Lyme-Dorchester Road 1771.6 to Ore Hill Brook 1790.6 (19 miles, 765.2 total miles)
This morning was a little rough trying to wake up. I was tired from the miles and climbs of the previous day, and Shrek had accidentally turned her alarm off, so I snoozed mine for almost an hour till 6AM.
Realizing our blunder, we started getting ready for the day, and I cringed as I put on my hiking shirt, still very wet with sweat from yesterday. I collected water and started hiking at quarter to 8.
Smart Mountain wasn’t too difficult, but it still took 2.5 hours to hike the whole 4 miles up to the tower at the summit. I was fresh from having coffee and sleep, but it definitely would have taken longer had we started the climb at 6:30 yesterday evening.
It was only the last half mile or so that I started to feel tired, and I stopped for a break before the final push, eating a bag of sour gummy bears that I had. I listened to a podcast while I hiked, knowing I’d be able to charge tomorrow so I could use whatever battery I wanted.
I got to the fire tower just after 10AM, and climbed up to take in the view, which was spectacular. I could see the Whites not very far in the distance, and hung out on the upper stairs for a while, enjoying the breeze and letting my shirt dry in the sun.
When Shrek arrived she made the climb up as well, then we both headed back down to the base of the tower, where it was a lot warmer on the rocks baking in the sun.
Legz and Rude arrived, and another hiker we had seen with them the day before. She was a similar age, and her name was Corky. After nearly two hours of snacking and getting some work done on my phone, I headed down the mountain.
The descent was another 4 miles or so, but it was graded very nicely. It only took just over an hour to make it down to the brook where the next water source was.
Corky, Rude, and Legz were already there, as they had left before me. Shrek arrived not too long after, and I drank some Propel and ate a caffeinated Clif bar for the climb up Mount Cube.
I was excited for this mountain, because I remembered the views vividly, and a little of the climb. I had been by myself for that one, so it was a good solo memory finally, and that was where I fell in love with the trail in New Hampshire.
The first time I hiked Mount Cube, I was listening to Florence and the Machine’s album that had just come out at the time: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
I had a crystal clear memory of making it to the Quartzite Ledges right when the instrumentals of the title track came on, absolutely overcome with the moment. The beauty of what I was seeing and hearing, coalesced into an almost transcendental moment of pure bliss.
To honor that experience, I switched off the Bert Kreischer podcast I’d been listening to, and put on the same album when I was 1.5 miles up the mountain. The songs didn’t sync up exactly like last time, that would be almost impossible to achieve again, but I manufactured the moment when I reached the ledges.
On the large, exposed rocks, I sat down in the sun and started to eat lunch. I talked with Corky, and was surprised to find out she was on her third hike of the AT.
She was finishing a second section hike this year, and had done a thru hike the same year that I attempted my first time, in 2015. She is only the second person I’ve met this time around that has hiked the AT multiple times.
One of her sons has completed a Triple Crown, and the other hiked the CDT, and wrote a book about it, called Divided. I added it to my reading list. After she left, Legz and Rude showed up for a couple minutes, then hiked on to the summit, which was .8 away.
I think Mount Cube gives a good indicator to what is coming in the Whites, and it feels like the trail shifts there. I think, for me, this is due to the exposed nature of the side and top of the mountain, short stunted trees, rock cairns, and view from high elevation.
When Shrek arrived, she went straight for the blueberry bushes I hadn’t realized were next to me, and picked a handful for us to share. I ate most of the rest of my food, and baked in the sun a while longer.
It was 3:30 when I left to finish the rest of the climb, and descended to Brackett Brook. At the summit, I spent a few minutes with Legz and Rude, and saw Corky at the Brook when we all got there.
The three of them were going to camp at the tent sites just off the brook, but Shrek and I had another 9.5 miles to go. I was starting to feel tired, but was doing alright, just trying not to think about how long that would take.
The next few miles weren’t too bad, very casual grading, but I found myself wanting to stop every 2 miles or so. I was burning right through any calories I consumed, and was feeling tired from hiking so late.
The sun was low in the sky when I stopped at a camp spot near a paved road to eat most of my remaining snacks. 8 miles to go. Another couple easy miles later, I arrived at gravel road.
6 miles to go, and it was 6:45pm. Our destination was a pond off trail. I found a little dirt parking lot by the trail and hung out for a few minutes, feeling tired. I wasn’t sure how far back Shrek was, and didn’t have service to check in with her.
At 7, just as I was getting up to head out, she hiked up and I sat back down. She was tired too, and talked about maybe cutting some miles to a stealth spot 3 miles ahead. I didn’t want her to change plans again on my account, so I said I would do whatever she wanted to do.
Shrek decided to go for shortening the day, which I was definitely happy about. The next few miles went fine, but I was very tired and ready for camp.
We arrived at the spot just past sunset, and got set up quickly in the gathering darkness. I ate a packet of raw ramen for dinner, and got settled in. It was 9:30 before we knew it.
Once it was fully dark, we started to hear a large animal moving around among the pine forest beyond our tents. I jumped out of my tent, and we used our phone flashlights to illuminate the woods around us.
We couldn’t see what it was, but it was loud, and sounded like it was jumping around, breaking branches. Shrek totally kept her cool, but I got kind of freaked out, having never experienced that at night before.
She said it was probably a deer, and after several minutes, we heard it moving away past the creek. Soon after, I set my alarm for 4:30AM, wanting to get the 5 miles to Hiker’s Welcome out of the way as early as possible the next day. I was more than ready for a shower and some laundry.