Date: 2013-09-07
From: Stealth camp atop Mt Hight

To: White Mountains Lodge & Hostel
Miles today: 13.2

Boy, was it windy last night! The walls of my tent shook and pounded. I was worried that the stakes wouldn't hold. I put my earplugs in to try to cut down the noise. It was cold, and the sky was so clear. The Milky Way shone so prominently against the black sky. It was the perfect place to spend our last night in the Whites. Even the giant wind turbines flashed red. For some reason it made me think of giant lollipops in the game of Candyland.I got up around 5:30, and there was a sharp line of crimson light right on the horizon. The sun was not yet up. I started packing up my stuff, keeping an eye on the horizon waiting for the sun to show its face. I heard Hobo outside my tent. He asked if I was awake. I said yes. He said that the sun was halfway up and it was worth a peak. I jumped out of the tent. There was a big rock directly in front of the sun so I hadn't seen it break the surface. I wrapped my arms around my chest to keep warm. The wind was gusting, but the show was worth the chill. The florescent pink light pierced between the horizon and a slice of blue cloud. It looked like an eye taking its first peek of the day before continuing its journey upward. We all looked at each other and wished ourselves a good morning. We packed our stuff up in the wind. I tried to heat up some water for coffee, but the water was so cold and the wind so strong that I barely got it Luke warm even after 10 mins on the flame. I drank the barely luke warm water and threw handfuls of trail mix into my mouth as I packed up. We left our warm layers on as we headed out.The descent was very steep and very rocky, and I was very glad we'd not attempted to hike down the night before. Down at Zeta Pass was saw some great stealth sites and a few tents. I had some unfinished business to attend to so I sneaked into the woods. I crawled behind a log, and I noticed some dollar bills stuffed underneath. Curious. I pulled out three $1 and carefully unfolded them. And then I realized someone had used them in lieu of toilet paper. Just my luck. I find some money hidden in the wilds of the New Hampshire woods and they are covered in shit. I left them sitting on the log. We climbed up and over Carter Mountain. The climbs weren't too hard, and we spent a lot of time walking on granite slabs, but I felt tired and energy-less. Clearly my haphazard breakfast didn't pack much in the way of calories. I ate a snickers, and Tough Cookie feed me a bite of her granola bar. Still I was dragging. The descent down Carter seemed to take forever, and it involved a lot of booty scooting, a lot of root and tree clinging, and a lot of ibuprofen. We stopped at a large rock outcrop just beyond Imp Campsite to have lunch. The sun warmed the rocks, and I felt like a lizard trying to absorb some heat. And thank goodness for the calories because the climb up Mt Moriah was more involved than I expected. We'd throw our poles up and throw our poles down. I scooted on my too sh and balanced on boardwalks. Sometimes I'd find myself crawling on my hands and knees and cursing under my breath. I was grateful to have the other three there to keep the mood light and to share in my dismay. I'm still amazed that the AT can be considered a "footpath". Occasionally we'd reach a part of the trail that was flat and we could stand erect. It was so novel and rare that we commented each time it happened. There was a six mile downhill that looked pretty harmless on paper, but it kicked my ass. My knees and feet were howling, and I couldn't help thinking that if this is how I feel with the highest recommended daily dosage of anti-inflammatories in my system I was scared to know how I would feel without them. Scary thought, indeed. We stopped briefly at the Rattle River Shelter. It marked the official "Less than 300 Miles to go" mark. We took photos and had a good laugh. By now we we're all hurting pretty badly so we were feeling punchy. The trail smoothed and evened out, but the damage was done. I could have been walking on a pillow top, and it would have hurt. We finally made it down to Route 2. We turned left and walked to the hostel.I'd heard wonderful things about the White Mountains Lodge & Hostel, and I wasn't disappointed. Marni greeted us and walked us through the routine. Grab some "hostel" clothes, throw our dirty clothes in the to-be-washed bin, take a shower, find our bunk, grab a drink, and start the process to begin to feel human again. I was lounging on the sofa in my bright pink striped flannel pajama pants when Hobo sat down beside me. He said that Pressure-D and Tough Cookie were planning to zero tomorrow. My heart leapt with joy. We could zero, too! The decision took exactly .63976 seconds to reach. Also Hobo's sister, Becca, was here to work her trail magic. She's pretty great at it. We ordered food to be delivered. I ate over half of a large pizza by myself. Then I waddled upstairs, crawled in bed and passed out.