Today's miles 9.3. AT miles 1795.9
We had an early start this morning, quarter past seven we were walking on another beautiful clear sunny day. We had Mount Moosilauke (4802ft) to get up and over today, our first big mountain in The Whites and the first mountain without tree cover on the summit. It was basically six miles uphill followed by three miles downhill. We had all day so we didn't rush and hiked up slow and steady, not even breaking into a sweat. The trail was pretty good going up, some rocks but easy enough. We arrived at the south summit about 10:15. We had great views from just after there to the main summit ahead. It was beautiful, it was so nice to be on a mountain top with open views for a change rather than in the trees all the time with no summit views, more like the mountain hikes we're used to. It makes it all the more worthwhile the effort to get up there. We reached the main summit with an American flag on top just before 11am and sat and had a snack break enjoying the vista.
Just coming off the summit on the way down a couple of White Tailed Deer came bouncing past. They stopped and did a perfect pose for our camera. The trail down initially wasn't too bad, quite gradual to start. The last mile down however was tough. Very steep rocky steps following the side of a waterfall down the Mountain. There were a few wooden steps and handrails thrown in where needed to help. The last mile seemed to go on forever, we took it slow though we didn't want any accident or injury. It was definitely the hardest mile of the trail so far.
We arrived at the bottom at Kinsman Notch about 1:30. We waited at the side of the road for a hitch into North Woodstock about five miles away. It wasn't a particularly busy road but we didn't have to wait too long, a very kind guy picked us up and dropped us off at The Woodstock Inn. We arrived at 2pm too early for check in which was 4pm so left our packs at reception and went for some lunch in their outside bar area. It's a very popular place it was packed. We wanted to sit outside, we thought it better in case we smelt too bad. We had to wait 20/30 minutes for a table, the food was delicious though. We finally got to our room just after four. We keep finding these gems of accommodation for a very reasonable midweek price, cheaper than the motels down the road and breakfast's included. Our room is lovely again with double bed, plus day bed and private bathroom with beautiful old roll top bath plus bathrobes, we're staying for three nights, hiking tomorrow then a rest day.
We got showered and changed then went to the local grocery store to get some hiking snacks for tomorrow. We are slack packing tomorrow (hiking with a day pack only). Our first time slack packing. We said we wouldn't slack pack but the way the trail goes tomorrow we can hike 16 miles and still be less than five miles from North Woodstock (on a different road) so can stay at the same place. There's no point carrying all our gear when we can leave it safe in our hotel room. We've said our hike whilst on the trail has to be a 'continuous, unsupported journey', trips to and from towns excluded. Many hostels offer slack packing services for a fee, often also meaning walking a section of the trail in the opposite direction, which we wouldn't consider. We are going one direction only, Georgia to Maine and without slack packing support from a third party.
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