Start: Garfield Pond (AT mi 1829.4). Stop: Ethan Pond Shelter (AT mi 1844.8). Today’s miles: 15.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 820.1 miles
We got up and started getting ready at 6:30 and made it out of camp at 7:20. We immediately had the climb we skipped last night by camping by the pond. Luckily, the clouds held off for us to get some decent views on top of Mount Garfield, but not for long. The rain came minutes after being on top, and stayed off and on all day. I feel so bad that the weather is so awful while Andrea is here. It’s one thing for me to deal with the misery of it.. knowing I’ll have good hiking days coming, but it’s got to be worse on her knowing she took this as her vacation, and it’s been pouring on her everyday.
The descent was steep and it seemed to take us forever to get to the shelter we originally intended for last night. After that traverse, we were both happy we stopped early. That would have probably done us in yesterday. We briefly stopped in at the Galehead Hut to refill water bottles and I used their bathroom. I tried getting Andrea to get something to eat from there, but she wasn’t having it.
We then took on the 1300+ foot elevation gain of South Twin Mountain. What a beast. Although I’ll still say it was better than the Kinsmans. The way down required us to climb down the rocks of a waterfall. Seriously. It was slippery and terrifying to say the least. The ridge line went across 2 other peaks once we were up there, but there were deep descents and steep inclines, just not as long as the original to get up there. Roughly six miles in, we passed a trail to a shelter. I gave Andrea the option to stop there for the day instead of continuing.
This terrain is far from kind when it’s this soggy and wet. She said she wanted to keep going, and I feared it was because she didn’t want to feel like she was holding me back.. but she insisted she wasn’t ready to stop yet. So, we pushed on the 9+ miles to the next shelter. I’m now thinking that was a mistake. We both ended up in pretty rough shape by the end of the day.
We finished crossing the ridge and then had a long steep descent to Zealand Hut. Just before reaching the hut, I took a hard fall on a wall off rock and about slid into the rushing water that later creates Zealand Falls. Where I fell wasn’t deep or steep, so it’s not like if I went into the water I would have slid down the mountain in it… but it still hurt like hell. It’s surely going to bruise.
I filled my water at the hut and then 0.2 miles later we were on the flattest, most well maintained trail I’ve seen in over a month. That was so appreciated. We passed a boulder field and had some views there. We walked by a river to the left and ended up spotting Snapshot and Spotts in a nice stealth site. I was jealous.
The rest of the trail to the shelter was boggy, rocky, and messy. At 6:30pm, we finally got to the shelter, only to find that it was full. We were hoping to sleep in the shelter to avoid packing wet tents tomorrow, especially since there are no shelters for a few days now. Lovely. Exhausted, we set up our tents on a tent platform that has 2 other people on it already. My tent does not like being set up on wood. Also, this morning I realized my sleeping pad has a hole in it. But it’s in a spot I should be able to patch, when I’m not slap exhausted and have more daylight to play with it.
I got us water at the pond and washed off. We changed clothes and made dinner. We talked to some people at the campsite who must be doing a guided hike or something, because they were fascinated by thru hikers. We cleaned up, put our bags in the bear box, and retired to our tents that are currently getting rained on.
It’s just after 9pm and these people are being so loud. Part of me wants to be that person to yell out a good, “can y’all shut the efffffffff up, please?” But so far I’ve managed to bite my tongue. Now that I’ve got this typed up, my ear plugs are going in and I’m going to try my best to sleep.. all the while praying this tent doesn’t fall down in the middle of the night.. and that I stay dry. Pretty big prayers. Also, I haven’t had service for 2 days, so that’s fun. Here’s to being behind on posting these journals, lol.
Thanks for being patient with me! Sweet dreams, y’all.