This day was supposed to be a long but easy day but instead it royally kicked my butt! I’m glad where we stealth camped because as soon as I started hiking in the morning, I quickly entered an alpine zone, which is above tree line and you’re not legally able to camp up there. The view that early in the morning was really nice. After that, it was mostly a long decline ending and then a very flat-ish trail that was super easy to walk. It was a day of a bunch of small snakes too. I think I found at least five of them. The kicker today was the last third of the trail. The climb up Mount Webster is now the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I completely underestimated that mountain. The rock scrambles were insane. There were so many of them where I wasn’t hiking anymore. It was full blown rock climbing using both hands and feet to jam into cracks in the rocks and pull myself up. The views from that mountain were the best I’ve seen yet on this journey. It was absolutely incredible! Sparkle and I have really enjoyed hiking together and I want her to succeed as much as I want to so as I could see she was really struggling today, I stopped to wait up for her and to help her by like a coach pushing her o and helping talk her through some of the hand over hand climbs. She’s said it multiple times today that she is glad she’s not alone for this section. I’m glad I’m able to help her keep going. We’ve made it too far to quit now. We just need to get through NH and the Southern part of Maine and then we’ll reach the 100 mile wilderness where it should be a nice easy hike again until we reach Katadhin. We’re camped out at Nauman Campsite at Mizpah Hut. I paid my $5 to set up my tent and then tried to get leftover food from the hut. Didn’t work. Around 9:30pm, a serious thunderstorm rolled in. I’m really hoping it doesn’t continue on tomorrow all day. We’re supposed to be heading to Mount Washington. Fingers crossed. We still need to find a place to stay on Saturday. We will both be out of food and we need to get into Gorham, NH. Being a weekend, the hotels are over $300 for the single night. Even the old hotels are either booked or super expensive. We just need to figure out a resupply for just two days worth of food and then get back on trail Sunday and Monday where we should reach Route 2 and then go back into Gorham. This section has been so painful that we’ve decided to zero again. Being weekdays, we can share a room at the Rodeway Inn that has two double beds for $332 total for both nights. I’m happy paying half that for two nights in a hotel so I can rest and eat.