This morning we were up and on the trail before 7:00, with a steep uphill right off the bat. The rocks and huge boulders never let up all day. Our first feat was Mt. Success, which we managed by a little after 9:00. We both remembered a true feeling of success from '77. Then we ended a tough day camped with our little band of thru-hikers behind the shelter of a rock face on top of Mt. Success. Then it meant we had conquered Maine and made it to New Hampshire. Today, headed north, it meant we were only two miles away from our destination state of Maine. Either way it was still a good feeling. We took a break on top, once again using a rock face as shelter from the wind.

From the summit of Success, the next two miles to the border seemed much longer than they should have, with many tiring PUDs (those pesky Pointless Ups and Downs) in between. We knew we were close, when we could hear whooping and hollering ahead. We arrived to find a gathering of our Northbound friends, relishing the moment at the border sign which proclaimed "Welcome to Maine -- The Way Life Should Be". More cameras than people suddenly appeared out of pack pockets, and it became a Kodak moment. Too bad Easy was still coming up behind. I really wanted to see his reaction as he crossed the border. He'd already warned everyone he planned to get all choked up and cry. We heard later at the shelter that there no tears, but there were cigars and a toast to the great state of Maine.

From there I lost track of all the rock climbs. We stopped for lunch at the trail intersection to Carlo Col Shelter. This time we were smart enough to eat along the trail, and sent Brandon (minus his pack), down to fill the water bottles. Rob had gone down too, but didn't think to take his pack off first. When he finally returned, he walked up to Lone Wolf and said, "Hit me!" for not having enough sense to ditch the pack first. It was one of those "Oops, I could have had a V-8" moments we all have from time to time.

While we ate, we could hear Tumbles and Smokin' Joe struggling to pick their way down the boulder infested drop we had just come through. It was hard to know whether to slide down, or climb down backward or forward. Every hiker just has to pick the way that works best for them and go for it. Earlier in the day, at another steep little notch, we had just made our way down and across. We were only a few yards away, but the dense trees blocked our view. Suddenly we heard a loud expletive and Smokin' Joe yelled out, "What's the deal with this? I'm only 5 feet 4! What were they thinking? I can't do this!" (or words to that effect.) We laughed so hard -- not at him, but because most everyone else, no matter how tall or short, was pretty much thinking the same thing. He was just the first one to be honest enough to say anything about it. Its not as though no one had ever been here before, and all the boulders were naturally positioned the way nature had left them. Many rocks and boulders had been "engineered" into the appearance of a navigable trail to fool hikers into thinking they ought to be able to make their way through this mess without killing themselves. Or at least without causing serious damage to body or psyche.

The two peaks of Goose Eye, standing between Full Goose Shelter and us, waited to be conquered. Brandon was still in his "this is awesome!" mode, so he got ahead of us this afternoon. At one point, before climbing down a particularly steep chasm, we could hear voices ahead, so we looked across and could make out what looked like two huge logs leaning against the side of the mountain. On looking closer, we could see it was a log ladder. Peeking through the trees, we could just make out Brandon's pack. He was with Cowboy and Tumbles as they inched their way up toward the top of the ladder. We snapped a picture from there, then a took some more of the monster close up a few minutes later as we followed in their footsteps. There was other similar trail innovations along the way. They appeared to be very recent additions, because the wood was fresh, and there were wood chips all over the ground from ax blows used to construct them.

At the first peak of Goose Eye, a long break was informally declared. Everyone was basking in the warm sunshine, relishing the fact that it was only 2:00, and most of us were only going another 2.2 miles to Full Goose. Now that 2.2 miles could easily take 2.2 hours in this terrain, but even at that, it's still an early day. Easy 8 searched his radio dial for a station that played something other than country tunes. Found some schlock rock station. He said it felt like a lazy day at the beach, bagging some rays. Only one small thing missing in this scenario -- the ocean. A small detail that no one seemed to mind. It felt great to enjoy a beautiful afternoon on top of a very rugged mountain.

Creeper and Mr. Bojangles had already zoomed on. At one point, we could see Creeper on top of the second Goose Eye summit. We were the next to move on, knowing it would take us (or rather me) longer to maneuver the rocks. For the remainder of the afternoon, my knees grew increasingly tender. With each slam up or down a rock, I could envision my legs just giving way. In the last mile, even walking on the bog bridges was painful. Usually, the springy wooden planks provided some relief from the pounding of the granite, but not today.

Once I climbed the final log ladder up to the shelter, I was done in. We set about our normal evening tasks of water gathering and dinner preparation. Ronald and Easy got a great fire going, and we enjoyed another pleasant evening with our extended hiking family. The family seemed to grow each day as the "Maine Train" moved closer to Katahdin.

After dinner, I settled into my sleeping bag to relax and write. From my cocoon, I can still enjoy the fire and join in the conversation. The brutality of the rocks today has taken some toll on everyone. We're all beat, but know there is even more coming, with Mahoosuc Notch, Speck and Baldpate, all in the next two days.

Tumbles said she'd been sliding down a lot of the steepest rock faces today on her rear end. A Southbounder had observed her and told her "Honey, if you're gonna do that all the way to Katahdin, you're gonna need to get a new pair of shorts!" Better the shorts than the body. But, sliding or not sliding, my legs are a mass of bruises and scrapes and scratches. The only consolation is, the bruises are superficial. They don't hurt, they just look painful. Now, if I could just say the same thing about the knees…

This morning was a mixture of chaos and excitement. The shelter was packed with both the upper and lower platforms filled with bodies and gear. It's a wonder that everyone got out with there own equipment. I sat on the deck of the shelter for a few minutes eating breakfast and taking in the great view of the valley below. Part of me wanting to continue on to Maine and part wanting to just stay. You know who won we left.

Mount Success was our first goal for the morning. It is the last mountain before the Maine boarder and the site of a great night on the trial in '77. After a quick snack we were off for the border. It was to be a great occasion; some thirteen thru-hikers would be crossing into their final state today. For us the impact wasn't as great, but it did mean we survived New Hampshire and the Whites.

At the state line, we all stopped awhile to take photos and celebrate. HoneyBear and RareBack looked at the sign a long time before walking the final few feet to cross into Maine. What seemed strange to me was that both the Fab Four and Cowboy would be crossing into Maine today. They had started their adventure from Springer on the same day many months ago. Over the last few months they saw each other only occasionally, as their paces were different. Now they would be entering the last state together.

This section of the trail is particularly rough. It contains many short rock climbs and descents. They make the hike interesting, but it's difficult to make much time. Next time I decide to do this maybe I'll just toss the schedule. It's hard for me to enjoy the challenge and the beauty of the hike when in the back of my mind I feel the need to always keep going. That is one of the difficulties of doing a long trail. You are constantly torn between the need to hike and the desire to stop. I wonder how many people eventually quit the trail because they are unable to successful balance those needs.

After a particularly steep drop, we stopped for lunch at Carlo Col. Sitting there, we could hear the curses, grunts, groans and scraping packs as the hikers behind us made they way down the rock face. You could almost hear the silent frustration as they looked down and tried to secure a path that would allow success and minimize the potential of injury. Some would come down backwards others liked to face the danger. Some tossed their packs down and passed the obstacle unencumbered. A few used their packs like a sled, using it to increase the friction and slow the decent.

Just before the summit of Full Goose, we came upon a big wooden ladder traversing a shear rock. I'm not sure what hikers did before the ladder was installed. Personally I would have used a rope. Unfortunately backpackers generally don't carry climbing ropes. It is obvious that this climb was added since '77. I think I would have remembered it.

On top of the ridge we all laid out in the sun to rest and enjoy to view. Even though the actual summit was only a short distance away, few decided to make the journey. The view on the ridge was great and frankly I didn't want to hike any further than needed.

We got to the shelter early and took advantage of the opportunity to build another fire. In '77 I don't think we had more than a half dozen fires on the whole trip. On this trip we didn't build a single one on the southern section. Since we've been hiking with Easy 8, we've had fires most nights. While I know they are not needed, they sure add a lot the experience. There are few nicer feelings than arriving late at a shelter tired cold and wet, and finding a nice warm comforting fire. I told Easy if he builds the fires I'll buy the beer.

Tomorrow we off to conquer the Mahoosuc Notch.

Today we would cross the Maine border. Unfortunately we had to work hard to cross the border and work harder after the border. On the way to the state line, we had to cross Success Mt. it was a steep climb in itself but it had a rewarding view at the top. Back down the other side of success was steep and we had to climb over many boulders. At the border we took a break and celebrated with all the thru-hikers. We all took lots of pictures then took off. From the second we stepped across the border the trail got harder there were lots more boulders to climb over. We climbed over, under, around, and through every rock. Finally we reached the top of Goose Eye. We sat and rested with everybody else. We soon knew we must leave so we descended the mountain then climbed back up another one. From the top of the second peak there was a steep climb back down the other side on solid rock. Down, down, down that’s the only way we went. When we got to the shelter we set up our sleeping bags and had dinner then sat and talked.