Day 28 - Sunday, July 10

Linda

We practically walked over Ray when we broke camp this morning. He'd come in last night around 8:00, but didn't see us. He wasn't sure of his plans yet, but we'll probably see him again sometime in the next day or so. We made the climb up Carter Dome with little effort, but couldn't see much of anything. The trail down to the Carter Notch Hut was very steep, and Ronald got way ahead. At the bottom, I figured he'd gone on up Wildcat Ridge, so I kept going. Turned out he'd stopped at the hut. I got up to the first spring and met two guys we'd seen the day before. They said they hadn't seen Ronald, so I figured I'd better wait. In a few minutes Ronald and Mike came up the trail, and we continued on. Sorry I missed the hut, but we will pass a lot more along the way.

Wildcat Ridge ascends 1,000 feet in less than a mile, so it's a very steep climb, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views from the top. The trail from there went up and over five smaller peaks, imaginatively named A, B, C, D and E. There was an observation deck on D, and the gondola lifts from Pinkham Notch stop there. There was even a snack bar and a tacky souvenir shop. I had wiped out pretty bad on a steep section just before and skinned up my leg and nose (of all things), so I needed a break when we got there.

We had a good laugh about a sign at the snack bar. It was undoubtedly there for the benefit of the tourists, and proclaimed in lofty terms, how the Appalachian Trail, "..crossed over mighty mountain ridges stretching their great shoulders skyward..". Oh, brother - if only they knew. The trail from D Peak down to Pinkham Notch took us almost straight down over boulders - so much for great shoulders skyward. It seemed like even longer, because we could see the lodge from the top, and we were anxious to get there. We finally arrived around 2:00 and immediately went to get quenched, and treat ourselves to blueberry muffins. We rested our tired feet while Ronald called home, and then made reservations for Lake of the Clouds Hut. We also had to get a day use permit for the Great Gulf Wilderness coming up next. After leaving Pinkham, we continued on 4.6 miles to the other side of the Wilderness and camped. Les and Pete came in about an hour later and we all talked until dark. This was a 12.5 mile day today.

Ron

It was freezing cold when we awoke this morning. As a result we had a hard time getting started. We finally managed to break camp around 7:00. As we were hiking back to the trail from our camp, we saw Ray's tent. Apparently he had arrived around 8:30 last night.

From camp there was an easy climb up to Carter Dome, followed by a steep decent down into Carter Notch. Somehow Linda missed the directions and kept heading down the trail when she reached the cutoff to Carter Hut. Since she was ahead of me, I thought she had gone to the Hut. When I arrived at Carter Hut, she was nowhere in site. I tore off down the trail to catch up. I finally caught her on the climb up Wildcat Ridge.

We had a steady hike along the ridge with small ups and downs until we made it to the gondola lift at the top of the ridge. At the lift we met our first mass of tourist on the trail. What a mess! On the hike down from the viewpoint to lift house, we took the AT instead of the paved trail. A woman following us, yelled to her friend that she was hiking the "professional trail".

The trail from the lift down to Pinkham Notch was long and steep. At Pinkham Notch we stopped at the Pinkham Notch AMC Camp hut for a while. I got a root beer and had time to call my parents to check on things. We also made our reservations to stay at Lake of the Clouds Hut on Mount Washington. After about an hour, we took off to cover the 4.5 miles across the Gulf Wilderness to our camp site. We found a good camp site by a stream and stopped for the night. Out mileage is getting better, even over rough terrain.

(12.6 Miles - 319.3 Total)