Troll's 2010 AT Journal

13 September 2010, US Route 2
I stopped at the Pinkham Notch AMC center store and got a new pair of leg gators, mine were in bad shape and all shredded up.

The day started out overcast. It never cleared up today. Once up into the clouds on Wildcat Mountain the weather could not decide whether it was going to rain or drizzle. It switched between rain and drizzle while going over all five summits of Wildcat. I got pretty wet but stayed warm because of all the climbing and the heater exerted from it.

I ran in a thru hiker named Ice when I reach the gondola on Wildcat and he was miserable and said he was having a bad day and thinking about taking the gondola down. I told him there was no shame in doing that and that he could always take it back up when and if he was ready to resume.

While climbing one of Wildcats summits I ran into Coopa and Big O. The last time I saw them was in the Shenandoah’s when I was making up the section that I previously skipped. They got off the trail at Duncannon and flipp flopped. That means they went to Mount Katahdin and started heading back. People usually do that when they are not going to be able finish there thru hike in time before Katahdin closes or the weather gets bad and the snow comes. We chatted for a little while. They told me that Yatazee was coming behind them, they all flipped together. They were concerned about going up Washington. I told them my story and about slack packing down from Washington and told them that in my honest opinion that section of the trail for me was the worst. They said they had thought about slack packing it and I highly recommended it to them. They were also concerned about the Whites and all the rain, if I were them I would be to. There is only one day of sun in the forecast for the next week. I sure hope the weather clears up after that, I would hate to hike through Maine in the rain. It is my home state and I have hiked it before and know how beautiful it is. I would hate to have the last part of my hike be miserable when all the rest was good. I hope that there is no fog in Maine like what I have experiencing today.

I lost my hiking hat somewhere I pulled everything apart and could not find it. I ordered a new one online tonight and had it sent to East Andover.