The forecast was for rain late in the day, the most specific version said "after 5", and I figured I could be pretty well down by then. I used the Ellozy approach via the snowmobile trail out of habit, even though the regular trailhead is now no-fee and I wasn't making the loop to Galehead. (On the return trip I used the Heritage Trail variation: this is full of deadfalls and brush and it's obvious that nobody cares about it any more.)
The remaining brook crossing was easy enough but many sections of the trail had water flowing down them - I'm not sure how much is Hurricane Irene-related and how much was like that before. Many of these were gully sections that would require a lot of digging to fix. I had resolved that my hike would be erosion-neutral in that I would scuff out enough waterbars to make up for the damage caused by my passage, but in several cases the real problem was a spring downhill of the waterbar that no amount of scuffing could deal with. The guy with the pruners had apparently gone home at the short downhill section of the second switchback as beyond that evergreen branches frequently overhung the footway. I hoped to get down past those before the rain hit.
There were remnants of snow in the woods but not on the trail starting maybe about 3000' and some short sections of old monorail above that, but the trail was generally wide enough and the monorail narrow enough that you could choose whether to walk on or beside it. I was told by a little bird that I met that the steep section above the trail junction by the shelter was all packed snow so I decided to avoid that north-facing area by using the old trail to Garfield Pond and taking the trail up from there which faces west. The old trail apparently gets some use as it could still be followed, but had deadfalls, brush, and mud which kept it from being an easy route and there was a dusting of snow on the ground in the thick tree cover. After a view of North Lafayette across the pond, I made an angle bushwhack up to the AT.
As hoped that trail up was mostly bare with almost no old snow, just a dusting of new snow in shady spots with slushy ice where it was wet and one ice gully easily climbed. There was one set of boot tracks up. The summit ledges were bare and the sun was out which made a nice break, but distant views were hazy. I took the usual route down which was filled with snow as promised, but by holding on to bushes and bypassing one cliff I didn't need traction. The uppermost switchback back to where I'd left the trail was maybe 50% monorail.
I stopped for a break on a big flat rock by a brook on the lowest switchback, and was stretched out on my back eating pretzels. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that a wire-haired black dog had climbed up on the rock beside me. I turned for a better look and saw that it was actually a large porcupine! Perhaps unwisely, I sat up quickly and the porcupine took off at it's fastest amble into the woods - presumably it had smelled the salt. If I had needed to be rescued due to a faceful of quills, would eating pretzels lying down be considered reckless conduct resulting in a bill?
As for rain, there was a brief drizzle at maybe 3:30 when I wore my poncho for maybe 5 minutes - presumably both the woman who started early and the guy who walked fast were down by then. The drizzle started again just after 5 when I was walking the last section of logging road back to my car so I just wrapped my poncho around my shoulders instead of putting it on. Heavier rain started when I was driving on Rte. 3 but it ended S of the Notch - I'm not sure if the storm was over or if I just drove out of it.
