#223 Gentian Pond Shelter to Carlo Col Shelter - Day 141: ATMM1906.5 to ATMM 1911.7
Not only did I make new friends to sit with for an evening, but this meeting opens the gate to a unique partnership that we don’t yet realize.
9-15-2024
The Saturday Night Snorefest is finally over!
At least six of the twelve hikers inside the shelter snored last night, but the worse of them all was the female thru-hiker I was lying beside. She carries a mini-CPAP machine in her pack, but didn’t think to use it. It seems to me an adult wouldn’t climb into a shelter with other people knowing that they’re going to cause such an all-night ruckus.
I wipe the lack of sleep from my tired eyes. When they clear I they focus in on a blanket of clouds covering the valley below. From inside the shelter, beyond the “V” of the trees on our mountain, I can see other mountains rising above this fluffy white blanket. The sky above it all is clear and blue.
I wonder if hikers are waking up over there, wiping their eyes, and are looking back at us.
There are many tough climbs today, both up and down, but I handle it a lot better than I did yesterday. Despite the bad night sleep I feel a lot better than I did yesterday.
I’m taking it upon myself to change the spelling of Mt. Success to Mt. Suc(k)cess, due in part to the difficult sucky climb up and also for the deep mud bogs hikers have to maneuver across its summit.
Who would have thought the top of a mountain will be so boggy and muddy.
Whatever dirt that remains on some of these mountain tops from millennia of erosion is trapped in bowls. Since water doesn’t drain off these bowl-shaped sections, the two have merged to create large bogs that never really dry up.
Narrow portable boardwalks have been places across some of the bogs, but they are old. Hikers have to be mindful of each step.
Boards are weak in the middle, so they might bow into the mud.
Boards are brittle and may break in half at any point, some already have.
Boards are leaning to the side; wet boots have no grip on them.
The one that gets me is a broken board that, when I step on the end of it to cross, acts like teeter-totter, shooting the end beyond the base into the air and my end into the mud. My foot dips deep into the warm mud and I fall backwards onto my butt.
So here I sit in the soppy mud, with my foot hidden somewhere below. I pull hard to no avail to rescue my leg, but the suction is too strong.
Pointing my toes downward, hoping to weaken the suction, I pull harder. My leg breaks free with a slow farting sound as it gradually slides out. I hope my boot is still attached to my foot.
Success on Mt Suc(k)cess!!
The boot is still attached, and I am free. I wonder how many shoes and boots this mountain has eaten.
I regain my composure and continue on.
Reaching a rock out cropping just before ascending Mt Suc(k)cess, I take a break with a couple of other hikers at the overlook.
The sun is warm, the air is warm, but not hot. The gentle breeze feels good against my sweaty clothes.
Life is good right now, other than this large fly that keeps buzzing around me.
The hike down the mountain isn’t nearly as tough as going up the other side, though I did have to toss my poles down a couple of long drops, pull off my pack, and lower it to the next boulder, and the next, and the next, hoping it doesn’t roll off and fall thirty feet down.
Somewhere between Mt. Success and Mt. Carlo, at three thousand feet above sea level, I round the bend to see the sign I’ve been looking for all day - the sign indicating the New Hampshire/Maine State Line. YAY!!!
I’ve reached the final state of my fourteen-state long hike.
The couple I took a break with on top rounds the bend and offers to take a photo of me with the sign. What a beautiful day reach this milestone!
