Day 131 – US 2 to Carlo Col Shelter (mile 1904)

We grabbed breakfast this morning in town and ran into our old homies from Virginia, Z and Gia. It was cool to see them again. They came into town from Pinkham Notch, meaning they are a couple days of hiking behind us right now. We chatted and then had to hurry to jump on a shuttle we scheduled at 9am to get back to the trail.

The first half of the day was fairly easy hiking, certainly a notch below the difficulty level of the Whites. We had some really cool parting views of the Whites and Mount Washington as we hiked away from them.

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Whites and Mount Washington off in the distance from Wocket Ledge

The second half things got progressively tougher. The climb up to Mount Success was steep and on many slick rock slabs. The summit area was an interesting above-treeline open swampy thing.

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Near summit of Mount Success

The descent down included some monster boulders and tough scrambles, which is probably a little preview of tomorrow.

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Trail? What trail?

And then not long after that, we hit this bad boy.

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Woooooooooooooooooo! Made it to Maine!

We hiked on for another half mile and then went down and set up on a raised tent platform at the shelter. It’s been very hard to find good stealth campsites lately, so we decided to go against our normal ways and stay at this shelter. This one is pretty nice and our platform is pretty far away from the old guys and their midnight chainsaw snoring machines.

Tomorrow we have probably the single most difficult section of the entire trail, the Mahoosuc Notch. It’s 1.2 miles of bouldering over and around car size boulders. Then we have the supposedly ultra tough Mahoosuc Arm climb immediately after, so we aren’t planning any huge miles.

It feels amazing to be here in Maine, the last state, after so much hiking. I can see the light shimmering and hear the wind whipping on Katahdin in my dreams as we start to draw near to her.

Vital stats for Sunday, August 24th :
Milestone – done with New Hampshire, in Maine now (state 14 of 14). Also, 1900 miles.
Miles hiked today – 17
Mood – so psyched
Physical state – tired after a big tough day with warmer weather than of late
Smell – Mainely
Song stuck in my head – Take A Walk by Passion Pit

6 thoughts on “Day 131 – US 2 to Carlo Col Shelter (mile 1904)

  1. 'D'

    J&K that’s so EXCITING!!!!. Way to go and good luck with the boulders ahead. Be careful! Love ya and always thinking of ya.

    Reply
  2. Heiser folks at home

    Wow and Yeah and Yahoo. Maine to Georgia. Final State. Enjoy this, happy people. Love and hugs. Heiser’s send truckloads of virtual high fives.

    Reply
  3. AL

    Maine! Look out for Moose and granola types! 1900 miles!! Unbelievable! You 2 are truly amazing, even if you do smell Mainely (ugh).

    Reply
  4. Proud Dad

    Wow Wow and Wow again! Over 1900 miles AND the 14th state of 14! Talk about milestones! You have quite an adventure, with more challenges ahead. We love you two and think of you and pray for your comfort and safety ! Stay on the Maine path!!

    Reply
  5. Mom - Tapey

    Congrats! – for 1900 miles. Congrats! – for getting to Maine. Congrats! – just because you are so amazing. The Big K is just around the corner. (The Big K store probably is right there. Mt. Katahdin – figuratively so.) 🙂 Checked out some photos of Mahoosuc Notch and Arm. Wow! You certainly have some “interesting” hiking ahead. Be very, very safe and enjoy the challenge! Sending safe-and-steady hiking thoughts, many more prayers and boulder-size love.

    Reply

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