laura woodward shelter to hazen's notch camp via canada

miles: 25.5

so tired. i hiked from laura woodward 8.4 miles north to the u.s. canada border, then switched to SOBO, and hiked another 17.1 miles.

the trail between laura woodward and shooting star shelter was pretty rough. more of the slap you in the face wet trail. arrived at shooting star and was surprised to see two sleep setups. apparently it was their last day and they only had 4.4 miles to the end, so they were taking it slow.

i marched on, the trail got significantly better, and a lot easier. i was able to move quite quickly. i crossed north jay pass 2.6 miles before the border.

i passed the 45th latitude.

shortly after 10:00hr i arrived at the canadian border. thankfully the weather was beautiful.

i took some photos, ate the snickers that nails had given me. i don’t remember snickers tasting so good. and i had a large swig from my flask.

[narrator] having completed his first through hike, he immediately started a second.

it took the rest of the morning, but i finally got back to where i had started, laura woodward. my plan was to get to johnson hardware tomorrow, so i had to put some miles on today.

i headed back over jay peak, and ran into nails and swamp donkey right at the top. they had had a bad day yesterday too. nails fell and smacked her head so hard she thought she might have a concussion. swamp donkey got stung by a bee. all around not a great day for we trio.

nails and swamp donkey heading down jay peak.

i snapped a few more photos since it was less cloudy today, and then headed down the other side. i called magz and chatted with her on the way down. i miss her so much. i think that’s the hardest part of being on trail.

i passed jay camp, checked guthook, but i still had 20 miles to johnson hardware, which would put me there after close of businesses, so i had to go at least a few miles more. it was already 15:00hr.

unfortunately i had 5.7 miles to go, and it was over the terrain that face slapped and then tried to break my neck. three peaks all in succession, gilpin mountain, domey’s dome, and buchanan mountain.

finally after a long decent, i arrived. it was almost dark. this sign sat at the blue blaze trail to the shelter.

there were three people in the shelter, a NOBO through hiker, and two SOBOs i had seen coming up jay peak yesterday. i pitched my tent and ate.

one of the SOBOs was trying to hang a bear bag and having difficulty, so i gave her some help. she gave me a home made cookie. COVID be damned, it was the best cookie i ever ate.

some additional photos from today: