Day 90: Full Goose Shelter to Frye Notch Lean-to (15.5 miles)

August 10, 2004 - Hardest day I’ve had on the trail. The first 4.2 miles took 3.5 hours. I left camp at 8:00am to start hiking down to the Mahoosuc Notch which is called by most as “The Notch”. It was no easy hike down to the Notch, the 1.5 miles took almost an hour. Then at the Notch which is only 0.9 of a mile it took an hour which is a fast time for it because it takes some people close to 2 hours. The Notch is one big boulder field but very narrow. You have to go over, under, and around these huge boulders. Some places easy but some seemed impossible. Its hard to believe I made it through without hurting myself. You could easily break a bone going through. I passed some people that I stayed with last night who left the shelter over an hour before I did and made it through the Notch probable 30 minutes before them. After the Notch there was the Mahoosuc Arm which was almost as hard, hiking straight up the mountain. By the time I made it to the top it was 11:30am and had only gone 4.2 miles. After something like that I knew the rest of hike would be cake, had seen the worst. Coming down the Arm I met a guy heading south, Sugar Daddy, who was looking for some friends. I had stayed with those guys in Gorham and told him that they were very far back so we hiked together for a little while. Sugar Daddy was heading into Andover to go to the hostel and tried to get me to go but decided to stay at the shelter. It was only 5:30pm and lots of daylight left but thought I had put in some hard hiking in and thought it would be nice to stop early for the day. Also I heard of thunderstorms for the night and would rather be in a shelter than in a tent. 15.5 miles on the day.

Mahoosuc Notch