Day: 114
Date: Wednesday, 16 August 2023
Start: Jacobs Brook (AT Mile 1783.2)
Finish: Jeffers Brook Shelter (AT Mile 1800.4)
Daily Kilometres: 27.3 (Ascent 4446', Descent 4557')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2956.1
Weather: Mild, overcast and drizzling for much of the day.
Accommodation: Shelter
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Donut, chips
Lunch: Pop tarts
Dinner: Noodles
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: None really.
Lowlight: Dave managed to slip and fall over twice on slick narrow boardwalks, the second time partially falling into the swamp. He was not happy.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were hiking by soon after 6:30am on another gloomy morning … and straight into our first mountain of the day, Mount Cube (2909'), which proved quite challenging. The trail just seemed to keep going up and up, in stages, quite technical in places and across slick wet rock in others. We did get some views on the way up, but the summit was shrouded in fog.
The forecast was for no rain today, but it began drizzling around 9:00am and stayed that way for much of the day. We were going to stop for a breakfast break after our very slow first five miles, but it was so wet we decided to keep walking until we reached a road crossing where there might be shelter.
When we reached the road, we found some kind "trail angels" braving the miserable weather to provide drinks and snacks to thru-hikers. There was nowhere to sit down or get out of the rain, so we all just milled around in the drizzle trying to be cheerful, but grateful for the drinks and treats.
Continuing on, and climbing Ore Hill, the trail became exceptionally boggy and much time was spent trying to navigate around the worst of it in the quiet foggy woods with the only sound being the rain dripping off the leaves.
When we reached the next road crossing five miles later a thru-hiker who had finished the trail in Maine a week ago, and was driving back to his home in North Carolina, was handing out soft drinks and beer to hikers from his van. Another welcome surprise.
From there we had about six miles to go for the day, including the climb over Mount Mist, which lived up to its name. With a mile to go we had to cross the knee-deep Oliverian Brook, with Julie choosing to just walk through in her already muddy wet shoes, while Dave chose to walk across some precarious logs a little further upstream to avoid getting his feet wet.
We reached the Jeffers Brook Shelter around 6:15pm and finding the shelter empty set up our tent inside, for mosquito protection. There are quite a few hikers camped in their tents nearby, and we would have been happy to camp as well, but given the weather uncertainty, we would like to start tomorrow without having to pack up, and carry, a wet tent.
We passed the 1800 Mile mark just before reaching the shelter. Less than 400 to go! And we are now in the White Mountains.
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