[at-l] White Mountain Traverse Part 5

[ARTCLOUTMN@aol.com]

Thursday 7/20/00  Ethan Pond Campsite

    We had a layover day today.  A chance to get rested before we have to 
climb up the Webster Cliff trail.  We decided to do a 5 mile round trip day 
hike without packs to the Willey House in Crawford Notch.  I was looking fore 
ward to an ice cream and orange.  I know I’ve only been hiking for a few days 
but the orange someone was peeling at Zealand Falls Hut yesterday gave me the 
craves.  
    True to form Rachel raced us to the Willey House and beat us by 1/2 hour. 
 I told her the story behind the Willey House and how the Willey family left 
the house when they heard the sound of an avalanche rushing down toward their 
home.  The snow was split by a boulder above their house.  The house was 
spared but the family all perished in the pile of snow off the mountain.  The 
State of New Hampshire now runs a tourist trap at the site of the Willey 
House.  Rachel was going to leave the trail tomorrow where the AT crosses 
Crawford Notch.  Rachel decided to call her mother to make sure she knew the 
time and location.  Her mom was actually on the road when Rachel phone her 
mom’s cell phone.  Mom was doing a practice run to the trail head.  She 
wanted to be sure to make it to the correct spot on time.  They talked and 
decided Rachel would leave the trail today.  I really did not want to walk 
back to camp turn around walk back to Crawford Notch and then return again to 
camp.  That would have been a 10 mile rest day.  So we walked back with 
Rachel but she returned to the trailhead alone.  
    Before we left the store I had a nice turkey and cheese sandwich and Ice 
cream.  They didn’t have any oranges.  We ran into a group of teenagers who 
paid the AMC for the privilege of doing two weeks worth of trail maintenance. 
 Nine boys and one college age girl were in the crew.  They were on their 
last day of constructing some great bog bridges.  They had laid down over two 
miles of bridges along the AT during their outing.  They were camping near 
the trail in the woods.  They spent some time back at Ethan pond swimming to 
get the dirt off at the end of their work day.  Today they worked from 8 
until 5:30 PM.  The girl was the boss.  They worked well together and only 
gave the young lady a little bit of grief.  We were very impressed by how 
well she handled these guys.  I also had a nice swim in the pond which was 
about luke warm. 
    A relief caretaker showed up today.  That means we had to pay $6.00 per 
person for using the tent site.  He complained that the guys who used 
caretaker’s tent left a lot of trash inside the tent.  He also had the task 
of catching up with two weeks worth of chores, like taking care of the 
composting of the privy and general sight repair.  Seems like a good worker.  
    Tonight I experimented with dinner.  I prepared Fantastic Food’s instant 
refried beans.  I added Salsa that I had dehydrated.  (Poured hot water into 
ziplock with salsa to reconstitute then kneaded in hands while preparing 
rest).  And then put this with slices of cheddar cheese all on a piece of 
tortilla.  I cut the tortilla into pie shaped slices so we each had figure 
food like slices.  It was delicious and filling.  The only drawback was the 
the cheese was heavy - but it’s gone now.
    Only one other tent site is occupied tonight.  a father and daughter 
hiked in via Zealand Falls road.  He is doing his first mini backpack.  She 
learned to love BPing from her experiences at a private high school in 
Vermont.  They have camped together with the rest of their family.  He hopes 
to learn about backpacking so he can bring his scout troop into the woods.  
Their equipment looked large/heavy since they were using car camping gear for 
some of their stuff.  But they seemed to be enjoying their outing.
    Early to bed (8:00 PM) for an early start tomorrow.

* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================