Month: July 2021

We slept in until close to 9am. I rolled to look out the window, and could see storm clouds threatening more rain. How on earth could there be MORE rain?

I popped up and used the bathroom, then told Andrea I was going to scope out the free breakfast. It ended at 9:30, so I needed to get a move on if I planned to take advantage. To my surprise, they had hot food! I loaded me and Andrea each a plate of scrambled eggs, egg and cheese omlets, hash browns, sausage and a coffee for her. Then some how miraculously toted it all back. It wasn’t half bad as far as taste is concerned.

We laid around and watched the sky drop from our huge hotel window. We waited until it looked mostly clear and then walked, slowly, over to REI. I attempted to find the hole in my pad for maybe all of 45 seconds before I decided they can just give me a new one. I mean for $250 I think I can go hole free for more than a month.. when this new one gets a hole, I’ll deal with the patching process then. So, I exchanged my pad, and returned a $45 Patagonia sports bra thats way too big now (I did wash it first). So, now I’m down to the one bra, but I’ve got my mom bringing me a new one when she comes to Maine.

I also got some probars, energy chews, and a new bandana. Andrea got some new shoes after she returned her muddy boots.. she looked mortified by the process of handing over dirty, muddy boots and getting all her money back for them.. think they should give her extra money for all the blisters those bastards gave her LOL. She also got some other odds and ins, all in attempts to will her body to fix itself before tomorrow morning.

We dropped our new goodies off at the room and headed to the grocery store to resupply. She also got stuff for her battle wounds. The day pretty much went this way, we ended up going back to REI, back to the grocery store, and I made a Tjmaxx run to get a new charger for my phone. We relaxed, watched movies, ran and got new things we forgot.. and then got subway for dinner.

On one of the trips to REI, I ran into Smiles, TownLegs, and DoubleDecker. They made me pretty nervous about the upcoming weather for the mountains, but I have to get some mileage in before we go to Acadia. As it stands, if I make it to Pinkham Notch before we leave, I’ll have 320 miles to finish in 23 days, to be picked up by mom on time. Talk about anxiety inducing.

We ate cheese and crackers and shared a bottle of wine before bed while watching Silence of the Lambs. Andrea decided to make the tough call of not hiking out with me in the morning, due to her ailments and the bad weather we’re expecting. I don’t blame her one bit. Your vacation isn’t supposed to be absolutely miserable and then potentially give you lasting injuries because of it, too. I just hope she’s ok with me continuing on for the 3 days though. There would be no way to make these miles up on the other end of the Acadia trip and still make it to Katahdin in time. It’s already questionable if I’ll make it including these 3 days.

I’m so sad she won’t be with me, but I’m thankful she made a good call for herself. As I’m typing this I’m full of wonder thinking about the possibility of me just doing it all when I get back and just seeing what happens. But I also fear attempting these 2 mountains (Washington and Madison) after a week of not hiking. So much to consider.

So, I haven’t made it to day 82 yet, but I’m not planning on blogging while Andrea and I explore Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor and Portland, Maine. This is hopefully going to explain the last couple days and then I’ll have a little break from the blogging daily life.

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 7am and quickly got everything packed and ready to go. We were both ready to go by 8am, but our ride didn’t show. The trail angel, Ziggy, messaged me at 8:45am and said his vehicle was having trouble and he hadn’t been able to leave yet. He gave me another number for someone else to try. I took this as a sign.

While we were sitting and waiting, I kept compulsively checking the weather. That day looked great, but it looked like thunderstorms would be rolling in over night, temperatures would drop into the 40s, and the following day (the day I would be summiting Mount Washington-the one place known for wind speeds up to 200 miles per hour and quickly changing weather) would be raining and thunderstorms throughout the day. If I went up, I’d be camping that night, camping on a ridge the following night, and doing a boulder scramble down Mount Madison in slick conditions to town.

I had started to settle on the idea that this just isn’t a safe plan I was making, and definitely not an enjoyable one at all. I was only wanting to hike those three days to stay on a schedule, and the whole point of hiking the Appalachian trail is to enjoy the journey, not to create rules for yourself that must be followed or “else.”

I got a message from FarOut and then I called her. She agreed that the weather for the following day didn’t look good for Mount Washington. And not only because of the obvious danger of being caught in a thunderstorm on top of a 12 mile exposed ridge line, but because we’ve worked this hard, hiked over 800 miles to get to this point-the supposedly best views on the Appalachian trail- and I’d be making a climb to have guaranteed zero views. What’s even the point? She also made a comment that stuck with me: “Self Care is more important than your pride.” Nail. On. The. Head.

With all of that in my head, by the time I got the late text, I knew it was a sign that I needed to just take this time and enjoy spending it with Andrea while she’s here, and then pick up where I left off when I get back from our trip. Cholula ended up coming to pick us up and drove us to Gorham, New Hampshire, the town I was supposed to be walking into 3 days from now that Andrea had already booked 2 nights in-that was non refundable.

They let us check in early, which was nice. I decided to check my reservation for the rental car so I could see about getting it a day early. The number to the Avis location wasn’t a real number. The “map” didn’t correspond to an actual Avis location at all. I panic, realizing we don’t actually have real reservation. I call Orbitz, the company I booked the car through-they couldn’t find the reservation even though I was telling it to them while looking at it-and then I got hung up on. Cool.

Andrea and I kick into gear and start calling any and everyone trying to find a car. Otherwise the whole dang trip is a bust. The one and only place that has a car in the “area” is literally back in Littleton, New Hampshire where I rented the previous car. Ok, then. Cholula says she’ll take us there to get it when we can, but then it’s a matter of how to get back to the trail from there.

We start messaging and calling people. One taxi service quoted me $200 to take me all of 41 minutes to trail. Seriously? After almost another hour of making calls to disconnected numbers and taxidermists, I finally got a response from a lady that Ziggy had text me this morning.. she says she’ll put me in her calendar and only charge me $50 to take me back to trail from the Enterprise. I half think this will fall through, but I’m going to keep praying on it that this lady will show up that day and keep her word. Cholula won’t be an option because she will be up in Maine, and then DeepFried is going home for a few weeks while Trippin hikes to Katahdin before coming back to do the southern half of the trail with her. This lady is my only reasonable option.

Anyway. We ended up eating lunch with Cholula and she stayed and hung out with us. We had a great time, talking, sharing some wine, and watching movies. This morning we all went to breakfast and Beaver came and joined us, he’s unexpectedly having to zero here, too, because he’s waiting on a package that hasn’t shown up yet. We’ll hang out here today, get the car tomorrow, then head to the coast for some R&R, ocean views, and hopefully some puffin sightings.

So, this is where I’ll leave you guys for now. I’ll be back on trail July 27th and I’ll be updating once I have service following that day. This will be the nice reset I’ve been needing. I love y’all!

Start:US 302 (AT mi 1847.7). Stop: Nauman Tentsite (AT mi 1854.1). Today’s miles: 6.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 829.4 miles

Alrighty then, back to regularly scheduled blogging. Lol

Andrea and I had a wonderful time in Bar Harbor and Portland, Maine.. coming back to the trail after perfect red wines, oysters, beautiful Oceanside sunsets, and spending time with one of my most favorite people on earth was a bit sad for me. But overall, today was a good and successful day-even if I am writing that while listening to none other than RAIN on my tent. LMAO. Gotta love the trials of the trail, they humble you quite quickly.

I’ll start from the beginning though. I got up around 6:45am to a showered and mostly packed Andrea. She had gotten up earlier to get a workout in at the gym of the very nice waterfront hotel we stayed in while in Portland for the night. (For the record, I hiked one-less than 2 mile hike-and no other “workout” was had by me the whole 8 days I was “off” and I have no regrets. Hahaha). I got ready and we left the hotel by 7:15-maybe even a little earlier. Andrea was ok with me dropping her off early to I could attempt an earlier start to my day. I was (and am) so grateful to her for that.

I dropped her off to begin her almost 20 hours of travel time back to Reno, and then headed north to Littleton, New Hampshire. The almost 3 hour drive was another long drive of backroads and 2 lane highways. I thought for sure leaving Portland I’d be on interstate. I was wrong. Instead I was met with round-a-bout after round-a-bout for awhile, then slow small town roads with tractor trailers in front of me. I took it as a sign to slow down and enjoy the drive-so I started back listening to “The Book of Joy” by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond TuTu, and Douglas Abrams. I had started in during our trip, and quickly became entranced by it.

I stopped at the Littleton post office and sent my mom the dress I bought while in Bar Harbor, and then headed to the grocery store to get fresh bread for my lunches and new water bottles. When I got to the rental car return, my ride was waiting for me. I was early, but Jerry with Ali’s Taxi Rides was earlier. Jerry chatted with me the whole 40 minutes to the trailhead. He’s from Ireland and was such a joy to listen to. I don’t know if it was from the book or just because Jerry is that great all the time, but I was sad when he pulled into the parking lot and it was time to get my day officially started. I could listen to him talk all day long.

After he pulled out of the parking lot, I sat on the ground and put my socks and shoes on. There’s something about not wanting to wear those things a second longer than necessary, and I was not about to either drive while wearing them or take the 40 minute ride wearing them either. With shoes on and pack packed, I had no real choice but to get a move on. It was just after 12, sunny, and in the late 70s. The trail started off nice enough, with slow rolling hills pretending to be switchbacks up to the start of what we’d expect in the White Mountains. After maybe a mile of that pleasant terrain, the trail turned back into the rock scramble I had been expecting.

It was 3 miles to Mount Webster and I had the most stunning views all around me. I was simply mesmerized. THESE are the views that the White Mountains promise! And I FINALLY got to appreciate them! The wind was whipping around and then, in the distance, I could see Mount Washington. The second highest peak on the trail, the highest I’ll have reached so far once I summit it tomorrow. All around it were clouds-and then came some sprinkles. Lovely. Who doesn’t just adore sliding down rock faces in the rain?

The sprinkles only threatened to become disastrous for about 2 hours-but then it actually started to rain. Luckily it was after I had gotten over the rest of the little summits and was walking through boggy areas before reaching the hut and campsite area. I took my time (as always), I stopped for pictures and videos and rest breaks. I didn’t make it to camp until almost 6pm. Lol-6 hours for 6.4 miles.. yikes! But, to be fair-it was my first day back to lugging a pack-full of food-and every muscle in my body was reminding me of the time off I had gotten used to. My knees were a bit unforgiving as well. I did end up finishing my audiobook, and I have to say, even with the struggles of the day and being sore on day one legs-I was happy and smiling through it all. I’m meant to be out here.

I set my tent up in the rain. And it’s already got some water in one of the corners. I’m pretty annoyed with my set up and I think I may need to consider splurging on a different-Dynema-aka waterproof-tent. And then just use this one until that one comes in. It’s becoming so increasingly frustrating that this tent won’t stay dry inside-now even minutes after setting it up. Ok-rant over-I never pretended I was enlightened or monk like-I just enjoyed the book.

I went to the hut and filled my water bottle, then ate my dinner on a log under a tarp by the bear box. Two young women came up and sat under there with me, chatting. I really love it when I meet people that are fun and interesting. LifeGuard and ShowMan are hiking from Maine to Georgia, so SOBO, and were full of useful and entertaining information. For instance, besides giggling about their commentary of a weird SOBO cult currently hiking and sharing money, they told me about the 21 mile slack pack over the wildcats. I had originally planned to do this. Then, with the increasing difficulty of the White’s, I decided not to.. Towelie had told us of some people that didn’t get back until 11pm! AT NIGHT.
But-all that said-these two made me think it might be a real contender again. That with the lighter pack it’ll be easier than splitting it into 2 days. I’m just so scared I’d be the one that doesn’t show up until 11pm. I’m going to see how tomorrow goes and then decide the following day if it’ll be a short hike to the road to go to the hostel that will slack pack me, or if I’ll just keep hiking on and camp 6 miles into the Wildcats, which is what Lizard ended up doing.

So, now I’m laying in my tent listening to the people around me talking to each other about the trail and what to expect coming up. Tomorrow I’ll be going over Mount Washington and Mount Madison-and I’ll be able to gauge my timing and if I think I’m able to do the slack pack or if it’s not worth the stress. I’m happy to be back at it.. hopefully I’ll feel the same way come morning time.. haha. Goodnight, y’all.