Date: 2019-09-06
From: Zealand Falls Hut (NH)

To: Garfield Ridge Shelter (NH)
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: clear sky

It was another good night of sleep. I dreamed that I was in a swim meet and the coach had only signed me up for one event: the 500 yard free. However, I was feeling really good with my butterfly, so I was trying to get placed in the 100 fly. However, the 2 events were back to back and I was concerned about doing well in the 500 when I had just completed the 100 fly. It was a coed meet, so there would be a men¢s event between the 100 fly and the 500 free, but it would be the men¢s 100 fly, which would not give me enough rest time. I wanted the men¢s 500 to go before the women¢s so that I could have that time to recover. Anyway, I was not the first person up for once this morning. The older woman got up first but I wasn¢t that far behind her. We were all up and packing before the croo woke up the guests at 6:30. I went outside to make hot water for oatmeal by the falls and watched the sunrise over the mountains.We started hiking about 7:10 and it wasn¢t long before I lost the trail. The trail was following the Whitewall Brook which had lots of cascades. People had made all these side paths to look at the brook that when the trail actually turned and crossed the brook, I didn¢t notice until the trail I was following got so small and overgrown that I realized I wasn¢t on the AT anymore. I was spoiled by yesterday¢s trail. Today was back to rocks, roots, and climbing. I felt like I was dragging all day. A couple of women passed me in the morning. They greeted me with, ¢Are you auntie?¢ I said yes and then one of the women started telling me that SC was carrying too much weight. ¢Apparently it¢s not enough because she¢s still so much faster than me.¢¢She¢s going to get worn down and tendinitis!¢ I wanted to say, what about me? I¢m the one with joints 22 years older than hers. No one seems worried that I¢m going to get tendinitis. When I caught up to SC, she said the women talked to her for a while. They had gone to stay at the Guyot Shelter last night except that when they got there, the shelter was gone and they hadn¢t brought a tent. Someone was there who helped them rig up a tarp. A new shelter was going to be flown in by helicopter today!The climb up South Twin Mountain was difficult, but at least we had views when we got to the top. In fact we could see the helicopter flying supplies to the Guyot Shelter. We were hoping to see a shelter flying through the air, but apparently they fly it in in pieces, not whole. Bummer.The climb down South Twin was also difficult. We ran into several nobos today that we had met in Virginia. They seemed very discouraged with all the climbing and rocks. We were able to tell them they would have good trail between Zealand Falls Hut and Crawford Notch. We also told them that the Whites are hard and everyone was struggling. We didn¢t tell them that it was going to be this way for the rest of the trail. That would just be demoralizing.After descending South Twin, we headed over to Galehead Hut. SC and I both got soup. SC also had free chocolate cake. Apparently there was something wrong with it, so they were giving it to thru-hikers so they wouldn¢t have to pack it out (the croo have to carry in most of the supplies and carry out the trash). Thru-hikers are their garbage disposals. It was too early to ask for work for stay and we wanted to go farther anyway, so we left the hut and began climbing Mt. Garfield. The trail went straight up the mountain and was extremely rocky. No wonder we had seen so many discouraged hikers today. There were places where we were basically climbing a waterfall. I just told myself that hundreds, if not thousands, of people have done this section of trail this year. If they can do it, I can do it.It seemed like forever but I finally made it to the turn off to the shelter. The uphill climb at the end of the day was discouraging, but at least I can look ahead and see that it¢s going to get easier for me. For the nobos, it¢s going to remain difficult. I think I would have trouble continuing under those circumstances. At the shelter were 3 hikers we had met back in Virginia. We caught up with them. We all made dinner in the cold wind and then bundled up for bed early. It¢s the first time I¢m going to sleep before 9:30pm in a while.