sapblatt
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Well, judging from the lack of cars, crowds and trip reports, apparently LarryD, Tuco and me were amongst the few folks who ventured out yesterday in the bad weather. Are we dedicated, or are we stubborn and thick? You decide. The intellegentsia in our group, Rols stayed home to avoid the rain. As we were soaked after about three minutes on the trail we speculated that he was at home in a warm bed and his wife was making him a hot breakfast and refilling his coffee cup. Boy, we felt stupid. Ryan was even smarter - he never considered this!
But I digress - Eric and I met at about 3:15am and headed up to Zealand to meet Larry we then drove onto Lincoln Woods and were on the trail at 6:55am. The forecast of about 1/10th of an inch of rain was way off - it pretty much poured for our entire ride up and until about 1pm on our hike. The Wilderness Trail was pretty much covered with puddles that were unavioidable. Our initial plan was to hike to the Thoreau Falls Trail and up to the falls, then across to the Ethan Pond Trail and out via Zealand - about 18 + miles of very moderate terrain.
We made excellent time - reaching the Bondcliff Trail in about 1:50 and not much after that we were over the bridges and on the Thoreau Trail. Another very moderate trail. My weight loss, and extra hiking days are making this easier for me. Even in the soaking conditions we were going quite fast. There are a lot of uphill sections on this trail, but none of them were enough to have catch your breath on and they all went very quickly - a couple of minutes each. The temps and the rain also motivated us to keep moving.
Eventually we made it to the falls a little after noon time. We had watched the raging river off and on all day and we kind of knew all along it was unlikely we would get across. All it took was one look to know there was no way in hell anyone would be crossing today. The rapids at the falls looked like the scene in Deliverance when the guy dove out of the canoe - it was pretty scary just sitting there. Of course, the lure of the trail and the quick walk out was motivating us to find a way, but there was no way. We even tried bushwhacking up to the Ethan Pond Trail for a few minutes but the cliffs that dropped down to the falls seemed make the only available routes to the east, which would of pushed us into no man's land - we knew we had to stay in sight of the river and head north east. The only option for us (experienced bushwhackers may have been able to do this) was to head out the same 11.5 miles we hiked in back to Lincoln Woods. It was going to be a slog.
At 1:00PM we were officially on our way back out. Eric was looking a bit beat at this stage and we moved pretty quickly but took a few breaks. The rain was stopping and by about 2pm we actually saw som occasional sunshine. We covered the 5 miles back to the Wilderness Trail in 2:15 - and this is about when I started to fall apart - not a good thing when you had 6.5 miles left!
It was strange - I was somewhat nauseaus, all of our feet probably looked like they had been through meat grinders and it was a long grind out. My last few hikes my back has been getting ground up as well - major chafing and sores - not really sure what to do about it - body glide? I am afraid of getting it all infected - about half of my back is covered in sores/scrapes - not a comofrtable way to spend the last 7 hours of a hike. I am speculating that the sore skin on my back was making me walk in a way that relieved some of that pressure - this was forcing my diaphragm down into my stomach and making me feel ill. It kept getting slower and slower. Each landmark passed and we still had a long way to go. We made it back at about 6:45pm for an almost 12 hour hike - not bad for 23 miles, 7 of which I was hurting for. I noticed we were all hurting and it had rained again for the last couple of hours. It was very much hypothermic weather too - we quickly went back to Zealand and while changing there, Larry and I were both shivering - very cold. Eric put the heat on and we headed south at the end of a very long day. I finally made it to a local Chinese Food Emporium and got home around 10:30pm - if you really want to know pain - rinse your hair in the shower so the water runs down your back rinsing all the dirt and salts over a chafed back - I felt so alive.
This was a great hike all in all - I had never been so deep into the Pemi - to think that we hiked 6.5 miles just to get to the second trail - then we had 5 miles to go is rather amazing (or is that insane?) The terrain is really nice, the river was raging and the falls are quite spectacular - I plan to hit them again in a couple of weeks from the other side.
Here are a few of my pictures - it was not a biig day for taking the camera out - Eric took more that I hope he will post.
Back to tending my blisters.
PICTURESshare.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaKIbQ
But I digress - Eric and I met at about 3:15am and headed up to Zealand to meet Larry we then drove onto Lincoln Woods and were on the trail at 6:55am. The forecast of about 1/10th of an inch of rain was way off - it pretty much poured for our entire ride up and until about 1pm on our hike. The Wilderness Trail was pretty much covered with puddles that were unavioidable. Our initial plan was to hike to the Thoreau Falls Trail and up to the falls, then across to the Ethan Pond Trail and out via Zealand - about 18 + miles of very moderate terrain.
We made excellent time - reaching the Bondcliff Trail in about 1:50 and not much after that we were over the bridges and on the Thoreau Trail. Another very moderate trail. My weight loss, and extra hiking days are making this easier for me. Even in the soaking conditions we were going quite fast. There are a lot of uphill sections on this trail, but none of them were enough to have catch your breath on and they all went very quickly - a couple of minutes each. The temps and the rain also motivated us to keep moving.
Eventually we made it to the falls a little after noon time. We had watched the raging river off and on all day and we kind of knew all along it was unlikely we would get across. All it took was one look to know there was no way in hell anyone would be crossing today. The rapids at the falls looked like the scene in Deliverance when the guy dove out of the canoe - it was pretty scary just sitting there. Of course, the lure of the trail and the quick walk out was motivating us to find a way, but there was no way. We even tried bushwhacking up to the Ethan Pond Trail for a few minutes but the cliffs that dropped down to the falls seemed make the only available routes to the east, which would of pushed us into no man's land - we knew we had to stay in sight of the river and head north east. The only option for us (experienced bushwhackers may have been able to do this) was to head out the same 11.5 miles we hiked in back to Lincoln Woods. It was going to be a slog.
At 1:00PM we were officially on our way back out. Eric was looking a bit beat at this stage and we moved pretty quickly but took a few breaks. The rain was stopping and by about 2pm we actually saw som occasional sunshine. We covered the 5 miles back to the Wilderness Trail in 2:15 - and this is about when I started to fall apart - not a good thing when you had 6.5 miles left!
It was strange - I was somewhat nauseaus, all of our feet probably looked like they had been through meat grinders and it was a long grind out. My last few hikes my back has been getting ground up as well - major chafing and sores - not really sure what to do about it - body glide? I am afraid of getting it all infected - about half of my back is covered in sores/scrapes - not a comofrtable way to spend the last 7 hours of a hike. I am speculating that the sore skin on my back was making me walk in a way that relieved some of that pressure - this was forcing my diaphragm down into my stomach and making me feel ill. It kept getting slower and slower. Each landmark passed and we still had a long way to go. We made it back at about 6:45pm for an almost 12 hour hike - not bad for 23 miles, 7 of which I was hurting for. I noticed we were all hurting and it had rained again for the last couple of hours. It was very much hypothermic weather too - we quickly went back to Zealand and while changing there, Larry and I were both shivering - very cold. Eric put the heat on and we headed south at the end of a very long day. I finally made it to a local Chinese Food Emporium and got home around 10:30pm - if you really want to know pain - rinse your hair in the shower so the water runs down your back rinsing all the dirt and salts over a chafed back - I felt so alive.
This was a great hike all in all - I had never been so deep into the Pemi - to think that we hiked 6.5 miles just to get to the second trail - then we had 5 miles to go is rather amazing (or is that insane?) The terrain is really nice, the river was raging and the falls are quite spectacular - I plan to hit them again in a couple of weeks from the other side.
Here are a few of my pictures - it was not a biig day for taking the camera out - Eric took more that I hope he will post.
Back to tending my blisters.
PICTURESshare.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaKIbQ
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