I got up early and was hiking by 7:45. It was sprinkling most of the morning and then turned to rain before noon. I made it up to the top of Mount Mist and stopped to drink some water. As I took a picture of the sign, I heard a big scrambling noise behind me and turned around to see a moose! Or I should say, I saw a moose butt running away into the fog. But it counts! It was smaller than I expected so maybe it was an adolescent.

Going down the mountain, the mud was very slippery. I slid several times and fell once. My hospital shoe’s traction is surprisingly good on dry ground and rock, but it has nothing on mud. I ran into Stretch and Little Bear again halfway down. We were making good time but Stretch was concerned about making it over the next mountain, Moosilauke, before dark. We decided to check radar at the road at its base and decide there.

We made it to NH 25 and there was no signal to check radar but the rain had stopped. Stretch was still worried that it was too late in the day to start going up the exposed ridgeline and we might get stuck heading down the other very steep side of Moosilauke in the dark, made worse with it wet. We decided to stop there after 10.3 miles, even though it was early afternoon, and went down the road a bit to the Hikers Welcome Hostel.

I’ve been so hungry a lot recently due to the colder temperature so I decided to take the opportunity to resupply and stuff myself for the rest of the day. The hostel had microwave pizzas, ice cream bars, microwave popcorn, and sodas for sale so I had lots of those. Then we made a run into town to get more food at a deli and I stocked up on snacks for the next two days. In the store I wasn’t sure if I had enough, but now that it’s in my food bag, it looks like way too much. I bet I will eat it all though based on how hungry I’ve been the last several days on trail.

There have been movies running constantly in the common room so I’ve gotten to watch bits and pieces as I wander through: Joe Dirt, Run Fatboy Run, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Time for bed now because we are planning an early start again tomorrow.

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