Day: 123
Date: Friday, 25 August 2023
Start: Imp Campsite (AT Mile 1892.2)
Finish: US Route 2 (AT Mile 1900.0) but staying in Gorham
Daily Kilometres: 12.9
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 3107.9
Weather: Overcast and cold with rain periods.
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts
Lunch: Cheeseburgers & fries
Dinner: Penne pasta & meatballs/Calzone, apple turnover & ice-cream.
Aches: Dave - left knee troublesome; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: The last four miles of this morning's hike was following the Rattle River on a good, relatively flat, hiking trail. It was nice to be able to walk normally after a week of careful foot placement and steep climbs and descents.
Lowlight: Shortly after we started our last two miles of the day, having dried out somewhat after the earlier rain, there was a roll of thunder and then a torrential downpour. We were quickly saturated and the rain continued when we reached the highway along which we hoped to hitchhike to Gorham. Bedraggled in the rain, we began hitching. It was miserable and seemed hopeless when we were so close to our motel room and dryness and warmth.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
When our alarm went off at 5:30am it was raining heavily on the tent and it was very cozy in bed. Very tempting to stay there. But, we knew there was a good chance that by the time we had packed as much as we could inside - pretty much everything since we had kept our food and bear barrels inside the flysheet overnight (don't tell the ranger) - the rain might have stopped. And, that proved to be the case, though water continued to drip from the trees.
We ultimately packed up the very wet tent and were on our way soon after 6:30am on a very gloomy, misty, windy, cold and occasionally rainy morning. As we made the gnarly climb up Mt Moriah (4049'), our last peak in the White Mountains, we were passed by a succession of thru-hikers, many of whom had stayed at the same campsite as us. There were maybe 15-20 overall, all keen to get to Route 2 and town and out of the miserable weather (no views) like us, but spirits were high, probably because we all knew we would be warm and dry by tonight.
The descent from Moriah started out steep and technical but, the further we went, the gentler the gradient until, with about four miles to go it levelled out and followed the Rattle River to US Route 2 (see above). We took a delayed, because of the rain and cold, breakfast break around 11:00am at a shelter with two miles to go. The rain seemed to have cleared at last but, not long after we left the shelter, the heavens opened (see above). Although it was our fastest two miles in the White Mountains, as Julie pointed out, it wasn't fast enough to avoid getting saturated again.
We arrived at the highway earlier than we expected and started hitchhiking in the rain with little optimism at 12:30pm. We walked down the highway towards Gorham with our thumbs out until the rain eased somewhat and we stopped to hitch again. Miraculously, a young Californian guy on his way to do some day-hiking in the Whites over the next week, pulled over and picked us up. I think we were lucky he was in a rental car and didn't care whether we were wet and dirty. He kindly dropped us at our motel where the friendly owner let us check-in early.
By 1:00pm we were showering and changing into dry clothes with the room heater going full blast. Heaven! Later, Julie walked down to McDonald's to get us some lunch while Dave got the laundry going.
Julie's hiking shoes have taken a battering in the Whites and now have bad holes worn in the uppers. During the afternoon she walked down to the local sports/hardware store to see if they sold any shoes she liked. They didn't, so will be wearing her spare/camp shoes to the next town in a week's time. On her walks around town she kept bumping into thru-hikers we have become friends with over the last few months. It has been like a reunion town and quite a coincidence to meet so many in one place, especially when most of them are much younger and hike much faster than us. As we were walking into the car park of a pizza place where we had planned to have dinner, a van pulled in front of us and in the passenger seat was a thru-hiker we used to see frequently 1000 miles ago. We figured he was way in front of us, but apparently not.
A day that started pretty miserably has finished OK and we have a day off tomorrow. The forecast is for rain, so our timing is good.
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