[at-l] So much for hiking...

["Mara Factor" <m_factor@hotmail.com>]

There's too many thruhikers in the Whites for me to get much hiking in these 
days...  So much trail magic, so little time to hike.  No real complaints 
from me though.  I've been having a blast.

Stayed at Hiker's Paradise on Friday adn Saturday.

I saw a couple of dozen thruhikers in the Gorham/Pinkham area over the 
course of the weekend...

Snapshot, a hiker I had seen the previous week was there with his father and 
sister.  I also saw Shepherd again - a familiar face from the previous 
weekend.

On Saturday, after I had done a couple of post office runs and a Walmart 
run, I headed for N. Conway to do some pack shopping.  I picked up a hiker 
thumbing from the auto road up Mt. Washington.  Turned out to be Albatross, 
a hiker I had met at Ethan Pond Shelter in June going northbound, now going 
southbound on his yoyo.  He was also looking to buy a new pack so we ended 
up shopping together.  Stopped at Ragged Mountain, IME, EMS, and even tried 
to make a run to Conway to check out Wild Country but they were closed.

[There was an interesting climbing pack at IME from Cold Cold World.  It met 
the pound or less per 1000ci goal but for me, the shoulder straps were too 
long.  I think it was 3 lbs and 3500ci with a loooong extension collar.]

Stopped at Bagels Plus to meet Hoops and MM and took back a bunch of much 
appreciated leftover bagels for the hostelers.

Sunday morning, did some more errands and trailhead runs.  Saw Warren 
Doyle's group getting ready for a three day backpack north from route 2.  
Warren was in town so didn't get to see him.  Recognized Anonymous Badger 
(AT99) and Springfever there as part of the group.

Playfoot, off the trail for a few days for a variety of reasons ended up 
coming back to Boston with me for a couple of days and took the bus back 
yesterday.

Other hikers I saw over the course of the weekend included Magic Thumb, 
Crush, Mama C, Papa C, and Old Sam, Cruise Control, Manhattan, Do It 
Yourself, Macon Tracks, Not Yet, Roots, Flying Dutchman, Porridge and Grits, 
and I know I've missed a few, too.

The only hiking I did was from the visitor's center to the Auto road and 
back.

Mara
Stitches, GAME99
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

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

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