Date: 2003-08-10
From: 0.5mi north of Zealand Falls Hut

To: US302/Crawford Notch 
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: overcast clouds

I think I just had my worst 24 hour period since I've been on the trail. It started yesterday with the small mishaps and continued into the night, and part of today. Last night, the rain wouldn't go away. It rained until 4:30 this morning. My tent was nearly floating away, as the water rushed through the campsite, and decided to form a lake under my tent. I had water in my tent, making my sleeping pad, sleeping bag and some clothes soaked. I couldn't lay in the water for any longer, and at 5:30 I got up to see how Hotdog fared. Much better than I did. He saw me walking around and got up too. I packed up, putting wet things in garbage bags to try to keep the dry-ish things from becoming wetter, and we were on the trail just before 7am, a record start. Later in the morning, I got stung by a bee in my left leg, not far from where the pine tree branch attacked me.Before we were on the trail, I was sure I wanted to take a night in a hotel to not only dry out my gear (especially my sleeping bag), but dry out my feet. They have been in pretty sad shape, and last night I was a bit worried about them. This morning though, once on the trail, I felt that I could hike a full day. Not that I would mind taking a shorter day and drying out some.The trail to Crawford Notch was... hmmm... quite wet. The AT itself was a stream, with water running up and down the trail, inches deep. Small streams that are probably just trickles were gushing, sometimes knee-deep, making those crossings interesting, but not too dangerous. It surely didn't mean I'd have a chance to dry out my feet though. At one point, Hotdog said "My trail name should be 'Waterlogged'" and after last night and this morning I thought if either of us should have that name, it should be me! I said "YOU should be named that???" Just then he slipped off a log bog bridge, ending up with one foot in the water. I laughed and said "Okay, you win."Even though the miles weren't that great, it felt like more than seven, with heavy shoes, and all of the water. We finally got to hike at our usual 2 mph pace, since we had no steep ascents or descents. That felt good, but was strange, and it won't happen again for a little while. For part of the trail today, we followed an old railroad bed. The trail was nearly flat and had few rocks. There were piles of boulders from the top of the mountain going down below the trail as well. The mountains around the trail had huge rock faces and cliffs. It was awesome just walking along and looking around.It rained on us a bit today, making me wish I hadn't told a campsite caretaker yesterday that we hadn't been rained on during the day in several days. I guess I got my due! I was only stating a fact, not saying I minded hiking dry. After last night, I'd rather hike wet and stay somewhere dry.When we got to the parking lot at US302, Rockdancer, a '97 (?) thruhiker was there and asked what he could do to help us out. He gave us each a cold soda, and after chatting for a bit, we piled into his car and he took us to a store for resupply, then to a hotel. What a great guy! He comes from Boston area a couple of times a month to help out thruhikers. Awesome! He suggested Johnsons Motel in Twin Mountain, and we are staying here tonight. The owners, the Bradys, are great hosts. They are very friendly, and Mike will drive us back to the trail tomorrow morning. I love meeting these great people. If I weren't hiking the AT, I'd never meet people like the Bradys.We spent the afternoon shuffling wet gear into prime drying spots on the railing in front of our room. There was some sunshine, but no more rain until most of our gear was dry. My sleeping bag is still a little damp at the head and foot, the places that were soaked. (Is it a bad thing to have to wring out my sleeping bag before stuffing it in it's bag?) I feel much better about tomorrow's hike, knowing my sleeping bag is mostly dry. I never was cold last night, but would prefer to go visit more of the Presidential Range with a dry home. I love my sleeping bag, and wouldn't like climbing into a wet one at night. Of course, with this weather, it might be wet after tomorrow night, but I hope not!Each of my feet has about 5 or 6 places where the skin is irritated. That is another reason I'd prefer that the weather dry out a bit. My feet have to carry me a long way yet, and wearing wet shoes and socks each day is definitely not helping. I know the trail will be wet for days, even without more rain, but I will try to give my feet plenty of time to dry out each day.Up above treeline again tomorrow. I can't wait! The weather forecast is for the same showery days I've been having until about Wednesday. That means I will have a day or two of good weather before I'm out of the Whites, and that's it. The things I've seen so far are pretty cool, even with subpar weather. I'd like to explore this area more, after this hike is complete. Right now, that is the only thing I have planned. And that is enough!