Day 33: Gorham to Valley Way tentsite
Miles today: 7.8
Total miles: 327.2

I think I’ve mentioned this before but it deserves to be mentioned again. Our group is so lazy. Or we at least get sucked into lazy spells fairly often. This is evident in how long it took us to leave Gorham this morning. After leaving the abandoned gem shop (there’s a start to a sentence I never thought I’d write), we lazed around town, getting breakfast and charging our electronics and basically wasting time until we got our acts together to head out to the trailhead around noon.

We went to the busiest intersection in town to try to get a ride and not more than a minute after sticking our thumbs out a pickup stopped for us. All five of us and Mabel squeezed in the back and went back to Pinkham Notch to pick up the trail.

We had a huge climb up Mount Madison. If you’ve ever hiked with me or talked about hiking with me before, you’ll know I absolutely hate uphills (smart idea that I chose to hike the AT, right?). I hate uphill because I get tired and out of breath so easily and feel like I go so slowly and it’s never ending. Anyway, I’m slowly starting to hate them less. Madison confirmed this when I was able to make the whole climb without a break and without getting too winded. But what really made my day was when I came upon a group of about six guys in probably their late 20s. They were all fit and young and strong looking but I came upon them as they were stopped catching their breath on the way up. I breezed right past them and smiled to myself as they looked both shocked and ashamed that I was passing them. Not that it’s a race buuuut it was definitely an ego boost for me, the girl who struggles and hates uphills.

Once above tree line I noticed ominous clouds looming overhead. Hiking has made me realize one of my biggest fears is getting caught in a thunderstorm while on top of a mountain. So once I saw those dark clouds I picked up the pace and scrambled up and over Madison down to the campsite. We got there late and by the time we set up camp and ate dinner it was almost 9. Right after we all got in our tents it started thunderstorming so I was glad to be in my warm sleeping bag and below tree line.