Date: 2022-07-23
From: The Notch Hostel Mile 1804.9

To: The Notch Hostel Mile 1804.9
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I ended up waking up to pee about five times last night. Seems like I might be finally processing some of the stuff I ate and drank yesterday. However, my stomach is still painful although improving. Around 4 AM I made the decision that I would not be hiking today. The plan for today is 16 miles over the Kinsman¢s and there is no bail out point. Once you start, you need to finish or turn around and go back. I just don¢t feel well enough to continue today and I¢ll need to come back and fill in this section. Nick helped shuttle Mark¢s car to the endpoint, and then brought everybody to the starting point. He ended up hiking with Orchid for about an hour before he turned around and came back to the hostel before heading back home.He helped me ship some cold-weather gear at the post office forward so that I can cut some weight out of the pack for the White Mountains. Otherwise I mostly spent the day trying to eat and napping.Stomach is feeling a little better, but still hurts anytime I eat and I have no appetite. It¢s unclear in the early afternoon what shape I will be in to continue tomorrow. I¢m starting to look at alternates for getting to Lake of the Clouds hut on Tuesday. Orchid also texted me that she is struggling with the heat today and probably needs to zero tomorrow as well. We¢ll regroup tonight and figure out our plans going forward. I¢ve had 2 applesauce cups, 2 small yogurts, 2 pudding cups and 3 thin small pancakes. On the upside, The Notch Hostel is really nice and I won¢t mind coming back here to finish the missing segment or stay another night. Around 5, I decided that I should probably get checked out before heading into the woods as I seemed to not be continuing to get better. I got dropped off at the Urgent Care on the grocery run shuttle. UC didn¢t find anything obvious but because abdomen pain (Epigastric pain) can be a symptom of a heart attack they recommended that I head to the ER. I got a shuttle to the ER in Plymouth where they had called ahead. I had the heart attack treatment and was in the treatment area within 2 minutes of checking in and about 5 minutes later had IV, blood drawn, EKG and was hooked up to a monitor. After that it was a bunch of hurry up and wait, but I did get a bag of saline and urine test as well. In the end they were unable to find a definitive cause for my abdominal pain despite extensive laboratory evaluation. Basically follow up with primary care and return to ER if things get worse. At the point that they discharged me it was after midnight and the shuttle¢s were stopped for the night. Plymouth has no taxis or equivalent at night. Sheila found a hotel with one room left about 4 miles away but I really didn¢t want to walk there. I even tried Plymouth Police non emergency line who had no suggestions other than be careful walking. In the end, one of the nurses took pity on me and let me sleep in an exam room. During the evening I had talked with Orchid and Pilgrim. Orchid had decided to zero tomorrow due to thunderstorms in the forecast. Pilgrim had gotten back to the hostel after 10 and was perfectly happy to not hike as well. A zero Sunday basically will lead to a double zero. There is no point to restart Monday as we¢d only get about 4 extra miles compared to starting Tuesday. We¢ll be skipping forward 28 miles to keep our AMC reservations. Steps 1030Weather Forecast: 91/61 and sunny