New Hampshire AT traverse

“My plans are firming up. Advice, info welcome. Check the trips page for more info:
http://www.thebackpacker.com/trips/trip.php?id=181 " target="_blank"> Hiking starts 8/9 at Grafton Notch ”

“Ped - I got your email about this trip. Your itinerary sounds awesome but with 2 Adirondack trips in August and a Maine trip in early Sept, it will be impossible for me to do this with you. Thanks for sending the email and thinking about me. I think you're going to have a great adventure.”

“I see you are starting at Grafton Notch on a Saturday!!! We just might come along for the weekend....”

“Hey Uphill Monkey! - Let me know if I can help you position your car so you can get off the trail when and where you want.


Pennsy: I figured you were looking pretty busy, esp. after reading about your BSP trip with Twiggy.”

“Pedxing, we were talking about how we would like to get on the trail again, now that most of the bugs are gone. We're thinking we will hike with you that weekend. It would be great to position a vehicle for getting off the trail on Sunday night. We would probably meet you somewhere, say, Friday night.”

“That would be great. Maybe we could pre-position both cars and get a shuttle to Grafton Notch!

I see a few possibilies:

1) If you can hike Monday, it would be easy to get to Rt. 2 in NH.

2) We could take on more miles Saturday, so that you could get to Rt. 2 on Sunday (31 miles in two days, with some tough terrain).

3) You could go out on a side trail to Success Pond Road.

4) You could loop back to Grafton (that would mean either skipping Mahoosuc notch or doing it twice).

I'm getting psyched! I haven't done a 100+ mile hike for 3 years (health problems in 2001, too busy in 2002)and its a gas just to think and plan.”

“Pedxing, I just found this thread, again. We are both way lacking in vacation time, 31 miles in 2 days is way too severe for both of us, and I hate looping back. Does option 3 take us thru the "notch"? I gotta load up my At disc and check out the path. I'm not real sure where the Success Pond road is, although I think I have been there before????

That would be real sweet if we could meet Friday evening and spot my truck there, then move on to where we'll spend the night and start out Saturday morning.

Is there any objection to bringing Suzy (my dog) with us? She is a 50 lbs. shepard collie mix mutt. She is well trained, actually scoring second place one year for the northern half of the east coast states in dog obedience. She is nationally titled in obedience training. I showed her 8 times, taking first 5 times and best of show twice. She seldom barks on the trail, and will not chase after the wildlife as a general rule (unless I send her after the squirrel!!!) She goes off in the woods to do as a bear does, and her presence keeps mice away from the food storage areas. Oh, did I mention that she is our LNT dog? If you drop a grain of rice on the ground, she'll be glad to pick it up for you!!!

Anyways, it is only a week away. Where should we meet you? It will take us some 2 hours to drive to Grafton notch, and we can be out of here by 4:30 PM. Should we meet at the parking lot and head to Success Pond access road to spot my truck? Then to the overnight site? Which I dont' even know where it is....”

“Monkeyboy. I have no problem with dogs. I might take my own except that she is almost 11 and I worry about her doing the notch.

There are trail heads going from the AT to Success Pond Road both before and after Mahoosuc Notch.

I asked about the notch on a regional web site ("How is parking at the trail heads along Success Pond Rd.? Friends who may join me for the first two days out of Grafton and I'm thinking it might make sense for them to pre-position a car on Success Pond Rd.") and got these responses:

"Your friends should have no problem finding places to put their cars along Success Pond Rd. Trailheads of interest, from N to S, are:
Speck Pond Tr
Notch Tr
Carlo Col/Goose Eye Trs
Success Tr

Most/all of these trails begin along logging roads intersecting the Success Pd Rd. el-bagr"

"I have parked at three locations el-bagr mentioned without any problem. I also passed Success Trailhead and don't see any reason why you would have any problem parking at any of these locations. All trailheads are signed and with map in hand easy to find, park and follow trails up to Mahoosuc Range Trail."



"Last Saturday (7/19) at the Goose Eye trailhead, I was the third car at 7:50am. Coming back at 2:20 there were 7 cars. Any more would have required creative parking at that trailhead. No cars were visible from the road at the Success Trail sign.

BTW, from Berlin, the road is not trivial to find. The AMC Guide has an entire page on the subject, and it's accurate. (Wish I'd read it before the hike.) It's probably easier from ME 26."”

“Ooops I forgot the other part of your question:

Let's think about the overnight site. I'm also wondering about shuttling to Grafton Notch.”

“Pedxing, How about camping where we spot my truck??? Is that allowed? We could wake in the morning, drive over to Grafton Notch Parking lot. I have a Pass that would allow us to park free (I'd give you the number), then we could be on our merry way!”

“mb: I'll look into the possibility of camping near the trail head on Success Road.”

“I just checked the date for this trip, it's not next weekend, it's the weekend after, August 8,9, and 10 we'll be hiking with you. We'll still be there!”

“Glad you're still going.

I figure we can follow your plan of camping out somewhere near the trail head (we could probably walk a couple hundred yards and set up camp) where we leave the car, and then driving to Grafton unless something better comes up.

If there is some way we can get a shuttle to the notch from Gorham or someplace further south, I might try to work that in... but I can always take a low mileage day to hitch back to my car or get a shuttle.

The alternatives to staying near the trail head would be to car camp nearby, or stay at a Hostel.”

“Pedxing, How about this?

We meet at Grafton Notch Parking Friday night. Then head to the trail head where we will leave my truck to hike to after the notch. Then we leave the trail, take my truck back to Graton Notch Parking and Skeetah Bait uses a spare key to drive your car to Gorham and parks it where ever you want us to. Then we head home. Only concern on our part, is that we get your car to the right place, so that you have it when you get off the trail.

Or.... we could recruit one more hiker and spot their car in Gorham. Let's see now, 3 cars, 3 locations, Gorham, Grafton, and trail head.

Hiker, hiker, any takers, we need another hiker!!! The challenge of Mahoosics notch, arguably the toughest single mile of the AT. Who wants a piece of it!!!!”

“LOL!

Great idea and kind of you to offer. I could scout out a place in Gorham that would be easy to spot and recognize.

Gorham is a great place to have it, because there is an AMC shuttle that goes from the other end of Whites to Gorham in the afternoon (making it easy to resupply and reposition my car).”

“Looks like scattered thunderstorms for the weekend out of Grafton. I'm glad I'm not going to be in the Presi's then.

Monkeyboy - my son is waffling on whether he will go with me for the first few days. If he does, he and I will use that Clip Flashlight for those days. If not, I'll just take it along for you to check out - and try out for the w/e if you want.

If the weather doesn't deter you, we can firm up a meeting place in the next couple days. I look forward to seeing you and Skeeter again and meeting your champion dog. If my dog was a little younger, they could meet up.”