Date: 2012-03-02
To: 2nd Day ever on the AT in NH
Miles today: 0.0

O God you are my GodAnd I will ever praise youO God you are my GodAnd I will ever praise youI will seek you in the morningAnd I will learn to walk in your wayAnd step by step you¢ll lead meAnd I will follow you all of my days.Rich MullinsMuch to my surprise, I lived through the night after hiking my first day on the AT and woke up the next morning inside the warm and comfortable Greenleaf Hut in the New Hampshire Presidential Range. I seriously questioned, whether I could hike another day, since yesterday, my first day on the AT was incredibly tough. I ratcheted up my fortitude and gave myself a pep talk and chose to go on.This AT section, unlike any other section they had hiked previously, can be done by hiking from Hut to Hut. You can make reservations to stay overnight at the huts, which the group chose to do. The great part about staying in the huts is you do not have to pack a tent or your breakfast and dinner meals because staying in the huts includes those meals and a bunk to sleep-in. An added treat in the morning is a skit performed by the hut crew. (this reminded me of Boy Scouts and their skits) The crew also provides you with a weather forecast for the day. Each morning after breakfast and before we hike the first step on the trail the group gathers for devotions and song. The song is always the same ¢Step by Step You Lead Me¢ by Rich Mullins. (It¢s a powerful way to start each day ¢ especially, when you¢re above tree line in the mountains and the sky is cloudless and stunningly blue)The only problem I had that morning, as a novice hiker, was hiking and hiking straight uphill 1.1 miles to Mt. Lafayette (I know-not a President) to get back on the AT. What makes it even harder in this section of the Appalachian Trail is hopping from granite boulders to granite boulder. Boulder hopping shows no mercy to your knees and shins and leaves you bruised and battered from falling, which I did way too frequently. It seems like I was falling face first as often as I was standing and each time I fell, I thought, am I going to survive this? My head became a projectile accelerating at a high rate of speed towards the granite rocky ground with a 30 to 40 pound backpack on my back. I survived. AT hikers hike at different paces, so when you hike as a group, you become very strung out along the trail. Larry Ray, whose trail name is Trail Boss or TB for short, is the last to leave Greenleaf Hut. I believe this was the first day, I would forget a piece of my gear. I left a full container of water at the hut. There is nothing heavier than water to carry. (I will become notorious for leaving things behind.) Trail Boss is not a happy hiker, he carries my forgotten water until he catches up with me. EVERYONE CATCHES UP WITH ME, as I struggle and plod along on my second day on the AT.By midmorning the group had split, a lead group of four and a back group of three made up of two encouragers and one straggler, which was ME. It was then that disaster struck. As the back group descended a granite rock infested downhill with me in the lead followed by TB and Pitchit, TB said over his shoulder to Pitchit, ¢Slippery Rock¢. Heeding his warning Pitchit side stepped that slippery rock to step on an even more slippery rock, lost his balance and fell backwards with one foot remaining planted. The ankle on the planted foot was caught between the full weight of Pitchit¢s body and the planted foot. Pitchit survived the fall but the ankle did not. We now were in a quandary, as to how to get Pitchit off the AT. We were literally miles from a trailhead. Pitchit was not being helpful; his Macho personality won out over thinking rationally. He initially refused help; even though, it was obvious, he was in excruciating pain.A family of 5, I thought, hiking south on the trail came upon us as we were deciding what to do next. (The reason I initially said a family of five, is because that is all I saw but when I mentioned it was nice to see a young family of five hiking together ¢ I was corrected by one of the children that there were six of them. Mom had a 40 pound, probably 5 year old, daughter in her back pack. This humbled me and once again I realized how unprepared I was to be on the AT. I would be humbled even further later that day because I would learn that Mom had just hiked up the toughest part of the AT I have seen in my AT hikes.) She and her family are truly amazing. They offered to sacrifice a sleeping pad to make a splint for Pitchit ¢ This was debated and declined because everyone agreed it probably would be best not to remove Pitchit¢s boot. The family continued hiking North and we resumed hiking South with Pitchit refusing help, until we came to a boulder bigger than a house. It was at this point that Pitchit¢s ability to think rationally returned. He surrendered the contents of his backpack to be divided between TB and myself. We summited Mt. Garfield around noon. Just as we arrived at the summit, we HEAR, Rod Ray, whose trail name is Noisy Rod - NR for short , grumbling as he comes up the trail from the opposite direction. He is backtracking to retrieve Leroy Wise's camera, whose trail name is Wrong Way Wise - WWW II for short. WWW II had left is camera hanging by its strap in a tree at the top of Mt. Garfield. NR is without a backpack. (He had left it beside the trail and would retrieve it after securing WWW II's camera.) He is grumbling because no one likes backtracking on the AT, especially this section of the AT. NR is a God send because being without his backpack meant he could take Pitchit¢s. At this point a young man in excellent physical shape came running up the mountain from Garfield Ridge Shelter. He was an employee of the Appalachian Mountain Club and he is spending his summer at the Garfield Ridge Shelter to help people like Pitchit. He assist Pitchit down the mountain to Garfield Ridge Shelter. He and Pitchit, Dave Michel, will hike to the trailhead the next morning. The young man in excellent physical shape will help Pitchit hike out and keep him from further falling by wrapping a cloth belt around his waist at the same time he has Pitchit's backpack on his back. Pitchit will, ultimately, hike in excess of 7 miles to get off the trail.I think everyone to a man in our group would have agreed to help hike Pitchit off the trail, not necessarily because we are all so caring, but because then it would be our chance to get off this tough section of the AT. Just after leaving Pitchit at the shelter we hiked literally, down a waterfalls ¢ this is the roughest part of the AT I have ever hiked to date. It took the rest of the day and until dark to reach the Galehead Hut. Trail Boss stayed with me the whole time. He was not happy about hiking in the dark and me stopping every 20 minutes to rest. Buck was worried about us and he waited by the trail. This time I did eat. I was glad to have completed my second day ever on the AT.