Thank you!
Executive summary:
Started at 4:01 am on Sunday morning with a south-to-north Presi Traverse, including Isolation. Finished the day with Waumbek and Cabot.
Monday, my umbrella and I did the Wildcat-Carter-Moriah Traverse in drizzly, wet conditions. Slimy rocks greatly hampered pace--boo!
Finished the day with Tom-Field-Willey. Cruddytoes joined me for Field and Willey (THANKS AL!).
Tuesday was a lovely day for Carrigain, Passaconaway-Whiteface-Tris, and Hancocks.
Wednesday--another beautiful August day for Tecumseh, Osceolas, Moosilauke, and Cannon-Kinsmans.
Finally, yesterday was up Flume Slide, across Franconia Ridge, down Lincoln Slide with Neighbor Dave (bushwhacker extraordinaire who joined me for the Owls Head slog--THANKS NEIGHBOR!), then up to Garfield, Galehead, Twins, Bonds, Zealand, and Hale.
My "finish line" was the Hale Brook Trailhead. It is my personal opinion that the clock should run from "car to car." Since I am the first to establish the women's non-winter Fastest Known Time (please correct me if I'm mistaken), my preference is for the clock to stop at the trailhead of the last peak vs. the top of the peak as the men have traditionally done.
Except for Field, Willey, and Owls Head, I hiked solo. My husband Chris joined me for the first couple of miles of the Hancocks and the lower part of Cannon. He did a mighty fine job of crewing... although I don't think he knew quite what he was getting himself into.
(THANKS CHRIS!)
Due to lingering, deep-seated fatigue after thru-hiking the Long Trail in 9 days beginning July 17, I'd actually decided to bail on my plan of a speedy 48. Realizing, however, that this would probably be one of my last chances to do a fast'ish time (gettin' old!), I had a change of heart: on Thursday of just last week I decided to go for it.
My goal was sub-5 days rather than attempting to better the current and previous male record holders, Tim Seaver and Ted Keizer... not that I could if I wanted to!
I wanted this adventure to be more fun than toil--to say, I didn't want to suffer TOO badly--and, for the most part, was successful in that regard. (Knees started to ache a bit last night but still did the entire thing drug free--yay!) Each night I got a decent amount of sleep, and except for a night of camping at the Carrigain trailhead, I got to clean up in a shower! After all, this IS the chick's FKT.
May write up a more detailed trip report later but need to get back to the land of sunny, warm winters and smoother trails first...
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