As Castaway noted, today was a perfect day for hiking, with good visibility and pleasant, with just a hint of the approaching fall, temperatures. Some of the more fastidious of us might have asked for a little drier trail, as our shoes have never been wetter longer on such a sunny day. However, much of that may be attributed to the nature of the trail itself. We crossed more boggy areas than we could count and many places where the bog boards had failed (with boards either rotten or underwater). It was hard to keep feet dry while trying to avoid those ever-widening mud holes. There were also many spots where runoff from yesterday’s rain had turned the trail into slippery little rivulets. We doubt many of these are ever fully dry.

We began the day with the admittedly wistful hope of making it to Speck Pond Shelter, after passing both Mahoosuc Notch and Mahoosuc Arm. The many peaks of Goose Eye Mountain quickly ended that notion, as we were soon dealing with metal rungs, wooden ladders, short slanted boardwalks, and more than a little hand over hand climbing. The Goose Eyes also ended any notion we entertained of arriving at the challenge of the Mahoosuc Notch rested and refreshed…

Throwing Mt. Carlo in the mix as soon as we made our way from the shelter back up to the AT, we could only muster a puny one mph over the first 4.4 miles of the day. We stopped at Full Goose Shelter for lunch, before doing another 1.5 mile up-and-over something called the south peak of Fulling Mill Mountain. The steep downhill to the Notch was especially difficult for those of us young in heart, but old in body. On the way down, we met one southbounder stopped for lunch in the middle of the trail as he said during the Mahoosuc Notch he had worked up an appetite. At long last at the bottom of the draw we reached the small sign announcing the start of the famous Mahoosuc Notch.

With this being Labor Day and us being Professional Walkers, we had been glad to take the holiday off from our regular work and spend the day rock climbing. Over the next 1.3 miles and almost three hours, we certainly got the chance to do some more of that. Negotiating the Notch with a group of four was more fun than doing it alone, as we could explore different routes simultaneously with much conversation about which was the best way to go next. As advertised, there were several spots where we were ducking under and through the huge house-sized boulders. The temperatures in these little caves felt chilly as sunlight has a tough time penetrating the bottom of the Notch and (as we could hear) a cold stream flows below all the rocks.

As we finally reached the north end, sore from the out of the ordinary upper body workout all the pulling and lifting had given us, and a little muddy from our time down in the caves, we all pronounced it a fun experience. We were the first folks to arrive at the stealth campsite just past the Notch and found three nice level tent sites before another three or so NOBO’ers showed up. 30-pack was the only one of these we’d seen recently, but Kleenex knew Walkabout from way back in Georgia, and was glad to get updates on several mutual acquaintances. The Gang of Four ate quickly and were all in their tents by 7:30. With a good night’s rest, we hope to be on the trail early tomorrow and be to the road at Grafton Notch ahead of any Hurricane Issac remnants (the reason we pushed our mileage on Monday to make it through the Notch in dry conditions today…)