Date: 2013-06-14
From: White House Landing

To: Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to
Miles today: 14.0

DAY 5MILES ON AT FOR DAY= 14MILES TOTAL FOR DAY= 14.3I don't know if ill ever have dry shoes again. Putting on cold wet shoes in the morning and getting out of my sleeping bag are so far the hardest things. And through this type of terrain, there's no point in even tryin to dry them out. We have definitely not been following the AT Hiker guidelines: "at every river crossing take off your shoes, put a dry pair of socks on whenever they get wet" It's impossible! What's the point of putting on dry socks when my shoes are soaked and the socks will be wet in 1 minute down the trail! My shoes haven't been dry since the first day when we fell in the river! And until we're out of here, I don't think there's any hope for them.So wet socks and shoes were on. My Achilles and knees were still in horrible pain so immediately I popped some Aleve. It made me nervous that we were doing 14 miles today because I wasn't even walking right. With every step I took there was a shooting pain in my heel. We didn't have much of an option though. As far as campsites went it was 6 miles or 14 miles, and 6 miles was too short. Since it was supposed to be a nice day and the elevation was pretty level, we figured if we paced ourselves we would be ok, or more so I would be ok.We went over to the AYCE breakfast and it was a-MAZING. Eggs, bacon, english muffins, blueberry pancakes, coffee, juice... All I could ever want. We had breakfast with doodles and UPS and with a father and son, Mark and Patrick, from Florida trying to hike the 100-mile wilderness. We were all talking about the conditions and such and our plan of attack. It seemed my dad and I were the only ones who were heading out right after breakfast. Doodles and UPS were going to take it easy and only hike 6 miles after they stayed for lunch since our day before was so long and tough. Mark and Patrick were staying a whole day longer to rest up. We exchanged info with doodles and UPS as we hoped to meet up with them at Shaws at the end of the 100-miles. At 9:30am, we said bye to everyone, I popped one more aleve (feeling no relief from the two before), and then Bill drove us on the boat over to drop us off closer to the trail head so we didn't have to walk an extra mile on the side trail (too bad they didn't just have you pick up from there too to avoid that extra mile). Off we went.I decided to use my poles for the first time today because I hoped it would help my legs and feet and it seemed to. The trail conditions were much much better and as the guidebook had shown, it was flat. AND it wasn't too muddy or water logged or anything. If it stayed that way id make it just fine. I was definitely slow to start with my aches and pains but my pace picked up once I was warmed up. It was funny because I was thinking of all the things I could eliminate from my pack that I hadn't used like leatherman, lotion, gloves, mosquito face net... and just then the Mosquitos started to attack....and they didn't stop.... for 12 of the 14 miles. The terrain was great for a change, the weather was great, but now the bugs were out. It's always something. And they were BAD. The mosquito face net was a god-send but those Mosquitos bit right through my long sleeve shirt and leggings. Aside from that the hike went well. I paced myself and actually started feeling better in my legs and feet. Toward the last few miles we were both tired but even with taking our time hiking we made it to our destination by 5pm. Our destination was Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to. When we got there it looked a little dumpy but the river next to it was great. Unfortunately the bugs were still bad so we decided to set up our tents instead of sleep in the lean-to. I was honestly exhausted and felt I didn't get enough rest the night before so we decided to set up, make dinner, and just go to sleep. There were two boys in camp with us but they were off in a different tent site. Tomorrow the trail is supposed to get tougher in terms of elevation so were going to take it a little easier than the past two days. This girl can't do those 15 mile days all the time just yet! Proud we managed 30 miles in the past two days though PLUS were almost half way through the 100-mile wilderness! Wahoo! P.S. if anyone decides to hike around here you should DEFINITELY check out White House Landing. Bill and Linda are amazing and it is one of the coolest things I've ever done hiking!