Miles today: 10.6
Total miles: 281.3
Today was a big day. We had Mahoosuc Arm and Mahoosuc Notch to complete. In our guide book under Mahoosuc Notch, the text reads, “Most difficult or fun mile of the AT. Make way through jumbled pit of boulders.” Northbounders since Katahdin have been hyping up the Notch and Arm to be fun but really tough. People really build up this part of the trail so it was like we were finally about to encounter this legendary and impossibly tough part of the AT. I was nervous and excited.
On the way down from Old Speck Mountain we stopped at the first shelter to get water. This shelter was unique in that it had a caretaker who lives at the shelter for the summer helping to maintain it. I talked to the caretaker, a guy in his 20s, and after chatting for a bit discovered he lived just a couple streets away from me in Jamaica Plain this past year. He knew my street and said it was part of his running route. It was a crazy coincidence especially in meeting literally in the middle of the woods miles to the nearest road.
After that first shelter, we got to Mahoosuc Arm. For us Southbounders, the Arm is a steep and long downhill mostly consisting of slick slabs of granite (for northbounders it is a tough uphill…obviously). What makes it so difficult is that the rock offers little in the way of footholds and the rock is often wet making it even more dangerous and slippery. Some hikers we passed right before it said we should just take out our sleeping pads and sled down it. Ha. It actually wasn’t as scary or difficult as I’d imagined, which was a relief. I took my time going very slowly and did a lot of butt-sliding down the parts that were steeper. It took a lot of concentration, but finally after an hour or two of descent, I successfully made it to the bottom. Onto the Notch!
I’d been nervous for Mahoosuc Notch since even before I fully committed to hiking the AT. The fact that it’s the most difficult mile out of 2000+ miles made me imagine the worst. How do you declare a single mile the most difficult? And what sick people would argue it’s the most fun mile?! My worries turned out to be unfounded as upon completing the notch I found myself allied with the latter group–finding it far more fun than difficult.
The trail through the Notch cannot even be called a trail. Imagine a plane came and just dumped hundreds of HUGE boulders for a mile straight, letting them stack on top of each other every which way. Then, imagine someone just drew a line zigzagging through this maze of boulders, under some, over some, through caves, etc. This is the trail. I didn’t take any pictures unfortunately… because I was doing so much climbing and descending, but I’ll post photos from online. It took a lot of hoisting myself up over huge rocks, then butt sliding down others, then crawling through narrow caves where I had to take my pack off to fit through. The caves were deep, dark, and freezing cold sheltered from the sun. There was still ice from winter in some of them. IN JULY! What?! Some of the crevices between the boulders looked like they descended into darkness forever so I mostly did not look down.
Google and Cool Blue stuck with me throughout the Notch, which I was so grateful for. They helped me navigate over tougher parts and offered me their hand if I needed it. It was also more fun doing it together in a group. It was like a giant jungle gym and gave me an upper body workout for a change. We made it through in an hour and a half, beating a northbounder’s 2 hour time.. HA! We high fived at the end and continued onto the next shelter.
We had to climb the Goose Eyes, two big mountain peaks. It was a tough follow up to the physically demanding Notch and Arm. It took a lot of determination and forcing myself to go on when I thought I couldn’t to get through those last two mountains. Finally we got to the shelter and I could not wait to get to bed. I went to bed feeling happy and accomplished at having completed the ‘hardest mile’ and then some.