Date: 2015-07-03
From: North Woodstock

To: Lonesome Lake Hut
Miles today: 13.3

Today was extremely hard. The weather was perfectly clear and sunny, but not too hot. The trail was absolutely brutal. Even when it wasn't climbing up or dropping a couple thousand feet, the entire trail was covered with big rocks and a lot of mud. The flat parts were nearly as hard as the climbs and descents. It was so exhausting. My body hasn't hurt this much for so few miles in a very long time. I had to constantly scale up large rock slabs and climb up massive rock steps. My knees were aching from the very beginning, since I had to constantly lift them right up. There were many points where it is was just long, straight, rocky climbs nearly straight up. There were very few instances where it wasn't rocky. We got back onto the train at 9am, and I stopped at the first shelter about 7 miles later just before 1pm. I also slipped and fell head first into a stream, which made me feel a bit miserable. After that it was an extremely long and arduous climb up Kinsman mountain. It took nearly 2 hours to climb just 2 miles. By the end of the day, my mileage averaged at only 1.6 miles an hour. I cannot explain how frustrating it is to suddenly go slow and be so beaten by the trail. By 4.40ish, I made my way into the Lonesome Lake Hut. I was fortunate in that they had space for me to do a Work For Stay (WFS), and BigBen was already here to do the same. I'm sat outside getting eaten by the bugs right now. I can see the mountain straight ahead, which looks absolutely enormously huge. With the rate that I'm hiking, it will take me about six million years to climb it and a further forty billion to finish the Whites. It is absolutely no exaggeration when people say that the Whites will slow down your miles. This is very rough. There were also a lot of people on the trail, particularly on the peaks. Most of them are day hikers and I kind of hate them for how much easier they have it. I also hate how many of them have dogs that they let just roam around. There was an instance earlier where I saw two dogs long before I saw any owners, and I was just stood there petrified while BigBen overtook me. Then I had to wait for the owners to chase down their dogs and hold them- one of the dogs started barking and growling at me. Tomorrow is 4th July, and a Saturday, so the trail is probably going to be very busy. I just hope that people keep their dogs under close control.~We had to wait until 8pm before we could scavenge on the leftovers from the dinner. I was so hungry. Usually I have dinner about 5-6, and I'm already asleep by 8-9pm. The dinner was ginger chicken with couscous and chilli. There was also dessert, which was a chocolate cake and a coconut cake. Afterwards, BigBen and I earned our keep. BigBen had to clean out some disgusting grill trays, and I did the dishes. Then we had to wait again- until lights out at 9.30, but still there were guests hanging around in the hut. The croo (this is what the staff in the huts are called) said that sometimes thru hikers will fall asleep waiting for the guests to leave. I can see why, it's an incredibly tiring and long day. At 9.30, as the hut was turning off the lights, a hiker turned up at the hut seeking WFS. He was granted it, and given food too. BigBen and I were annoyed by this- he could just show up and avoid all the dirty work and get free food?? Not cool. It also seemed like a calculated move, since there is a shelter 2 miles before this hut that anyone hiking in the dark would have stopped at. Tomorrow the hut springs to life again at 6.15. It seems like the croo workers are usually very busy. They also seem a little insane, but I think that's because they spend so long in the hut with just a small group of people and not a lot of contact with the outside world. But still, they were all friendly and seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs.