#205 Hexacuba Shelter to NH 25A/Hikers Welcome Hostel - Day 126: MM1779.5 - MM1784.5
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” she says, as some think they’ll be able to hike big miles. She advises us to be patient and hike slow, to accept smaller miles each day.
9-3-24
To describe the sights and the sounds of nature this morning, to translate the feeling of crisp air on the skin and in the lungs, to share with you the ease by which the early mountain morning unfolds, I’ll have to draw a word from last year’s section hike; pleasant.
Some mornings are so pleasant that you wish time would continue standing still. For a while it seems to.
Voices grow louder from the shelter as hikers begin moving around - so much for the quiet part of the pleasant morning.
Charge walks up to eat her breakfast with Zero-G and I, away from the mob. She said sleeping in there wasn’t very bad, but the tricky part was to walk over the other hikers in the hexagon-shaped shelter in the middle of the night to pee.
I take my time packing up and getting on the trail. There’s an immediate thousand-foot climb followed by a two-thousand-foot descent between me and NH 25A, and I have until noon to hike the six miles. I called the owner of Hikers Welcome yesterday to set up the time and place be picked up.
It is cool and quiet on the summit of Mt. Cube. There are a few low-lying clouds below me hovering just above parts of the valley.
Near the bottom of the mountain, I begin having a strange feeling in my stomach, and it’s moving around quickly. It dawns on me that I haven’t pooped since getting on the trail five days ago and…
Oh Man! I’ll be right back!
Much better.
Reaching the NH 25A trail head earlier than planned, I have an hour to kill before my ride comes. Last night I had considered hitching to the hostel, but it’s a long way from the trail and consisting of a few different roads, so I thought it best to have a plan.
There are a few adventure camps near here on this road. Camp Moosilauke is across the road from the small trailhead parking area. I can see what looks to be a high-ropes course in the distance next to the gravel road, just before it disappears into the trees. Too bad it’s not a hiker’s camp. I read about it later, and discover it’s a summer camp for boys.
Laying against my backpack by road, I talk with hikers as they pass by. Many of them are from last night’s shelter. Most cross the road and continue hiking. One group of six hitch a ride, somehow cramming themselves into a small SUV with six backpacks.
The owner arrives and asks if I know of anyone else on the trail who wants a ride. All the hikers I know about have passed through.
Packrat and his wife have owned the hostel for twenty-four years. He has thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, along with the Continental Divide and the Pacific Crest trails. Experienced hikers usually make the best hostel hosts.
He asks if I need to stop for supplies and pulls into Appleknockers General Store - the only resupply option around. I grab a large pre-made sandwich and chips and candy bars and apples and bananas and chocolate milk and chips and salsa and, trail food, and, and, and…..
First order of business upon reaching the hostel - EAT!