Mahoosuc Notch

We left the shelter this morning as a group and went over Fulling Mill Mountain to the start of the Mahoosuc Notch. That is a one mile long boulder jumble that we’d been told takes anywhere from three to five hours to get through. It’s been called either the most fun or most difficult mile of the AT. I was expecting a huge boulder field but it was really a corridor between two cliffs.

I put my trekking poles away for the Notch since I had to use my hands with almost every step, when I was taking steps that is. There was a lot of sitting and scooting too. We were gradually going downhill throughout the mile but it was a constant climb up and down to get over the boulders. We had to go down through some caves too and I took my pack off a few times in order to fit through tight areas.

I was nervous going through parts of it because I saw Uke fall right when we started. He landed pretty much perfectly on his pack and was fine, but it still shook us up a little bit. We all made it through the rest of the Notch without incident after that. We stopped in the middle for lunch, but made it to the end after 2.5 hours of hiking. Not bad.

Next was the Mahoosuc Arm, which I’d heard was a hard climb. It involved a lot of long, steep rock slabs, but it really wasn’t anything worse than what we’ve been doing lately. It was just made slightly difficult from being so sore from the Notch. I definitely haven’t used my arms that much in a while, and my legs and back were feeling it too.

Once over the Arm, we stopped at the Speck Pond Shelter. It was early and we had only gone 5.1 miles but it was too far to the next shelter and everyone was pretty beat. I did all my camp chores quickly so I could get in my sleeping bag as soon as possible.

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3 Comments

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  1. OMG.

  2. How deep were the caves? Were they dark enough for your head lamp or could you see right through them?

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