Fortified with a great breakfast at the end of our work for stay, we left Zealand Falls Hut a little after 8:00 a.m. With yesterday’s rain having passed through, the morning’s weather was gorgeous. Below the falls, the AT follows an old railroad bed, and is remarkably smooth and level. We kept a greater than 2mph pace until we took an extended break at the turnoff to Ethan Pond Campsite. For us, this was simply unheard of in the White Mountains.

Having stopped short of our yesterday’s goal, we didn’t feel we could push on up the Webster Cliff today, so decided to take what about equals a nero. We had talked about an early stealth camp before US 302, but as we got closer to Crawford Notch, the idea of laundry, hot shower, and an easy re-supply seemed more and more appealing, and when a pickup truck stopped to ask directions to the closest campground as soon as we reached the road, we all piled in the back and said in unison, “We’ll show you!”

So, it was we wound up at the Crawford Notch General Store & Campground. We have a quiet site near all the necessary facilities, and have enjoyed a restful afternoon before we try to make it to Lakes of the Clouds hut tomorrow. We may have wasted a great afternoon for hiking, but it was great to get all our gear and clothes completely dry from Saturday’s showers. Castaway and Kleenex combined their talents to cook hotdogs over an open fire for dinner tonight, and we are observing Hiker Midnight at the early hour of 7:00 p.m. We hope to start out refreshed in the morning.

[Note: We have read, as we are sure you have, several trail journals where at about this point in the hike the writer will say something like “I’ve realized my hike is about to be over, and it’s happening too fast, so I’m slowing down to enjoy it and make it last longer blah, blah, blah…” We have now discovered this is just a bunch of hooey. It is not sentimentality over wanting to delay something great from coming to an end, but the Whites being a whole new ball game when it comes to tough hiking. That said, we’re going to take what the trail gives us from here on out, and if that means lower mile days the rest of our time on the AT, we’re ready to take that in stride.]