Start: Mark Noepel Shelter (AT mi 1585.9) Stop: Sherman Brook Campsite (AT mi 1597.2). Today’s miles: 11.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 572.5 miles
My watch vibrated at 6:15 this morning. I forgot I had set an alarm, but I just turned it off and fell back to sleep. I finally got up closer to 7:30. I’ve been sleeping so much better, but I still roll a lot during the night. I’m a side sleeper, so I start on one side, roll to my back, realize that’s uncomfortable, roll to the other side. Then, when that hip starts to ache the process starts over. Sometimes I’ll sleep on my stomach, but I usually like my arms up, cradling my head almost-and I smell too bad to be doing that to myself these days. LOL!
I packed everything relatively quick, and then walked to the privy and to get my food bag from the bear box. For the record, I much prefer the bear boxes to throwing my own line or trying to put it on a bear pole. I ate breakfast at the picnic table where I camped, because I didn’t see any movement at the shelter and didn’t want to wake anyone (Towely, mainly.. he looked utterly wiped last night). It looks like overnight more hikers came in, because there was a new tent I hadn’t seen before.
I started to walk out around 8:15. Sauce was up, so I waved bye to him and started my climb the rest of the way up Graylock Mountain. This mountain literally felt like it took all dang day to conquer. And I started out 5 miles up the thing already! (The shelter was 5 miles up this mountain, and the summit is another 2.5 miles up). It wasn’t a horrible climb, the trail almost seemed confused.. I knew I was going up, but the trail would randomly go down for awhile and then start going back up. It went on and on.
The top was gorgeous, with a perfectly paved road to bring you up there if you didn’t fancy the sweat and bug approach. There was also a lodge with a restaurant.. but it was closed when I tried to get something to eat. So, I filled up my water bottle and headed down the other side.
The downhill was painful. It just kept going on forever. When I thought surely this was the road I needed to get to, nope-still going down. I didn’t end up getting to the bottom of that mountain until close to 1:30! I was exhausted and my feet were aching. I turned and went the 1/2 mile to a grocery store anyway. I needed to resupply food, and sore feet or not, it had to be now.
I dropped my pack at a picnic table off to the side of the store and then went inside. Talk about overwhelming. It had EVERYTHING. They always say don’t resupply when you’re hungry, I didn’t listen. I got food for the next few days and then also got chicken tenders, fresh fruit, chips, and a drink for right now.
I sat at the picnic table with my shoes and socks off and just enjoyed the time in the shade with the breeze blowing. I ate my food slowly, and then packed up even slower. I was really not looking forward to the climb I was facing. I had only gone 9 miles but my body felt like I had ran a marathon.
I started the walk through town, and my body is just shattered under the weight of the new food. Each step feels 10x heavier than before. I look on my app and see that there’s a campsite 2 miles up the hill, instead of the 7 miles to the shelter. I was pretty much banking on that idea, but leaving it open to “if I feel up to it when I pass the campsite, I’ll keep going..” hahaha
It was buggy and less breezy in the woods going uphill. I was walking alongside a beautiful Brook, but I felt so drained. I hadn’t heard back from Sauce and FarOut, but knew Towely stayed at the lodge at the top of Graylock Mountain, Lizard decided to zero in Cheshire, and the others were behind her. As much as I wanted to hike into Vermont today (the next shelter), I saw the sign for the campsite and knew I was done. Minutes after my acceptance, I got a message from FarOut, this was their destination, too, but they’d be awhile because they were just coming to town.
I got to camp and set up my stuff and was hanging out, resting my feet, and planning for Andrea’s arrival in a couple weeks. She’s flying in to New Hampshire to hike the white mountains with me, and then we’re going to do a little road trip to Acadia National Park for a few days. It was nice to finally have the downtime to somewhat attempt a plan. Although I couldn’t get all the details locked in because my service is spotty here. It’ll let me send and receive texts, but it won’t load a webpage for crap, or send pictures.
I bathed at the creek and got my water, filtered it and cooked dinner. I ate way more than I was actually hungry for, mainly because my food bag is too heavy! As I was starting to plan out tomorrow, Sauce and FarOut appeared! They set up camp and did their chores while we all chatted and commiserated. None of us feel fantastic by any means. The feet tenderness is just awful.
It’s 9:40 now and I’m completely wiped out. I can hear music or something in the distance, so I’m not sure what that’s about. I also need to retie one of my tent cords, but I’m so sleepy I don’t want to get out of my tent to do it. It’s crazy how 9:40 at night feels like 2am in normal life. Looks like I’ll be getting up anyway, and then hopefully peacefully sleeping soon after!