(Daily Mi: 11.8) Gorgeous a.m. Had breakfast with the AMC hierarchy. An experienced White Mountain hand in the group advises that I probably have 2 1/2 to 3 more clear days to traverse the Presidential range (another 35 odd miles hence) before weather sets in.
The day starts with a scramble to the summit of South Twin (4902 ft). This is kind of fun just because I have seen this peak from the distance a few dozen times in my life and it's satisfying to have the reverse view.
This is followed by a long boney descent over several intervening knobs. The AMC does not believe in switchbacks, preferring to localize erosion to a thin band of trail rather than having minimized erosion over a wide area. It's an understandable philosophy, but the granite strewn boulders covering the deeply eroded trailbed are a definite, dwarf pine clutching challenge, particularly downhill.
I have lunch at the AMC Zealand hut with Mountain Man and Old Hank. Score leftover, cookies and lemonade for two dollars.
Brisk hike the last 4.5 miles at the tail end of a group of college aged northbounders who have taken to calling themselves the Ass Pack.
Grim water supply at the campsite. A green stream feeding an even greener pond. I treat and pray.
Very nice AMC maintainer at the site. Many Quebecois about. Share the shelter with father and son White Mountain enthusiasts and an older northbounder named Mainframe, an old school hardware engineer. Had similar frustrations with his declining miles since hitting the Whites.
Choo Choo comes in her now traditional two hours back. I guess I have become jaded because as she limps about the site, the maintainer suggests that he can radio his base camp and arrange to have her evacuated.
I am not surprised that she declines, but her knee is swollen to the size of grapefruit and she cannot put full weight on one foot.
Tomorrow we will climb 3000' on to the southern end of the Presidential Range a 15 mile long high altitude massif. I tell her not to try and hike past the first AMC hut 8 miles in. Mainframe is planning to make this stop and agrees to keep her put.
