.September 3, 2005
Snoopy and I left the parking lot and followed Rattle River Trail which is also the AT. The first couple of miles of trail were nice and easy. It only took about 40 minutes to get to the Rattle River Shelter. The shelter is located right on the trail. Unfortunately the picture I took did not come out. The trail gets step after this. My next landmark was a junction with the Kenduskeag Trail. The AT follows this trail to the west.
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Snoopy and I made our way to the side trail for Mount Moriah. The summit is one tenth of a mile off the trail. If it is a nice day and you are not pressed for time, it is really worth stopping here. There is one spot here that requires scrambling and it was tricky to get Snoopy up but we made it. This makes #5 for my list of completed 4,000 foot summits in the Whites. Snoopy rested on the summit.
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The view was great.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ We hopped back on the A.T. and continued. I followed the trail along a ridge and realized I wasn't on the trail anymore. I backed up 100 feet or so and noticed the trail turned to the left. I placed some stones in an arc showing the turn so that others wouldn't make the same mistake. I made my way down to the intersection with Stony Brook trail. I looked up to North Carter and wished I had time to hike it, but I decided I had better head back so Snoopy and I retraced our steps back to Route 2.
I left Snoopy in the truck to rest and headed the other way on the AT. The AT follows the road for .7 miles. I went .2 miles west on Route 302 before turning right onto North Road. I timed it just right. As I was crossing the bridge over the Adroscoggin River, the water from the dam was being released. You never know what you will see from the Appalachian Trail. I took a few dam pictures. (please note: no 'n' on the end of 'dam')
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A few minutes later I reached Hogan Road. I'll start from here another day. I made my way back to the truck and then headed home.
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