I spent a lot of last night waking up and listening to the wind rushing through the canopy of the trees, praying nothing would fall on us. 6a came early… I really didn’t want to get moving. However, I knew we had a big day ahead of us with a lot of difficult climbing. So I moved.
We started out with an immediate ascent. Surprisingly, my pack didn’t feel as heavy as I was expecting it to be. It was a sign to me that I am getting stronger. The Whites have been difficult, but I am stronger because of them. I can tell how much better I’m conditioned to these mountains even in as short of a span as a week.
I was windy and cold today. We were in the alpine zone during hurricane force winds. To be honest, I was expecting to be battling weather a lot more than we did. It was cold, sometimes I started to lose feeling in my fingers. As long as you stayed moving, you were usually good. It was also windy, but I think we hiked through much worse winds the day we left the Overmountain Shelter something like 1,400 miles ago. That day I knew we made a bad decision hiking through the weather. Today, I didn’t feel the same. I was actually glad we didn’t let the weather scare us off from making progress.
As we hiked, my brain sometimes goes to weird things to keep it distracted. Today, it made up a song. Warthog and I sang it together, then it was stuck in my head. It continued to build throughout the day. It went something like this:
“In a couple more days, we’ll be in Maine.
Just a couple more days, till we get to Maine.
Yes, there’s been pain, so we can get to Maine.
We’ve hiked through rain, for the sake of Maine.
Now in a couple more days, we’ll be in Maine.
Oh I can’t contain, my joy for Maine!”
FYI – The lyrics are for sale for any interested parties.
We made okay time, not great time, but okay time to the hut we planned to stop at for lunch. While we were there, a sobo came in and grabbed a cup of coffee. He asked to join us, obviously we obliged. His trailname is “The Dude”. He sat with us all through lunch. We traded some information about the trail coming up. We shared stories. When I got to my Pringles can, he watched me pull out a handful of chips and count them. The Dude was surprised. I explained it was how I ration them… makes sense to me. Otherwise, I’ll have some disappointing lunches on the trail. He asked if Warthog counts his chips. When he found out that Warthog does not, he asked, “What happens if he eats all of his chips? Would you share?” I honestly had to think about it for a while. I landed on; yes, I would share. However, I would give him a hard time for not planning appropriately and when we resupplied, I would make sure he actually got the amount of chips he needed. This response made The Dude laugh. For some reason it stuck with him and he continued to refer back to it. I thought it was a very logical answer. We all left the hut at about the same time. The Dude headed south, we headed north.
We were just over halfway through our climbing for the day. In total, we hiked about thirteen miles and climbed up about 5,800 feet in elevation gain today. Between the climbing, wind, and cold, my entire body is exhausted.
Late in the afternoon we crossed paths with a day hiker. He asked if we would like the pb&j sandwich he had made for himself but didn’t end up eating. This man knows the way to a thru-hikers heart. We jumped on it. He also gave us a Sweet and Salty bar. He was just headed to the car and didn’t need the food. We repeatedly told him how much we appreciated it. It was such a kind gesture. Maybe it wasn’t much to him, but it was a lot to us.
Wonder Woman, Snow Monkey, Warthog, and I took a break just after that. We cut the sandwich into quarters and Warthog ate the granola bar because no one else wanted any. We pulled out other snacks too. Our daily food intake per person looks like this; 1-2 chocolate carnation breakfast essentials, a protein bar, cheese and cracker packet, fruit snacks, 2 fun sized candy bars (PayDay or Snickers), maybe jerky, another bar of some sort, lunch tortillas (pepperoni, cheese, mayo, cheese crisps, and bean crisps), chips, nutty buddy, dinner is either 2 packets of cous cous or noodle sides or 1 packet plus 1 packet of instant mashed potatoes. We might eat dessert. Anything from Reisen candies to Milano cookies. It sure seems like a lot, but I’ll tell you, most days I am hungry. So when someone randomly offers you a pb&j on the trail, you take it!
It was 6p when we stopped at a shelter hoping for camping space. In the Whites, they have pay campsites with camp hosts managing everything. The host told us there was no room for a campsite, but if we wanted to sleep in the shelter we could. I didn’t really want to pay $10- a person to sleep in a shelter with a bunch of other people. It’s uncomfortable. You avoid moving because you don’t want to make any noise, but then the guy next to you is a big snorer. Even more to why we didn’t want the shelter, it faced the direction the wind was blowing from. Without a door, I expect the wind was whipping through it. Pass. We moved on from there hoping to find a “stealth site”. We found something. It’s a bit awkward for both tents, but we made it work. The wind is still ripping through the air. The forest we are in is made up by a lot of smaller pine trees. They bend pretty good, but I’m still nervous about them in this weather. I keep hearing them make creaking noises as they sway. It’s unnerving knowing that if one falls on you it’s coming right through. The thought leaves me frustrated that the campsite host couldn’t have made room for just two more tents. When I found out it was his first day on the job (and on a holiday weekend) I had more patience with him. I’m sure we’ll be fine. I just don’t like unnerving forests. I wished I could trust the trees we camp under. I’ve seen too many fall out here to be able to. The most important part… we have a spot for the night. Now we can rest.
-ansel