Date: 2008-07-16
From: Osgood tentsite

To: Imp campsite
Miles today: 17.9

I am writing this on the 17th - i walked from 6am to 10pm to cover the miles, and i was too tired to journal last night.Let me start by saying that i have discoverd that anytime a mountain is named "wildcat", it means that you are going to climb up an insanely steep mountain, and you are going to be exhausted after doing it. and also, more than likely, it will try to injure or kill you in the process....Our day started early, with the idea that we could hike the 4.8 miles to pinkham notch in time to get the AYCE breakfast. so off we went at 6am...bleach left first, follwed by knuckles and myself. Well, our dreams of breakfast were dashed when i took us down the wrong trail for 15 min., before i realized and we backtracked.... d'oh! That will teach me to try to read that early in the morning.... not a good thing. It cost us just enough time to arrive at the notch at 8:50, and the breakfast was done at 8:30. thud made it with 10 min to spare. bleach also took the wrong trail, and had to hitch back, and didn't get there till 8:30. gobbles caught me and knuckles and cruised in with us, and everyone else slept in, and showed up whenever.We hung out for a bit, and knuckles and i left at 10:30 to tackle "wildcat". It took us 3 hours to climb to peak E... where we discovered a running ski lift dropping people off at the top of the mountain. d'oh!!Okay, but first, the climb. Uh, i would describe it as a rock ladder, going up the mountain. When it wasn't a ladder, it was on rock face, climbing steeply up the mountain, so i was either doubled over and walking, or doing the spiderman moves on my hands and feet. Very exciting. Good views as i climbed up, but i was generally to winded to fully appreciate them. Man, i would hate to try to come down that. So that climb kicked my butt....And, when we reached the gondola, we discovered that gobbles, bleach and snake-eyes had ridden it to the top! sky-blazers!!! thud and trust me hiked up like me and knuckles and altough they left at noon, they got up there 30 min after us. So knuckles and i wandered on after we ate, and headed for carter notch hut, our next rally point. It wasn't long before everyone caught up and passed us, so i trained in with them, down to the hut. Now the hut is in a deep notch... 1200 feet down to it, and 1200 feet back up out of it. A veery steep up and down. oiy!!Oh yeah, and in the meantime, we had climbed wildcat peaks, d,c,b and a.so tired.... so much steep climbing...We left the hut at 4:30 with a 6-mile journey to get to imp campsite. With a super steep ascent out of the notch, then rolling terrain until a very steep drop to the camp. Well, we got to the start of the decent at 8pm, and finished the descent in the dark, with our headlamps. Well, that was me and knucles. I stayed with her, becuase she is moving slow in this terrain, i didn't want her to face that descent alone in the dark. All the guys took off from the hut and got to camp by 7 or 8. Because the descent involved open rock face and steep rocky stairs, and other things like that, knuckles was super slow. Hiking down that stuff in the dark made things even slower. So we didn't get to camp till 10. We stayed in the shelter. Basically, we got water, ate some power bars and crawled into bed. It was a brutal day.I am super annoyed at the amc for running the trail over wildcat. What are you thinking??? It was pointless, and in my opinion, served no function other than to punish hikers by sending them over some grueling terrain, when other alternatives looked better. The main thought in my head was that the route they sent us over was prime conditions to create an injury. Thank goodness it wasn't raining, or i would probably still be sitting up there trying to figure out how to get down. I thought climbing out of crawford notch was bad... this was worse.I kept thinking of some good mottos for the new hampshire amc. This one works off the state motto.."climb or die". I would normally add the "b" curse word at the end of that motto, but since young eyes are looking at this, i will keep it clean. And they can add this to the end too... "switchbacks are for pansies"Again, a tough, tough day. Sheesh. So for those of you about to face this section... it's going to hurt. Be ready for some of the toughest terrain you will encounter out here.I think we are through the worst that n.h. has to throw at us, and we are about to enter the toughest sections that maine has to offer. In a day or so (7/18) will be our last day in this state.I just heard from my wife today that pete, who hiked with us back in vermont up through hanover, got hurt and is off the trail. Bummer. I hope he heals up quick and that he has a good recovery. Today i met up with sleepwalker, who i haven't seen since PA. It was fun to see him, and i met deejo, a southbounder. He was a nice guy.My injuries are healing - my face scabs are starting to come off, yay!, and my ribs, are still sore, but not like they were. It still hurts when i sneeze or laugh, but it's better. If i can avoid too much climbing, i should be okay. mahoosic notch is coming up though, so that should be interesting...Time to sleep. I will have to write today's journal in the morning....