Date: 2015-08-12
From: Gorham, New Hampshire

To: Glencliff, New Hampshire
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: few clouds

Wrong Way at Ore Hill -Maybe Wed Aug 12 Here is a story that was very interesting at the time, but then far overshadowed by hiking through the White Mountains.   But I will tell this story anyways, since it is illustrative of repetitive hiking on the AT. This story happened Wed Aug 12, in the afternoon, just prior to my arrival at the Hikers Welcome Hostel in Glencliff, New Hampshire. To understand this story, I have posted five pictures named ¢Wrong Way at Ore Hill¢. They are dated Aug 12. So this day Brad/No Worries was way ahead of me. In fact he got to the Hikers Welcome Hostel about 1-2 hours before I did.   He has not asked me why I was so late that day, and I¢ve not told him this story.        So I was walking by myself that afternoon, as is/was typical, except that we were careful to hike together through the actual White Mountains, due to the increased danger. Although this happened at NBMP 1783, in New Hampshire, we were not yet to the White Mountains.   The terrain and trail this Wednesday was much like the previous several hundred miles, no big vertical ascents or descents.   Those came the very next day. So I was walking along, perhaps semi-bored. The battery for my .MP3 player died an hour or so previously this day, about noon, so I had no earphones in.   I was walking north, towards Maine, as I always do. To further understand this story, you must know this.   Both 14 mile before and 14 mile after a shelter or campsite in Vermont and New Hampshire, the AT posts a sign that says you can¢t camp on or near the trail, within 14 mile of an official campsite.        We use those signs to tell us that we are approaching a shelter/campsite, or, less useful, that we are 1/4th mile beyond a shelter/campsite.   I look eagerly for those signs, for they tell me exactly where I am on the AT. So I was walking on the AT. I was sure of that, because there were many white blazes on the trees.   But, as I looked up, I saw the sign that I was LEAVING the Ore Hill campsite protected zone.        But HOW could I be LEAVING the Ore Hill Campsite?   I had not even GOTTEN TO the campsite, for I had seen no ¢warning¢ sign that I was approaching the shelter/campsite, nor any sign at the actual shelter/campsite.   I immediately concluded that I had inadvertently got turned around, and was actually walking south. That would be VERY BAD!   It was 1 PM. The position of the sun (almost directly overhead) was of no help determining which way was east or west.   I then walked a few hundred miles in the same direction. Yes, I think I remember seeing that tree stump and mud before, so I MUST be walking south, in the wrong direction!.   To make matters worse, this part of the trail had no distinctive elevation. The trail was very gradually up to the Ore Hill shelter, from both directions, north and south.   To complicate it further, the actual Ore Hill shelter had burned down in 2011. The guidebook said so.   So I would never see any actual shelter, just the sign to the Ore Hill campsite.   But I had not seen any sign for the Ore Hill campsite.   I have not had maps on the AT since Georgia. Maps are far too heavy, and generally not necessary. Yes, I had a cellphone that probably has a compass via GPS, but GPS and cell service is very rare in the woods, and had been rare for the entire hike. So I had no good ways to tell which way was north, or south. Therefore, convinced that I was in fact hiking in the wrong way, I reversed direction, and then hiked ¢North¢. I continued to watch my surroundings, trying to recognize anything significant that I might have previously seen, but this part of the trail was truly unexceptional.        No steep climbs. There would be a road 0.8 miles actually south of the Ore Hill campsite, and presumably I would recognize that gravel road.        But I recognized nothing, giving me some credence that I was indeed covering new ground, and now walking in the correct direction.   But, soon enough, I found the sign that directed me to the Ore Hill campsite.   I now knew that I was on the AT, and at the Ore Hill campsite, but I still did not know which way was north or south. Often the campsites and shelters are 0.1 to 0.3 miles east or west of the AT, but this one was supposedly ON the At.        So, not really knowing which way was north or south, I continued walking in the same direction.   I then came across ANOTHER sign that said I was both entering and leaving the Ore Hill camping protected site.   I had now seen both protected zone signs, as well as the sign to the Ore Hill site.   Actually, that still didn¢t prove which way was north.   The protected zone signs do not have a North or South arrow.   However, by this time, it became to dawn on me that I had in fact not paid close enough attention, and had missed BOTH the northbound protected zone sign as well as the actual Ore Hill campsite.   Believing that, I then reversed direction, and began walking North again.   So this caused me to walk an extra one mile.   In itself, not that big of a deal, but frustrating.   After walking 3 miles, I reached Lake Tarleton Road, NH 286, proving that I was indeed walking north.   I had not previously seen this road. Four miles later, I reached the Hikers Welcome Hostel. Moral of this story:#1: It indeed possible to walk the wrong direction. Nearly every AT hiker does it at least once on the trail.#2 Unless you have real solid evidence that you are walking the wrong direction, you should continue walking in the direction you were going.   Don¢t believe some slight bit of information that you are walking the wrong way. It should take a lot of evidence to switch direction, such as seeing somebody and they tell you that you are walking in the wrong direction. My complaint with Wrong Way Madison is that she had overwhelming evidence available to her that she was going the wrong way, that is, 500 foot steep climb south, 2 mile roadwalk to the north. She ignored the available facts.   In my case the trail was the same both ways.   But I thought I was going the wrong way. I should have ignored that premonition and continued in the same direction and hope for the best.