Day 65: Moose Mountain Shelter

Start: Hanover, New Hampshire (AT mi 1751). Stop: Moose Mountain Shelter (AT mi 1761.9). Today’s miles: 10.9 miles. Total AT mileage: 737.2 miles

I had very busy dreams all night, although I couldn’t tell you anything about them, except the feeling busy part. They weren’t nightmares, every time I’d suddenly wake, it would be with a smile on my face.. but they definitely left me feeling tired.

I snoozed until 9am. That bed, busy dreams or not, was too comfortable to get out of. When I finally did, the headache was still there, lingering in the background, but slightly more dull than it had been. Maybe things are starting to look up! I packed and got ready to leave with surprising quickness, literally all packed by 9:23. But I took my time eating my cold pizza, plopped another 3 pieces on top of my food bag, with a container of ranch.. hoping my way of packing it would keep it intact throughout the day.

I left the hotel at 10am and the trail was literally one street over. That made life easy. The first bit of the morning was a road walk through that gorgeous college town, and then the trail turned back into actual trail right behind the baseball field. Pretty neat, really. I got winded a few times on minor hills.. but I didn’t let it get me down. I knew today would feel tough regardless of the terrain, and any miles made today would get me closer to where I need to be. My body would have probably liked another day of rest, but knowing I’ll have another zero in a few short days, along with 3 nights in a hotel helped motivate me to head out this morning.

I took my time and actually enjoyed my hike today. I wasn’t nearly as slow as I had been the few days prior to getting to Hanover, and I smiled to myself at one point thinking that I’m actually starting to feel.. dare I say it.. good. I mean, my joints-especially my hips and knees still ached all day, but my ankles didn’t feel like they were going to snap off and my hips only really started hurting after I loaded my pack with 3 liters of water for a climb up a mountain to camp.

I did take a fall to my butt sometime before noon. The trail is wet and slippery thanks to all the recent rain. I thought it was going to pour down today, per the weather app.. but it just stayed cloudy and threatening all day. I was still sweat soaked of course, but with the sun hiding behind the clouds, I was never worried about my skin exposure because of the antibiotics I’m on. So, honestly, I was grateful. The bugs were a little annoying, but not as bad as they had been, or maybe I’m just in a happier mood that I’m hiking and not laid out in a bed feeling awful that I didn’t care as much about the bugs. Who knows?

I ate some pizza at a creek crossing sometime around 1:30, and I honestly wasn’t hungry for it, but knew I needed to eat to have the energy for my last uphill. It was over 900ft of elevation gain over a mile and half, which is like a daily thing really, but knowing how I’ve been feeling I knew I’d better be cautious. Plus, toting the extra water up that incline just makes it more challenging.

I was mostly in the woods, covered with moss and pine needles. One shelter I passed was named “Velvet Rocks Shelter” and that’s exactly what all this moss covered forest looks like. Thick emerald green crushed velvet. I may end up having to crochet something with green velvet when this is done lol (man, I am so weird). When I wasn’t in lush forest, I was walking through overgrown fields. Part of me started to get anxious about ticks in this overgrown grass, but then I remembered these antibiotics will keep me safe from any new ticks for now-so this is the best time to get exposed to them.

I made it to the top of Moose Mountain (South) and then down to the shelter before 4:30. It felt weird being at camp so early! Jola is a NOBO that was in the shelter when I came around. He knew my name and said Lizard had came through and mentioned I’d be coming. She had pushed on ahead of course, being that she got here to early (according to Jola lol). I really wish I had it in me to chase that girl down so we could camp together tonight. But as good as I feel, I’m also spent.

I set my tent up in a nice flat spot, and hung my wet clothes out to dry some. If it rains over night then they’ll be just as wet as they were when I took them off, but maybe smell a little less sweaty. Lol it’s only a 10% chance of rain overnight, but we all know how that goes. After setting everything up, washing my legs down, and changing clothes, I headed back to the shelter and chatted with Jola awhile. He’s so close to finishing his hike that he says he’s slowing down his mileage because he’s not ready for it to end. It’s funny that in the beginning it felt like 200 miles took FOREVER to reach, and now hundreds of miles just seem to slip by without realizing it.

I ate the rest of my pizza and drank an electrolyte drink. A couple solo people showed up throughout the hour, one set up a tent so far away I can’t see her, one set up his hammock on the other side of the shelter. I went to use the privy, a funky one that has a roof but no sides. When I came back I decided I just couldn’t socialize anymore. I said my goodnights and came to get into my tent.

My water is filtered for tomorrow and I’m laying in my tent completely content and ready for bed. I know I should wait to see if I need to pee again, but I’ll just have to get up later and handle that when the time comes. I’m going to try to see if I can push some decent miles tomorrow to stay on track to meet Andrea on time, but if I need to cut it short there’s a couple places I can do so at-although my app has them sounding very unappealing. Hopefully I wake up feeling that much better than today and can knock it out without issue. I’m going to attempt to get up earlier than I have been since I’m going to bed so early tonight.

We’ll see. I might be snoozing that watch alarm when it goes off. Haha— sweet dreams 🙂