Day 19 – Nulhegan Basin, VT, to Connecticut River, NH

R-2016-9-8

Start: Stealth Camp below Upper Gorge on Nulhegan River

End: Samuel Benton Campsite on Connecticut River, NH
On the Way: Nulhegan River, Bloomfield/North Stratford, Connecticut River

Miles: ~19.  Milepost: 332!

Weather: Clear during day, light rain in PM.

Map: 6, 7

Map 7: North Stratford, NH/Bloomfield, VT to Errol, ME

Trail Overview

Slowly but surely getting back into my high-mileage days!  Today seemed like “the Trail in miniature,” starting with 2.5 miles or so of lining, them some very careful paddling through a rock garden, then about 6 miles of portaging, a mini-town day in North Stratford, NH, with a scrumptious egg sandwich at the General Store and Deli, then a good long coast down a wide, swift river, getting just a taste of down-stream paddling.  One tantalizing taste…

The North Stratford Library is inside this tiny, historic train station.  Real cute and cozy.  Via http://www.stratfordnhlibraries.com/

Now I’m camped at an official NFCT campsite, fedded and bedded with a cedar scrapwood fire going to keep away the bugs.  It’s a little copse of giant oak trees with a picnic table and fire ring, with a view of the river and a private beach, and it’s divine.  The beavers have started splashing and a little toad is hopping around my spread-out maps.  Friends of the campsite’s owner have stopped by to say hello, and they offered the awning of their nearby RV if the rain picks up.  There’s even a deluxe privy here, and a register.  (Teton beat me here by about four hours!  Must have passed me in town…).  Life is good.

Body-wise, my night in the sand did orthopedic wonders for my back.  I have a hypothesis that the continual hammock nights is what’s agitating it: we’ll test that tonight.  I could always alternate between hammocking and tarping on the ground if that’s the case.  Such is the beauty of tarp camping.  Just as soon as the back seemed placated, I started getting one of my grumpy-making headaches.  I had some caffeinated tea, which helped a little bit, but these headaches are Not Good ™.

Other than that, I haven’t had a solid BM in a week (need more veggies, rargh), my camp shoes I wore on my Zero Day gave me a blister ONLY on my left heel, my right wrist (AKA, my power arm) tingles sometimes and is usually swollen when I wake up, and my right pinky toenail has gone black.  Hopefully it’ll fall off, so I’ll be down to one deformed foot anomaly.  Oh, and the deli lady in town told me my hair looked like Peter Pan’s.  But that’s enough TMI body complaints.  For at least one journal.  These things matter a lot more when you have little else to focus on.

I made a quick wish-list this evening.  The only items I could think to add were more fruits and veggies.  I’m pleased to say that I have everything else I need.  It feels like a lot of gear on any given portage, but I’ve used each and every item at least once, barring the maps to come and the scarier of the bandages in the First Aid kit.  It’s a gratifying feeling, very freeing, and it’s not too much of a jump from a kit like this one to an all-purpose adventuring kit.  Such as for the AT!  Or PCT!  Dangerous thoughts, indeed.

Things Learned: 

+  I’ve been having trouble getting the Jetboil to light recently: there’s a little button to click click click once the gas valve is open, and it’s rarely making enough spark to get the stove lit.  Bad design.  I bumped the tiny, delicate little ignitor wire more squarely over one of the gas holes on the burner, which seems to have marginally improved the probability of lighting it…  But it makes me sad to think of all the fuel I’ve wasted before figuring that out.  Boo, Jetboil.

[NOTE: I ended up giving up on the ignitor button and simply lighting the stove with my emergency lighter later on.  It works fine, but between that and campfire lighting I did use up the lighter by the end of the trip.]

+ Gotta keep your eye on the strongest current!  Ended up on sandbars more often than I’d like to admit today, simply because the path of the deepest channel (AKA, where the water’s moving fastest on the surface) switched to the other side of the river.

Trail Magic: 

+ This campsite.  Thanks, NFCT!

+ Sign of Teton.  Good that he gets some time in the lead.  :P