Cy & Gail rock! It is that simple. Rockhound and I met up with them at 8am and quickly headed north on the trail. Gail hiked almost 3 miles with us before turning around to circle back for the car. Cy powered over the hills for 16 miles and then Gail rejoined us, hiking in from the other side for the final mile. Then they took Rockhound, Chief & Jethro and me out for pizza and ice cream! Wow!

I was amazed by Cy’s strength and hope that I can do that in 20+ years! We climbed over Smart Mountain and checked out the fire tower, then headed to Hexacuba Shelter, a neat 6-sided shelter built by the Dartmouth Outing Club. The accompanying Pentaprivy was less than wonderful however…

Cy, Rockhound and I climbed the beautiful granite ridges of Mt. Cube before descending the steep slopes to meet up with Gail.

After dinner, the four of us said goodbye to Cy and Gail and backtracked a few yards to this site rather than climbing 2.2 miles to the next shelter.

Tomorrow we enter the Whites, heading up Mt. Moosilauke for the first above-treeline stretch of the entire trail! I hope the weather holds for the next couple of days!