HPA and GSMS Grade Eight LA

Sometimes going into an experience blind is a good thing. You don’t waste your time worrying about the challenges you are about to face because you really don’t know what they are.  And so it was for me on a warm, sunny August afternoon when I was introduced to Mahoosac’s Notch on the Appalachian Trail in southern Maine.

 

We began our hike at noon, and I should have suspected trouble after a ten-mile, bone-rattling drive on the gravel logging road that led to our starting point.  Once there, we happily followed the cool, gurgling stream through the old growth forest, not feeling the weight of our packs as we almost skipped through the pungent mulch that blanketed the trail.  Birds twittered as the woods gave way to a path flanked with small boulders, and the heat of mid day began to warm our backs. 

 

At first, stepping from rock to rock reminded me of playing a game of hop scotch. We bounded easily form one grey slab to the next. But soon the terrain seemed to get hungry; it was looking for feeble souls like mine.  The rocks morphed into boulders and the boulders became buildings and after an hour of negotiating the terrain, what began as a playful romp was now becoming an exercise of survival.  The notch looked like the aftermath of an earthquake.  This was Lego for giants.  We leapt over crevices that seemed bottomless; cool air wafted from their dark depths. At every turn we looked for relief.  But the wall of rock grew more ominous, its broken bones strewn before us like the open pit of an ancient burial ground.

 

After three hours of back-breaking boulder bounding, we could only pray that the end was near and that the daylight would last until we reached our campsite. What we didn’t realize was that this was only the beginning.  When it was clear that we had survived the notch, the now gentle path that led upwards was only a tease for the granite rock face that loomed before us.  I heard a meek whimper escape from within me but there was no turning back now.  My biggest challenge was ahead of me.