[at-l] 4th trail magic

[Arthur Gaudet]

It was an unusual weekend in the Whites, with Hurricane Hannah making it's
presence felt. Hikers must've been holed up in Lincoln/N. Woodstock and in
Gorham since I saw fewer than normal hikers at my perch on Rt. 302 - Crawford
Notch.

Arrived Friday around noon, by 11 AM on Saturday I still haven't seen any hikers
so I drove up to Gorham NH. Immediately caught Wak-a-Pak and Chaco, Mr. Lee
(Korea) and Claus. These are hikers I had met 4-5 days earlier when they went
through Crawford Notch. All is well with them, they were heading out of town
today (Sunday) heading N to the Mahoosucs. It was of interest to me to find that
the hikers are now preferring to stay at The Birches campground located about
halfway to town from the trail. This year they have a nice bunkhouse over the
little store, cost is $13 for a bunk, $11 to tent. I checked out the place, it's
clean & pretty good space, some table games, TV, looks like a good deal. Coin
laundry but shower & towel is included in the price. Gotta hitch to town for
food though, about 2 miles.

Since I left my cooler at the rt. 302 crossing I headed back for the evening. In
my absence the following hikers had passed by and left cooler notes for me:

Heading North:
Wideload
Freckles & Sprite - they are jumping around in the Whites, have already done the
Presidentials.
Henry & Tarn

Heading South:
Sled Dog
Red Cloud - trying to make a 20-mile day!

The best surprise for me was meeting Knee Knocks & Pull-up camped somewhat
stealthily among the trees. (They actually scared me a bit coming out of the
dark woods in the rain. Did I mention Hurricane Hannah had reached us by now?)

The three of us headed up the notch to Fabyans for a nice dinner together.
Pull-up was one of the hikers I met earlier this year on my section hike. I last
saw him at Partnership shelter so we had a lot to catch up on. Did I mention he
turned 17 on the trail just a few weeks ago?

That's this weeks report. The hikers are thinking they are at the end of the
pack, have just enough time to get to Katahdin.

 I've been trying to "inform" those from outside New England about how the
weather changes in the mountains this time of year. I may have put a little too
much fear into Knee Knocks, who is from Florida. But perhaps it's not a bad
thing. She's going to send home for her down jacket and get it in Gorham. Pretty
good insurance at this time of year. In my year (1997) I went over the
Presidentials on Sept. 18 in pretty nice weather. Two days later the thruhikers
on the Presidential ridge were taking refuge in The Refuge (the emergency
shelter at Lakes of the clouds) in a complete whiteout situation. They hiked the
next day in snow over Washington to Madison Hut in better weather but were
seriously frightened for their lives for several hours...

--RD
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