trapper john shelter to green house restaurant

i woke up a little before 06:00. my tent was on the opposite side of the shelter from everyone else, so i couldn’t tell if anyone was stirring. i didn’t feel like dealing with mosquitoes, so i had my breakfast in my tent before packing up. i shouldered my bag and headed around the shelter and found everyone still nestled in their bags. i said bye and headed out.

the trail today was significantly harder than it has been. the morning was hiking up and over mt. smarts. it was so long i was convinced for a time that i had summited smarts and was halfway up the next mountain. the terrain was rocks and roots the whole way. i had to scramble at times.

the views are getting better though. for one, there are actually some. i descended mt. smarts and started my ascent of mt. cube. i stopped at hexacube shelter, a hexagonal shelter for lunch.

the afternoon was finishing summiting mt. cube before descending the other side. i was shocked when i got to the camp we were planning on staying at, ore hill campsite. my miles per hour rate had dropped significantly. i usually calculate myself as going 3mph. i actually travel slightly faster than that on average, but it’s easier math. this afternoon i was barely able to eek out 2.5 mph!

the ore hill camp site sucked. it was the site of a former shelter that had burned down. there were some tent sites, but none of them were flat, and all of them were full of roots. it was also very buggy. i set up my tent and took a nap.

i was awoken by a couple hikers that had stopped. one had to use the privy. they mentioned a restaurant 2 miles on that had pizza and beer and let hikers camp in their side yard. hmmm.

i went to get some water. it took forever. first because i couldn’t find it, and then because it was just a trickle. the mosquitoes near the water source were particularly bad.

when i climbed back up to camp i had some service and so i called the green house and confirmed that tenting was okay. i sent a message to the group. the only phone that received it was rocket’s, so i called him. he was with bugs and lyric a few hours away, but liked the idea. i tried calling kick and maestro, but with no luck.

magz called just at that moment feeling lonely, and i talked to her while i packed up and headed out.

i took a moment to take photos of the privy. it was themed as a castle complete with double doors, a throne, and a dungeon.

the 2 additional miles went quickly. they were easy smooth miles and legs and feet definitely had benefitted from the nap. i arrived at the road and walked the .2 mile to the restaurant.

there were quite a few tents there already. i set up and headed inside. it was a fun place. the bartender got his kicks from insulting everyone, and he could ne pretty funny too. i ate a ton and had some beers. finally i got a text from maestro that he was a mile out, and after he arrived another text from kick.

everyone eventually got there, though bugs, lyric, and rocket didn’t arrive until 21:00. thankfully the place was open till 22:00.

as soon as we cross the road tomorrow, we’ll enter the white mountain national forest and tackle mt. moosilauke.

some additional images from today: