Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 140, Wednesday, 8/3 – Similar to yesterday, I started off my morning with a few cups of coffee. Genie then got breakfast going, and made a scramble with all the leftovers. It was an interesting concoction, and definitely had enough calories to keep me full most of the day.

By 9:00am, we had all packed up and cleaned the Airbnb. We coordinated a ride back to trail with Ziggy, who picked us up right at 9:00am. We got dropped off at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center, which is where we got picked up from trail the other day.

Although we finished the Presidential Traverse, we are still in the Whites, and had another difficult day of hiking in front of us. We started with a climb up Wildcat Mountain. The climb started with 2,000ft of ascent in a 2 miles stretch of trail, which is very steep grade. We got to the Wildcat Gondola, and decided to reward ourself with a break. We were there with Strider, Tin Man, Roady, and Guru G.

We had some more uphill before we hiked down to Carter Notch Hut, which are the green buildings by the lake in the photo below. We got to the hut, and hung out outside with Strider, Tin Man, Roady, and Guru G.

We left the hut, only to have another steep uphill. We climbed up to Carter Dome which is the mountain past the hut.

We all packed out about 4 days of food, which felt really heavy. The combination of the heavy packs and the steep climbs made the hiking feel like a bit of a slog.

We got to Mount Hight, which had a gorgeous 360 degree view, and a great view of the Presidential Traverse. We considered camping there, but the good tent sites were already taken up.

We hiked on and found a stealth spot North of South Carter Mountain (Mile 1884). I set up my hammock and cooked up macaroni and cheese. I was about to start brushing my teeth when I thought I saw a macaroni and cheese noodle on my puffy jacket. I ate the noodle off of my jacket, and quickly realized that it was a slug. I spat it out and proceeded to brush my teeth. Everyone else got a kick out of that.