Date: 2008-07-31
From: Crawford Notch, NH

To: North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 0.0

Wow..about 3:30 a.m. those storms hit. Crazy bad storm. When I woke and heardit, I just smiled, knowing our decision had been the right one.I fell back asleep and woke @ daybreak to another violent round. I rolled overand looked down to see Auntie Mame in her bunk awake. I smiled and said,¢Vindication,¢ which started off the entire day with laughter.I looked out of the window and you couldn¢t even tell there were these hugemountains out there, because of the storm clouds. Man does it rock when youtake a chance and modify your ¢plan¢ and it proves to be the right choice. Ifwe had hiked the way we thought, we would have been fine yesterday, but wouldhave been in a bad situation today, because it would have been all exposedridge hiking, and today has proven to be a very stormy day all day actually,not just this morning.We got up and decided to go down for breakfast. I purchased a breakfast ticket,and it was AYCE. Reminded me of my days in college when I worked in one of ourcampus cafeterias to help pay for school. I had to be there at 5:30 a.m. andscoop scrambled eggs all morning. Ick..don¢t miss this days.I made about 3 trips, and the food was pretty good. We all sat with a woman whohad a little 6 month old baby girl named Harper Grace. Sort of a cool name. Inever got the woman¢s name, but she asked us if we minded if she nursed herchild. Now people¢¦I know I have strong opinions about stuff, especiallywomen¢s issues, but it struck me oddly that in our society, a woman/motherwould HAVE to ask if it was ok to FEED her child.   Yup, we consider women¢sbreasts to be sexual objects, and have forgotten that at one time (andpresently), they served the very important purpose of allowing babies toreceive the nutrition needed to survive, so it makes me sad that we are such ahyper-sexualized culture that feeding your child may be considered offensive or¢dirty.¢ANYWAY¢¦A.M., V8, and I decided that even though we checked out at 10:30 a.m.,we¢d hang out in the lodge for a bit. We all had reservations back at theAutumn Breeze in N. Woodstock, where Karen is arriving sometime after noonTODAY!!! JSo V8 totally cracks me up. She knew that the AMC published these journals, andin them in the back are the accident/death reports of hikers who are in theWhites. So she totally got into reading them and I started reading them too.Man..it is AAAA-mazing what people endure out here sometimes. One report toldof a woman who was out for a solo day hike after the busy hiking season. Sheleft 99% of her gear at a hut or campsite, and on her hike, she lost herfooting (as we all do) and fell and broke her leg. All she had was raingear¢¦no food, no safety whistle, no shelter, etc. She ended up spending thenite out there in the rain, but couldn¢t get her rainpants on over her brokenleg. She got herself turned around and backwards crawled on her butt using herarms back up the mountain towards her shelter/campsite. Luckily, the caretakerwent out for an early morning walk and spotted her, so she was saved. Thekicker? It took her 29 HOURS to drag herself a mere .4 of a mile!!!!!I know A.M. talked about this, but THE day we hiked Little Haystack over to Mt.Lafayette, there were 7-8 people who had to be rescued off that ridge. I¢massuming it was mostly hypothermia cases or people (like the one¢s V8 tried tohelp) who saw a sign at the bottom of the mountain stating it¢s only 3 miles tothe top..and they take off with no provisions for the ever changing conditionsup there. Thinking it¢s only a little 3 mile hike. We all decided instead ofjust mileage, they should also put the average amount of time it takes to hikeone way, and I think that would speak to people more.On this note of the seriousness of the conditions in the Whites¢¦I was definitelyNOT making light of that sign at the bottom of Moosilauke. I was (as Chrispointed out in my guestbook) being sarcastic as to the obviousness of howdangerous these mountains are and can be. I have an extremely cautious respectfor the Whites, and whereas I do not want to be an alarmist and make them out tobe so scary that people don¢t want to hike them, I do feel it¢s important tostress that even a day hiker needs to play the ¢What If¢ game and pack adaypack with gear they might not normally carry in other parts of the trail. Idon¢t generally think playing the ¢What If¢ game is a logical way to live yourlife, but there are exceptions¢¦and the Whites are one of them.So many times I¢ve seen slackpackers pass me with only an 8 oz waterbottle¢¦NOTHING else. I can¢t do that even in the Shenendoah¢s. I always packa day pack with the gear I¢d need to be able to survive overnite in horribleweather. It is up to me to save me if something happens, and you just have toplan for the worst in these mountains.   And by the way, if you have to berescued off these mountains, you also get to pay the bill for your rescuecosts. Not sure what it runs, but it can¢t be cheap.So, I sat down in the lobby of the lodge, journaling and watching people. A.M.read a book, and V8 was up in the library reading the accident reports. Karencalled and tried to pull one over on me by saying there was something wrongwith her car. She¢s the world¢s WORST liar, so I immediately started laughing,knowing she was b.s¢ing me. She said she¢d be here around 12:30 p.m.A.M., V8, and I all left and headed back to the Autumn Breeze. Oh, but beforeleaving, I had to check out what tonight¢s movie was¢¦another exciting one(remember..last nite was Beavers) and tonight was ¢The American Wild Turkey.¢So sorry I¢m missing that one.On the way back, I rode w/V8 and we picked up a hiker named Dartman, who thru¢da few years ago too. He¢s 51 and is from NC or will be after the hike. He had2 friends who had walked to a visitor¢s center, so A.M. drove over to try topick them up, but they had already found a ride. We took Dartman to Chet¢s.We got back to the Autumn Breeze around noon, and you all can only imagine myexcitement to finally have Karen back in my orbit within an hour.   I satoutside waiting.   It¢s been 6 weeks¢¦way too long for my taste. She called meabout 5 miles out and I told her what to be looking for landmark wise. FinallyI saw her little car pull up and I was totally overwhelmed. If you can feelevery single human emotion at one time¢¦well, that¢s what it felt like.I introduced her to A.M. and V8, who are so sweet and sensitive to what I wasgoing through. We told them after we get Karen¢s stuff inside, we¢d love to gohave lunch with them.We all ended up going to this great place called the Gypsy Caf©, which servedinternational food. I had some wine, lobster risotto cakes, and this awesomechicken dish with rice and string beans and a zesty sauce.We all talked and had a wonderful time, but Karen and I both discussed how inorder to make it through this amount of time, you have to build a sort offirewall, and that now we know we have to allow our brains the time to realizeit¢s safe to pull that wall down. It was pretty unreal having her hereactually, and yet, it¢s the most exciting thing in the world too.A.M. and V8 are heading towards home in the morning for a few days, and we¢reall going to get back in touch this weekend to plan our reunion andcontinuation of the Whites. I¢ve got some home crap to deal with, so I¢ll needsome time and internet access to do that.OH! I forgot. Karen said the Shamrock Inn (Dalton, MA) did send me a letter.Enclosed was a check for $14.00 like I¢d asked to reimbursed for, and a letterfrom the owner thanking me and he said the matter was being handled by thepolice now. So there ya go¢¦happy ending for everyone.~Certain