I guess I'll add my own trip report about this hike as well. I'll give a little background so you can understand my pace. I seem to be locked in a race with myself where I'm always trying to 'one up' myself or top my last run, hike, snowhoe, etc. I'm also training for a 50K trail race (Wakely Dam Ultra) so I was using this hike and the Escarpment hike that I did two weeks ago as training.
As for the hike. This was my second time meeting up with some VFTT'ers and some folk from thebackpacker.com and once again I found that you all are a great group of people. I learned alot and it was great to finally talk with some people that have the same passions, hobbies... Alot of people I know think I'm nuts to be so active and do these hikes. They don't understand the feeling that you get when you're standing on some peak, or standing before some beautiful waterfall, etc and realize that most people you know are still asleep and there you are feeling "alive" and living life to it's fullest. Now without delay onto the trip report:
We started the hike at 6:15 and it seemed a little rough as it was taking longer than i expected to get into the swing of things and for my body to get warmed up. The whole way up Indian Head I kept finding myself wondering how I was going to do 20+ more miles of this. Artex and ATRunner were right behind me for most of the climb. We stopped for a breath and Artex mentioned that he wanted to slow down. He mentioned stopping at the peak of Indian Head, so i went ahead planning on stopping there and waiting for him to catch up. I proceeded on at my own steady pace (which seemed slow to me but turned out to be a pretty quick pace). The peak of Indian Head didn't have a marker, sign, etc so I cruised right on by it without noticing. By the time I realized that I had passed it I was already descending to begin the next long climb (which was repeated numerous times over the course of the day).
I stopped for awhile hoping they would catch up but decided to go on and figured that they would catch up to me. The miles started to fly by and I kept plodding along stopping at the views (which were amazing) and seeing if anyone was near by me. A few times I heard voices behind me but they never seemed to catch up to me. I'm slow on the descents so I think they would close the gap between us then and then I would start the ascents (which are my strenth) and the gap would widen. It started to get warm and I found myself drenched on the ascents. The worst portion of the trail (for me at least) was the section between the peaks of Sugarloaf and Plateau. There is a very nasty downhill with you climbing, jumping and trying to not hurt yourself as you descend down a very steep mountain side only to head right up a very steep and long climb up the other side. At the top of Plateau I started to get into the "zone" and then I just started cruising from that point on.
I reached the campground (roughly the halfway point) after 5 hours of hiking and decided to relax, eat lunch and fill my water bladder and wait for someone to catch up with me. I waited about a half hour then decided to go ahead. My legs were aching a little from the roughly 6000' of vertical and ~14 miles of hiking that I had already accomplished so i decided to head out before I changed my mind about the second half. I ended up running into two from our group at the trailhead but they stopped to eat lunch so i proceeded on. At this point I got myself in the "zone" and found myself actually enjoying the 1500+' climb up Hunter. I couldn't believe that I had hiked over 15 miles but yet I felt great. I proceeded on passing a few hikers along the way. I stopped at the falls (I don't think I passed Adk_Dib at all because I didn't see anyone at the falls) for a snack and sat at the top of the falls enjoying the view and then carried on at my usual pace.
The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful except for two things. The last 200-300' climb over West or Westkill (not sure which one) seemed to pop up out of nowhere after I had begun what I thought was my final ascent and after a little swearing at the map, trail builders, etc I pushed myself over it. As I descended from this point the mosquitoes as well as the gnats decided to test my sanity by swarming me. They were everywhere and I couldn't swat at them quick enough. I knew I had only 1.5 miles left so I decided to jog/run the remaining portion so that I could be free of the swarm and keep my sanity. I made it to the parking lot after 9hrs 15min of hiking/10 hours with breaks feeling pretty good. Lumberzac and a few others from the group were sitting there looking pretty relaxed waiting for us. They seemed surprised that I was already done.
I ended up doing most of the hike solo and only passing about 5-6 other hikers the whole day but really enjoying the solitude and peacefulness of the whole day. It was definately a warm day though because i went through 8 liters of water over the course of the hike! Looks like I finally nailed down my nutrition needs though. Next time I'll try and make a point of staying with the rest of the group.... although I knew that if i slowed down and didn't hike at my optimal pace i would've been hurting worse. I had to go to a wedding the next day so I drove back to the campground, packed up my stuff and headed down to the city. I woke up the next day tired but not sore at all. I was very surprised to say the least.
All in all a great hike and weekend. I look forward to meeting more of you VFTT'ers.
![Yellowstone National Park [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kGuJ72qjL._SL500_.jpg)
![Grand Canyon, North and South Rims [Grand Canyon National Park] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/419Y-ycyVUL._SL500_.jpg)
![Grand Teton Day Hikes and National Park Map [Map Pack Bundle] (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DB0jvRnbL._SL500_.jpg)
