Date: 2018-06-22
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Miles today: 0.0

Fri Day 131 6/22We were up and hiking by 5 a.m. There looked to be some bigger climbs today. Ulysses said of the two days, 40 miles to get to Mt. Moosilauke the second day would be harder. So there were some good climbs right off the bat. It warmed up. I'm tired so I'm glad this first day would be the easier day. It was much warmer then the weather report had indicated. Our first climb was up Moose Mountain. We were going from 850 feet up to 2300 ft. The we went back down to 900 feet. Then we climbed 1100 ft to 2000 feet. That was Holt's ledge. Then we drop back down to 880 ft and then we were climbing up to Smart mountain at 3200 ft. After Holt's ledge who pops up but Cody Coyote. I have come to really enjoy Cody Coyote. I've also learned quite a bit fro him in his quiet way. He doesn't try and teach anybody anything. If you watch him you will learn how to hike this trail and survive on very little. Cody doesn't have a phone. He typically doesn't even have that much food on any given day. We had a nice little chat with him. Then he glides on. When we hiked up to Smart's Mountain it's a pretty serious climb, an over 2,000 feet increase in elevation. When we had been on a Holt's Ledge I could look over and see a firetower on another mountain. I really didn't think I was hiking that far today. That fire tower looks really far away. The sun was pretty hot and I was getting very used up. Then I became aware that yes I was actually hiking towards that firetower. Then I was going to have another 5 miles after getting to that fire tower to finish tbe 21 mile day I had planned. I or originally thought we could do 23 miles today, but that was just ridiculous. What you are thinking and planning for the day between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. often goes out the window by 3 p.m. There's a real difference between what you think you can do, like to do, and what you can physically do. I really lost my motivation. It was very hot. We had done a lot of climbing and ridge walking in direct sunlight. There's probably a 20 degree difference between being in the Green Tunnel of the Trail and open exposure to the Sun. The afternoon was moving on. The granite ridge was exposed to the hot sun for 5 hours It then radiates heat back up to you. The sun is beating down on you, the rocks are beating up on you, you're a hot mess. Like I said I was losing steam and motivation. I keep saying "glad this is the easy day" because if it got harder than this I'm not making it today . I don't know how they described this as an easy day. It scares me to think of what tomorrow will be like if this is the easy day. Ibex said we got this. She was feeling strong and ready to roll. We get to a section of Smarts Mountain and it's a 17% uphill climb. There's places with a lot of steps, places with wood ladders built on top of the rock, and rebar iron ladders to help you scamper up the rock. So this was a tough pull this afternoon. I was feeling pretty done. In a spot like this there's no place to get off just cuz you're tired, used up or don't feel like you can go on. They're very few roads that would provide extraction points for the exhausted and worn out hiker. The trail gets very tight towards the top. By that I mean the fir trees on either side are crowding the trail so you are constantly pushing the trees apart as you walk. The branches are always there. We get to the top around 3. We take our puffies pack are food and head up to the top of the fire town. The view is spectacular. There's a glass top that is way too hot. So we sit one level down and enjoy dinner and an hour's worth of food and beauty. Honey Bear comes up the tower as well. She's hiking alone and looking to put in 27 miles today. We've done about 15, almost crushed us. After enjoy ourselves for an hour we head down and get back on the trail. Again the trail is very tight on the downhill of Smarts Mountain. I counted 21 piles of moose scat on the 4 mile downhill hike. We come to a beautiful bridge over pretty strong stream, South Jacobs Brook. This is the first water source we came to. So while we are drawing water and filtering water who shows up Joe Kool and Dom. We hang out and talk. We camel up and carry a liter and a half each as we head up to look for a stealth site. Within a half a mile we find one and camp for the night