Trail. We entered the Inn planning on just having lunch. It's a really lovely place. The guy asked if we wanted accommodation, very reasonable at $65 including breakfast for the two of us. We didn't take much convincing so booked in for the night and are taking an unplanned nero (nearly zero walking day).
We had a very nice lunch in McGraths Irish Pub, part of the inn, then a lazy afternoon. We had afternoon snoozes and I had a relaxing bath which was bliss. It was lovely just to do nothing, I think we deserved it. We headed back down to the bar late afternoon for a drink. We studied our AT guide and put together a proposed plan for walking through the White Mountains, 'The Whites', which we'll reach in a few days time. The AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) maintains this almost 120 mile section of the trail. They operate 8 bunkhouse huts which they charge $125 per person, per night which includes bunk, dinner and breakfast, no showers though. Far too expensive for the average thru hiker and at $250 for both of us per night, too expensive for us, so this section needs careful planning. No stealth camping is allowed only camping at limited designated campsites, most a half mile or so from the trail. We also need a bad weather back up plan, The Whites are higher, more rugged and have stretches of trail above treeline, not a place we want to get caught out in bad weather.
We met No Big Deal again who we met in Dalton and his wife, Racket, so sat at the bar had a good chat with them. She started hiking the trail with him but had to stop due to injury. We had more delicious home cooked food for dinner and Nigel sampled a few pints of Guinness. On the way back to our room we met Gizmo again with his dad in the Inns lounge area. We met Gizmo way back in Virginia and bumped into him out for a short hike with his mum and dad on the trail yesterday. He's having a few days rest from thru hiking while his folks visit. It's Fathers Day today here in the US (not sure when it us in the UK). My father is sadly no longer with us but he was a keen walker/hiker too and I like to think he's up there somewhere looking proudly down on us. If he was still alive I'm sure he'd be closely following our progress. He'd also be boring everyone he met telling them of our adventure!
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