Today started in a cloud, not raining, but everything was still wet. Everyone I talked to said 10 miles to Speck pond was a reasonable day.
The trail was slippery, I fell a couple times, one time on a bog bridge where I hurt something in my knee, although not too seriously. Checked my first aid kit for painkillers… nothing… I have a vague memory of thinking I needed to restock that.
I had lunch at a shelter, which was perfect timing as it just had started raining before I got there. I ran onto another hiker as I was packing up and borrowed some Advil, which took the edge off. I finally got to the famous Mahoosuc notch, the trail goes down to the notch, which is basically a valley of boulders, then along The Valley and up the other side. It’s considered by many to be the toughest mile of the AT and it was a ton of fun! I put my poles away and used my hands to climb over and even under some boulders. It would have been much better if it wasn’t raining, but still fun!
Admittedly at the end I was getting tired of Boulder hopping and was ready to get to camp, but getting up the other side wasn’t cake either. My average speed for the day was close to one mile per hour! I’ve never had a 10 mile hike take ten hours.
As i got close to cap the sun came out, just for a bit, it’s too bad, I know many of the peaks I went over today have amazing views.
Hopefully my knee feels better tomorrow and there isn’t much rain.