July 24 - 7.8 / 1,860.1

Again, I woke up to guests coming into the dining room and the croo cooking. A part of me wished we had hiked on as the weather was now a misty haze. I wanted something nice to go over Mt. Madison.

As we waited to leave, the two ladies and some of the kids inquired about our trip. It was good to get questions. I did get a kick out of one though. We were asked if we were scientists. It must be the beards I guess. The two families hooked us up with some trail mix. It was nice of them to do that.

The climb over Madison was ok. The conditions could have been better. After summitting, we leapfrogged Graham Cracker. She is the one who said she is thru hiking but did 900 miles last year. I asked her about her trip again. I was eluding to her saying she is a thru hiker when she is really a section hiker. She had no idea what I was trying to do. I gave up and decided it wasn't worth it to flat out just tell her. Maybe she will realize it one day.

The decent down Madison and into Pinkham Notch was slow. I think we averaged a mile an hour the first three miles. We were able to pick up the pace the last three miles into the Notch and visitors center. We passed Chewy who caught back up with us. Sam and I were able to get a hitch from a gentleman who thru hiked a few years back. He had on an Alabama hat which I gave him a hard time about. It was good to see an SEC hat though. He took us all the way into Gorham and dropped us off at the outfitter. We looked around there before getting a hold of LS. LS and his brother came into town and picked us up to take us back to the house where LS' family was. Maple was already there and Chewy joined us too.

We relaxed and had a wonderful dinner. After dinner, we played a card game called "Oh Hell." It was like spades but with no teams. You bid tricks and try to win that number. It was fun yet amusing. I still don't think Sam and any idea of what was going on.

I also enjoyed a pint of ice cream. I got it out of the freezer, and everyone thought they deserved it. Reluctantly, I did share some.