The Unpolished Princess

Start: Thistle Hill Shelter (AT mi 1736.3). Stop: Hanover, New Hampshire (AT mi 1751). Today’s miles: 14.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 726.3 miles. States Completed: Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont

I slept so good, once the eating noises were done and after the couple that showed up at 10pm quit shining their headlamps in my face.. haha.. tents do not block bright lights, and they had to set up their tent. Thankfully, once their lights were out, so were mine.

I didn’t get up when I planned to, I slept until a little after 7:30 lol—can’t guarantee good sleep, so when it comes, you take it! I packed up and forced myself to eat more for breakfast than I did yesterday. I had the Belvita breakfast cookies and a probar.. I was about ready to spit the last bite out because I was just so dang tired of chewing, but I got it down.

I hit the trail around 8:15 and it was another slow moving day.. albeit faster than yesterday, thank God. I had less ups and downs, so they were longer inclines and declines, but it seemed to be more manageable. I just kept telling myself to keep moving forward, get to town, and then you can rest. It was my mantra on repeat all day long.

I only took my pack off twice. Once to filter water and dig a hole 😉 and then again later to put my rain cover on my pack when it started to sprinkle some. I was *shockingly* begging the rain to come for a little while, simply because I was so sweaty and knew I’d be in a hotel bed tonight so who cares if it pours? It didn’t. The sprinkles lasted about 5 minutes after I put my pack back on. Whatever. And I skipped lunch. Well, my typical lunch anyway. I just ate another protein bar while I slowly chugged on. Get to town. Get to town.

The trail was beautiful, as always really.. and actually not very muddy (good thing it didn’t rain, I guess). I remember thinking this morning how it’s been a few days since I’ve seen a snake-and then this afternoon.. a quick slither to my right, a medium sized garter snake. He was way too fast for me to get my camera out, but it was the very first time I didn’t really react. Ok, that’s a lie. I yelled out a, “JESUS CHRIST” when I saw him, but I didn’t jump or get the cringe-y feeling I normally get. You know I must not be feeling myself at all! Lol

The last stretch of trail was on roads through a neighborhood to a town, then across a bridge and into downtown Hanover, New Hampshire. That road walk was so painful for some reason. I think I need to get some shoes with cushion, because it felt a lot like my feet were just going to snap off at my ankles. The ache with each step was unbelievable. But-I enjoyed the views! The houses were gorgeous-expanded farmhouses that when my nosy self looked on Zillow, all cost over a million-or two. Well, ok then Norwich, Vermont.

The bridge that took me into New Hampshire crossed over the Connecticut River. And then downtown Hanover is home to Dartmouth College. I’ll be damned if there wasn’t actual ivy on the brick walls of some of the student housing I passed while on the side walk. Ivy League indeed.

The town is very cute, my hotel is very nice. Once I checked in, I went ahead and asked the lady to reserve tomorrow night for me, too. I didn’t even want to see the room to know I wanted to stay tomorrow. I went to the top floor to my room, instant gratification. Yep, I’ll stay here again. Hell, I might move in and not leave. It’s got a big king size bed, a writing desk (which maybe I’ll use to do some mile planning), a couch.. ok, it’s incredible.. the only thing it lacks is an actual tub (Lauren, I bet you’re getting a kick out of me learning to love baths LMAO).. but the shower is spectacular! (I’m going to send a picture to Uncle Keith tomorrow, I want this shower pan haha)

I didn’t shower right away, because they don’t have laundry here.. so I knew I needed to do my running around town first-so I don’t have to put back on dirty clothes and go back out. I ordered some Thai food and sushi online from the place semi next door, then I walked over to CVS. I picked up my prescription, some probiotics (heaven help me if I get a damn yeast infection while hiking-I’ll take the diarrhea over that ANY DAY, but hopefully this will help solve both potential issues), a razor, some baby wipes, and Gatorade. You know.. essentials.

Once I checked out, I went and grabbed my food (neatly sitting on a table with my name on it ready to go.. talk about efficient), and headed back to the room. By this point my head was swimming and I was limping-but I knew I was so close to relaxing. SO. CLOSE.

I ate what I could of my food (I still have a ton of pad Thai left) and showered. Since then, I’ve just been hanging out in this big bed with my feet propped up on one of the 5 pillows. I’ve got my steroid cream on, antibiotics are in, and I’m all caught up with family and friends that have checked in on me. Sometime tomorrow I’ll figure out the bus situation to go get my laundry washed somewhere in a neighboring town.

I don’t think I’ll be double zeroing now when I get to Lincoln, New Hampshire. That was the plan originally because the car rental company wouldn’t rent the car unless it was rented for 2 days-something about preserving their fleet or whatever. But, now, since I’m zeroing tomorrow, but the hotel and rental car are already paid for in Lincoln, I have a new plan in place. I’ll get off trail in North Hampton, get shuttled to my hotel, get the car the next morning, and do that chunk I missed as a day hike-slack pack. Then, I’ll still have the whole next day to rest up and pick up Andrea from the airport. I think it’s going to work out just fine. Not to mention, my body needs tomorrow to rest up and hopefully start recovering some, whether I wanted to or not.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling. It’s way past my bedtime! Sweet dreams, y’all. Thanks for following along and for checking in on me. Love y’all bunches 🙂

Start: The Lookout (AT mi 1721.4). Stop: Thistle Hill Shelter (AT mi 1736.3). Today’s miles: 14.9 miles. Total AT mileage: 711.6 miles

I didn’t sleep well, thanks again to mice. I could hear them scurrying even with my ear plugs in, and then I’d randomly wake to a noise and shine a light on my food bag and mine and TBird’s packs to make sure they weren’t eating through our stuff. None ever were. But that didn’t stop my panic from continuing to wake me over every little noise all night.

When I finally decided to get up, at 7:20, TBird, DoubleDecker, and TownLegs were already gone, but everyone else was slowly packing up like me. One of the men was so heavy footed that it sounded like a herd of elephants every time he got up and walked anywhere. I’m not sure how people don’t realize they make that much noise sometimes.. or maybe they do realize and just don’t care, but I kind of think it’s more of obliviousness than it is intentional.

I got moving around 8, and started the day feeling nauseous and lacking an appetite. Cool. I forced myself to eat my breakfast stuff anyway. Id like to pretend it was strictly for protein intake, but it was actually so my pack would be just a tiny bit lighter.

I stopped at the first shelter I came to, the one I was trying to get to last night, because I needed water. To my great surprise, Lizard was there! I was so happy to see her that I gave her a sweaty hug that I’m sure she was less than thrilled about when we broke apart a second later. Whoops!

She ended up passing me early on, and I was hoping we’d meet at camp. However, her Hannah is coming to town, so Lizard had to pass the shelter I was aiming for to get picked up by Hannah at a road crossing. While I’m super happy for them and their quality time together, I can’t help but wish they were both going to be at camp when I got there. Lol

I could not for the life of me pick up my pace. I was slow, and the trail was mostly pine needles and roots-nothing awful at all, but I was stuck in slow motion. My head hurt and my legs felt like lead. The trail on paper didn’t look too bad. The trail in person was like a mini rollercoaster. Up, down, road, up, down, road, over and over all day. At the end it was up, over, up, down, shelter.

When I stopped to eat lunch at a river crossing sometime after 1pm, I was so out of it that I couldn’t make my normal lunch. I just ate some snacks and sat awhile. I forced myself up and carried on, mainly to get away from the bugs.. but when I tell you I was hardly moving, I mean it. I would take 5 steps on those inclines and have to stop. It just felt like my legs were too heavy to move. Twice, I just flopped to the ground in the middle of the trail and just sat there.

It was humid. It was buggy. I had my bug net over my face, and would occasionally feel trapped and tear it off, only to have a gnat swarm my eyeball and cause me to put it back on. So it goes, I guess. But, the main blessing, while it randomly poured at 6am, the rain was done by the time I started and never showed back up. So, it was a rain-free day-just not a wet-free day. My sweat soaked absolutely everything.

I finally made it to camp around 6pm. 10 hours of hiking and I went less than 15 miles. And the terrain, while having big rolls, it really wasn’t “hard” per say. TownLegs, TBird, DoubleDecker, Smiles, Sheep, and 2 others that I don’t know were already here when I got here. I was utterly done. I was still panting hard a solid 15 minutes after showing up and sitting down.

I set up my tent (in all its dry glory), and trudged down to get my water and wash off. I came back equally spent. I had to stare into space for a bit before I could muster the energy to cook my dinner. I did it though, and I forced myself to eat it all.

I talked to mom all throughout the day. Naturally, she’s worried about the Lyme’s disease, as am I. I’m honestly scared of feeling the way Towelie did before he got on antibiotics.. and I think I was starting to get the beginnings of that today. I just have to get into town tomorrow, and then I’ll have my doxycycline and be able to see if that makes a difference in the way I’m feeling. Mom got me a hotel for tomorrow night, since my service wouldn’t let me load the page to book it. And then Uncle Keith checked in on me. I really am so blessed to have such wonderful family.

I’m praying tomorrow is a smoother, better day all around, but I’m making sure I get up earlier just in case it’s not. The earlier I get to town the better. I can tell when I’m not feeling well because the little noises that make me batty start to grade on my nerves to the point of wanting to scream. Like currently, I’m in my tent, but I can hear someone eating their dinner (it’s 9:25pm, she got in late-poor thing), and it sounds like she’s loudly breathing in when she takes a bite-all of which sounds obnoxious and echoing in my ears even with my ear plugs in. I’m annoyed with myself for being this annoyed with her, because hell-the woman gets to eat her dinner, but it’s physically making me twinge.

You can only eat so much, right? Ha. Hope so. Anyway, here’s to feeling better soon! Goodnight 🙂

Start:Inn at Long Trail (AT mi 1706). Stop: The Lookout (AT mi 1721.4). Today’s miles: 15.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 696.7 miles

I slept on a cloud of a bed. It was everything I needed. I had such a hard time getting up, that I slept in until 7:45. I got up to pack and had to talk myself out of just getting back in bed. Luckily, breakfast was included with my stay, so that prompted me to get a move on.

I walked downstairs and was pleasantly surprised that the included breakfast included coffee, juice, a main dish and a side! Holy crap! I got grapefruit juice, 2 cups of coffee, bacon, and 3 blueberry pancakes, with fresh Vermont maple syrup. It showed up with a slice of watermelon, too! I’m really in love with this place.

I tipped the waitress and headed outside, completely stuffed. My head was hurting, but i chalked that up to the caffeine not kicking in yet. I started on the blue blaze that would take me back to the AT, and to my happiest surprise: the sun was shining! The rain ended up holding off all day long! I was astonished!

About 2 miles into my hike, I received trail magic from a couple at a campground. Because I was disgustingly full from breakfast, and honestly moving very slow, I just let him give me a Gatorade.. he was making fresh bacon! I felt like a crazy person for declining it, but another bite and I’d explode.

I passed a gorgeous pond, these ponds out here are more the size of lakes.. but I was told that they’re named based off of water depth not overall size. Hmmmm… anyway, it was stunning, as were the multiple waterfalls and rushing creeks full of the last week of rain. All in all, it was just a very beautiful day.

I had several major climbs today, up to unnamed mountains. I had plans to go 18 miles and camp where Lizard was pushing to, but time got away from me, along with those climbs, that I didn’t make it to the Lookout cabin until after 6pm, and the shelter she was at is another 2.8 miles away. As much as I miss her, I just physically couldn’t push myself to get there.

I leapfrogged with TownLegs, TBird, and DoubleDecker all day. At one point, in the middle of one of the climbs where we were stopped for water, I was telling TBird about the urgent care visit and whatnot. She asked to see my back and immediately thought Lyme’s disease, not ringworm and definitely not the stupid pityriasis.. she told me about the tele health doc site she used when she’s been sick on trail, so we decided when we got to the lookout, she’d take a good picture of my back and then I’d go that route for a second opinion.

When I finally made it to camp, I was so pooped I literally didn’t want to make dinner. I went up to the lookout over the cabin and the views were the best I’ve seen so far. So absolutely gorgeous in a full 360. Just. WOW. I stayed up there awhile, TBird came up and got a picture of my back in bright light for me. I then got to work uploading it and all my info to the tele doc. Sometime after 7:30, a doctor called my phone. He went over everything with me, and then told me he definitely thinks it’s Lyme’s disease. He proceeds to tell me he doesn’t want to send a prescription because he wants me to go to urgent care to have blood work drawn to have titers. I literally tear up and tell him about my urgent care visit yesterday, how I felt misdiagnosed by the provider there, and how I just wanted someone to help me. He kindly gave in and said he’d write the prescription but that he still wants me to get blood work done when I get to Hanover to get the prescription filled (I’ll be there night after tomorrow). I thanked him tremendously and he promptly hung up lol.

I sat outside and had to force myself to eat dinner. I wasn’t really hungry and didn’t feel like going through the motions to make and then clean up after dinner.. but I did it anyway.

Now I’m laying on my air pad in the loft of the cabin next to TBird. TownLegs and DoubleDecker are downstairs, along with Jeff (who has hiked here from Key West, Florida!), Hamlet, and 3 younger guys. Smiles and another Flip Flopper put up their tents. I’m sad I didn’t do the same now, because the weather has moved out more AND we can hear rodents moving through the walls. Cool. Real cool.

I’m going to put in my earplugs and pray for sleep, and that these vermin leave me alone tonight. Hopefully I’ll catch Lizard tomorrow! And also, hopefully I won’t start feeling bad between now and getting the antibiotics in Hanover. Today wore me out, but it’s so hard to tell if it was the normal worn out from difficult terrain, or if it’s the mess my body is struggling to fight. I guess I’ll find out in a few days if I improve with the antibiotic or not.

Goodnight, y’all. Sweet dreams!