The Unpolished Princess

Start: interstate 93 (AT mi 1820). Stop: Garfield Pond (AT mi 1829.4). Today’s miles: 9.4 miles Total AT mileage: 804.7 miles

Well, today was.. interesting. We got up at 7am and started getting ready. We packed, ate, and left for the rental car place by 8:05. The guy that promised us the ride wasn’t there this morning, but he had left instructions for the other 2 there. Once they checked in the boat, an older gentleman drove us to our starting spot. He made me a little nervous, with his wheezing breathing and questionable looking health. He drove us safely though, so what more could we want?
He thought we were nuts, but he was kind enough to drop us off along the exit ramp for the trailhead.. aka, basically on the interstate, by 8:35am. I got out of hiking that side mile to the trailhead and I am again now, simply because I have to start where I last stopped. Problem solved!

We got out and headed down the embankment to the trail. I was showing Andrea the white blazes and how to know you’re on the right one, bla bla. We passed a river and then some trails all came together (assuming one of those was the one to take you to the parking lot), when they separated back out, we were hiking up.

And that’s what we did for most of the morning. Up, up, up. The trail was kind in my opinion though. The rocks created safer steps than I had the last day that I hiked. And the trail around the rocks was soft but not muddy. The humidity was terrible though. It claimed to have been at 77% today. lol. I believe it. That was something Andrea wasn’t used to, that pretty Reno heat is nice and dry. We were dripping sweat by 9. Somehow, though, no bugs were swarming. Maybe the Irish spring soap does help.

Just before the top of our climb, we came to Liberty Springs Campsite. I said a quick “hey” to SnapShot as he came and went, he had left his trekking poles and ran back for them. Towelie was there eating and getting water. So, we got water and chatted with him for a bit, resting our legs for the rest of the climb.

It was overcast still when we made it to the top of the first climb, which wasn’t quite the top of Liberty Mountain, but as close as the AT comes to it. We couldn’t see anything but white skies. We took our time and didn’t rush. Andrea has to break in her hiking legs, and I was worried about her getting an injury early on if she pushed too hard. Plus, this is a hell of a day for day 1 in a backpack when you haven’t been backpacking like this in a few years. Those muscles need some time.. lol.

We made it to Little Haystack Mountain and then Mount Lincoln. It started getting technical here, hand over hand and climbing rocks instead of hiking them. Luckily, we did get some views for a short time up there. We found a little camp spot to sit down and eat lunch. We weren’t finished, but getting semi close to being finished when the sky decided to drop buckets of sideways water onto us. It flat out poured! We quickly jumped up and packed our food back in, put on our rain covers and started hiking-all before I finished chewing the last bite of my food. This was definitely not the relaxing, refueling lunch I envisioned for us.

The rain quit shortly afterwards, but it made the trail a slip n slide. Andrea got to experience the difficulties of climbing rocks and roots when they’re soaked. It’s not easy. And it killed our pace. We reached the summit of Mount Lafayette, and even with the mist and fog blowing through and the wind attempting to blow us off the mountain all together, I found it beautiful. The rocks there reminded me of the John Muir Trail at points.

Occasionally, the wind would blow all the clouds off so we could sneak peak a view. We hiked on a ridge for several miles, and if the clouds weren’t there I could only imagine how breathtaking it would have been. I’m jealous of those who have gotten to witness it first hand.

Coming down Lafayette was rough. Slippery and muddy. We both fell a decent amount of times, most just little slides to the butt.. but Andrea took a couple nasty ones that looked pretty painful. We were aiming to get to a shelter to camp for the night, but decided to stealth camp at this pond instead. It was just short of a mile from the shelter, and it sounded like it was going to be crowded there. Plus, I don’t think either one of us wanted to do another incline and descent to get there, and it was already getting close to 5pm. So why not just set up shop?

The pond is pretty murky, but we found a spring that feeds into the pond to get our water from and wash off. We set our tents up way back a good ways so we hopefully won’t be spotted from trail. We ate dinner, Andrea is now a fan of the ramen bomb (ramen noodles with mashed potatoes mixed in). We’re both pretty whipped from today and in bed already (it’s 7:15).

I’m hoping the terrain for tomorrow is nicer to us than today was. Although I thought today was tons better than the Kinsmans. Now we’ll have to start tomorrow with a climb, but it shouldn’t be too bad. Here’s to hoping anyway. Goodnight y’all.

We got to sleep in some this morning, not officially getting up and getting ready until after 9am. It felt so nice to sleep in! I went through the Burger King drive thru for a biscuit and then we took the car back to the rental place. We went in and attempted to bribe the man into agreeing to take us to the trailhead in the morning, instead of today. He said he couldn’t do that without us currently using the rental, but that if wanted we could have the rental another day, then when we return in the morning we could be driven to the trailhead free of charge. Well, ok then.

We kept the car. We drove down to the little downtown section and found a coffee shop/bakery to go in. Afterwards, we walked around a little bit before heading to the grocery store to grab some stuff for today and in the morning. We were back at the hotel and getting into the jacuzzi before 11:30am.

It was fantastic. We relaxed, floated, swam in the pool a bit, then got back in the jacuzzi. Today was just what my body needed. A real recovery day. Stretching and soaking. Soaking and swimming. I could have stayed in there all day. Except, we did have some stuff to do. We did a load of laundry so our stuff we swam in would be clean and dry.. along with the clothes I hiked in yesterday-especially those socks. Yikes.

We laid around the room and then sat outside awhile. We walked to Walmart across the street so I could get a new sponge. Then came back and decided we might as well have an early dinner.. so we drove over to the Mexican restaurant downtown. It was cute, but the food was bland. Don’t get me wrong, I ate all of my enchiladas regardless, like it was definitely doable, for sure, but not somewhere I’d want to back to. I would say I wouldn’t write home about it, but here I am writing to you about it now. Ha.

We got to the hotel and started packing and organizing our stuff to make tomorrow morning easier. We took turns showering. I got some Irish Spring soap because my Aunt Faye showed me a thing on Facebook saying it helped keep flies away. I’ll try anything to make that happen! So, we bathed with a new bar of that, and I cut some off to take with me on the trail. I’m planning to rub it behind my ears to attempt to keep those boogers away!

Now we’re laying in our beds, chillin. And sort of getting hungry again and debating on putting forth the effort to go get something else or not. LOL. Also, I’ve forgotten to take pictures, mainly because I’m so happy Andrea is here that I don’t like turning my attention to my phone, so I’ve just not picked it up much. It’s actually pretty nice, you know, to just enjoy the moment.

Anyway, I may fall asleep before we decide on getting more food. We’ll see what happens. Wish us luck tomorrow, it’s going to be a doozy Im sure.

Start: Kinsman Notch (AT mi 1803.7). Stop: interstate 93 (AT mi 1820). Today’s miles: 16.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 795.3 miles

I was going to come up with something clever to say about today.. but honestly, I don’t have the brain power to come up with something funny when it comes to such a difficult day. It wasn’t my worst day on trail, but believe me-it still sucked.

I got up at 4:10am and quickly got ready to go. I was pulling into the Kinsman Notch trailhead parking lot at 5:08am-and it was pouring rain in sheets across the boat I’m driving. I waited for the worst of it to subside before getting out and using the bathroom at the trailhead. By 5:30am I was on the trail. By 5:32am my new shoes were soaked through. Awesome. I can’t have nice things.

The trail crossed the road I just drove in on, and literally went up. Rocks and mud galore, and so slippery with the current rainy conditions. The sun was rising, but all it did was light up the white clouds I was walking through.. there wasn’t a single view to be had. And, unlike Moosilauke, there wasn’t a waterfall to distract me from the terrain.

Even still, I felt like I was cruising through it well enough. I wasn’t stopping for breathers, my pack was light (with only a sandwich, Gatorade, and water inside it). This couldn’t be as bad as everyone was saying. At 8am, a whole 2.5 hours after starting, I checked my app. I seriously felt like I was making the miles, so when I saw that I had only gone 3.85 miles total in all that time, I was flabbergasted.

A couple miles later, I made it to the top of Mt. Wolf.. at least I think I did because there was no sign and then I saw a little side trail pointing to a “lookout”— seeing how I wouldn’t actually be able to see anything from a lookout, I carried on without making the side trek. I walked through puddle after puddle, slipping and sliding and completely starting to lose hope that I’d finish this slack pack in any type of decent time. The downhills are so hard when they’re wet and muddy, each step is a guess to whether or not you’ll fall to your butt, or roll and ankle, or break a leg. I am happy to announce I just fell to my butt-a whole lot.

I passed a shelter and then some pretty waterfalls off to my left. This was the nicest section of trail. And it was covered in gnats because the rain was finally letting up some. I stopped at 11:45 to eat my lunch by some water.. during that time, 3 people passed me! The first people of the day! I even knew 2 of them! Jola and Towelie! Towelie stayed and chatted with me a bit. Then I followed him up South Kinsman Mountain, “followed” is a loose term here.. I attempted to keep up with him while we talked-but that didn’t last long. The trail turned back into a rock climbing expedition and caused me to pump my breaks. I truly wish I had the right words for you to feel and see what I felt and saw.

I let out quite a slew of cuss words over the course of the day. Frustration mixed with worry about being able to pick up Andrea on time. Coming down South Kinsman was short lived, less than a mile later I was at the top of North Kinsman. The clouds finally started to dissipate right as I was back into the tree line. I’m sure if I made the effort to find the blue blazed trail to the full summit I would have enjoyed it, but I was too focused on the time it was taking me to get anywhere.. no detouring allowed today!

On that five mile descent, somewhere along the way I ran back in to Towelie, he had stayed at the top and enjoyed it, and then we met up with Trippin, the flip flopper I met at the overlook cabin when I had to call a doctor for the Lyme’s disease. Towelie has definitely recovered from his ailments and was flying down trail. I couldn’t tell if Trippin was really struggling as much as me or if she was just being kind to hike slower to stay at my pace-but either way I was so grateful for her! She completely raised my spirits and we chatted and fussed about the terrain together.

We came across our first Hut of the White Mountains. These are places with bunk rooms and huge common areas that the Appalachian Mountain Club staffs. People pay close to $150 or more a night to stay in a hut. You get breakfast, dinner, a bunk and a toilet. The toilets are nicer style privies but you do get clean running water to wash your hands. Most thru hikers avoid staying at these because of the expense, but they definitely are nice! We filled up water, Trippin and Towelie got some baked goods for $1 each. I wasnt feeling up to eating. I just wanted to be done.

So, I headed out without them, knowing they’d both catch me soon enough. Which they did. Towelie kept going and Tripping stayed with me. I had already updated Cholula so she was going to hang out in the parking lot and read until I got to her. I tell this to Trippin, she mentions that there’s a mile side trail I have to take to get to the parking lot.. ugh.. and that her hubby was picking her up on the side of the highway, so she’d have him take me over to Cholula and save me the non AT mile. SWEET!

Towelie came with us, and we walked up to the side of highway 93 and started walking down the ramp exit. Two cars pull up and over.. Cholula and DeepFried, Tippin’s husband! Cholula had decided to come over to try to catch me before I made the trek to the parking lot! Hahaha it worked out perfectly! She took Towelie to his hostel and me back to my car. Trippin and DeepFried headed back to their hotel. It was 5:30pm. It literally took me the whole 12 hours to complete that hike! Jesus.

I was worn out but on a mission. I headed straight back to the hotel, hung up stuff to dry, took a shower, and then walked down to the Applebee’s for a quick dinner. It was already almost 8pm by this point.. the driving to pick up the car and to get back ate away at time like I didn’t expect. I had some chicken tenders and mashed potatoes. It was so stupid good. Trail life really makes you appreciate any food thats not dehydrated.

Once I finished my meal, I started my road trek to get Andrea. It was a 2 hour drive south to Manchester, New Hampshire. It was a straight shot for the most part and I got there just after 10:30. Lauren talked with me on the phone while I drove to keep me awake. I let Andrea know I was in the cellphone lot and going to close my eyes for a while until she called to say she got her bag from baggage claim. I crawled through to the back seat and laid down, set an alarm for 11:11, and fell into a semi-sleep. I got to snooze my alarm a couple times. I was so nervous I’d fall into one of my deep sleeps if I didn’t set that obnoxious alarm.. so this guaranteed I could rest but not go all the way out.

Andrea called at 11:30, I woke up startled and confused.. and then hopped back in the front seat and drove around to get her. I was SO HAPPY to see her standing there with her pack on.. naturally I squealed lol. Once the boat was in park, I jumped out to hug her. I cannot believe that she is here after all this time! I haven’t seen her in forever, and all of our planning finally has come together and we get to hike the White Mountains! Andrea is an ICU nurse, too, so this is just the kind of reset our brains need with such a physically and emotionally draining career.

We talked and caught up on each other’s lives the whole way back, and time seemed to both slow down and speed up.. we picked up right where we left off, and then suddenly I was pulling into the hotel parking lot. We both agreed that we should rest tomorrow (as it’s already almost 2am), and then start the trail the following day. I think after that brutal hike this morning, my body could use the recovery.

We settled into the hotel room, and the time difference had her much more awake than I was. While she wound down and watched some TV, I drifted right to sleep. What a long day! I was almost awake for 24 hours, which is why it’s taken so long to get this post written and uploaded. It was all worth it though. I have my friend with me 🙂