Appalachian Trail (day 77) - Hikers Welcome Hostel to Eliza Brook Campsite / mile 1816

"After hiking in White Mountain's everything else seems easy" Sue

First day in the White's, I can confirm now that terrain here is unlike anything we faced on the AT so far.

In the morning I had a coffee and a breakfast muffin at the hostel, surprisingly despite the early hour Tum Tum, Iceman, Yukon and Gutsy were up as well. Weather was supposed to be a mixed bag but we were all determined to climb Mt Moosilauke today.

I headed out and started the 4000 feet climb first, it was a long, steady uphill going through well maintained terrain, problems only started at the top. Day was quite windy, combined with the rain and exposed, alpine environment, it became a recipe for a very wet, cold and uncomfortable time. At the top wind was pushing me left and right and rain was cutting across with great speed, I was completely drenched in just few moments. Luckily exposed section didn't last too long and the AT dived into the pine forest soon after.

South face of Mt Moosilauke was even more interesting. It was running along few miles long waterfall, winding down steeply into the valley. Terrain was really challenging here with many scrambling sections carved into a solid rock, wooden steps and steel handrails were providing basic safety. This section was really well maintained and designed, I've met many day hikers heading the opposite direction hoping that the weather will turn and they will have some nice views at the top.

After the descent finished, another fairly technical but not as steep climb to Mt Wolf commenced. At this point I started to believe what a day hiker Sue told me few days ago that White's were really something else. Everything was different type of difficult here, you just had to accept it, respect it and act accordingly. 

Once I've got to the top of Mt Wolf I was already quite tired and I haven't even done 15 miles at this point, of course windy, wet weather was making it slightly worse and I scored two slips and falls on the muddy terrain. At this point I've abandoned the plan of attempting to do another climb and just head into the next available shelter, reset, dry up and carry on tomorrow.

I've arrived at the Eliza Brook Campsite at 4 PM, few day and section hikers were already here. After an hour Iceman and Tum Tum have joined us, Yukon has left the trail for couple of days to go to Chicago for a wedding. We talked about how difficult and crazy this first day at the White Mountains was, also about the food which must be the most common topic among long distance hikers, especially after few months on the trail. 

We talked about dehydrated meals, black bears we met on the trail and how delicious they are. One of the section hikers was a hunter and said that he and his father killed several black bears and that they tasted great, you had to slow cook them as they carried parasites which needed to be neutralised before consumption. Apparently bears tasted like pulled pork. Another section hiker sold me a great recipe for a shrimp pasta with tomato sauce, peas and pineapple, which I totally wanted to try  cooking! I gave her my secret beetroot and feta cheese pasta recipe instead, it was a fair trade.

Meanwhile I had my boring ramen bomb with salami, set up the tent and hanged the backpack and socks to dry, then it was a fairly early bed time, I could hear other hikers chatting and laughing in the shelter and the stream gushing by the campsite which was a pleasant background to me slowly drifting away.