Day 7 - "Moosilauke"
Updated: Jun 18, 2022
Wow, it’s the one-week mark for me on the trail! One full week in the woods without technology, showers, or flushing toilets! I am honestly not so surprised that I don’t miss those things a whole lot. It feels like I’ve done and experienced so much in that time, it’s crazy to think that I am only just starting. I can’t wait to see what else this beautiful trail has in store for me.
Today we hiked 15.5 miles and up a 4000-foot incline to the top of Mount Moosilauke. The name Moosilauke translates to “Bald Place.” The Native Americans who lived in the region called it this because the elevation was so high that the summit was well above the tree line. I think the mountain needs to be renamed to Mount Mussolini due to its infinite and very painful assent. The uphill battle just kept going and going and going and never ended. At least that’s how it seemed.
4,000 feet of elevation gain… that’s almost a mile of straight up into the sky. That’s 8 Enchanted Rocks (a fun hike for anyone who happens to find themselves in the Texas Hill Country) stacked up on top of each other!! Dad says that today is probably the hardest climb we will do the entire trip… I’m not so sure… something tells me that he may be wrong about that. We will see, I guess. My leg was feeling much better today, I tried to take it easy because I could feel that it was right on the edge of getting much worse. Hopefully it will only continue to heal.
We hiked to the top of Moosilauke and the pain and suffering of the climb gave way to an awe-inspiring 360-degree view of what looked like the entire world. We could see the White Mountains of New Hampshire in front of us, and the Green and Adirondack Mountains behind us. The true expanse of the world was stunning from that majestic spot. I didn’t want to leave it, but once we got above treeline the wind got bad, really bad. Dad took a video with his phone, and despite him yelling, you could only hear the howling of the wind!
The temperature was dropping so, in the name of not freezing to death, we continued down the trail to our stop for the night: Beaver Brook Shelter.
Beaver Brook Shelter is the coolest shelter yet (in both temperature and awesomeness). It is basically located on the side of the mountain and has a great northern view framed by tall pines and a stary sky. We can see both the Lafayette Mountain range and Mt. Washington in the distance. Mount Lafayette looks imposing, almost scary, like something out of an adventure book. The thought of having to climb it both frightens and excites me.
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