I hiked the Pemi Loop, turned around, and tried to do it again

[leaf]

What I was thinking:

First, just wanted to mention that this hike was for charity organization called Friends for Health in Haiti. All the information on the cause and how it all developed is on Rocks on Top. The link to the thread is here: http://www.rocksontop.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4528 Also, there was a brief post in the organization’s blog on my hike found here: http://friendsforhealthinhaiti.wordpress.com/ I will be making a guest post there as well. The main website for Friends for Health is here: http://www.friendsforhealthinhaiti.org/ OK, on to the Trip Report.

Planning and Logistics:

Realistically I only had 48 hours to drive up to the mountains, spot cars, hike 64 miles, retrieve cars and drive home safely. Ideally it would have been nice to have either Friday or Monday off from work and have my support team also on a three-day weekend schedule but we just couldn’t do that. So I had limited time. My decision to begin hiking right after I got off from work on Friday was to maximize my time. The downfall of that was the fact I was losing hours of sleep in the process. When we started hiking at 9 p.m. on Friday, all of us had already been awake for 14 hours.

I won’t describe my initial plan or the evolution of it but I will say it involved an excel spreadsheet and about 50 emails with my support team back and forth. I tried to think of every scenario and how to work it best. There’s a million ways to hike 64 miles, but only a few ways to do it in 48 hours.

My Support Team:

I’m going to say this about 100 times in this Trip Report. I am extremely grateful to my 4-person on-trail support team for pushing me through this! I know I was very cranky some of the time but hopefully not too difficult to deal with. Also I want to mention my off-trail but on-call member who was by the phone and willing to pick us up if we needed to bail where our cars weren’t spotted. And she was by the phone all the time, because when I sent her text updates, she responded immediately.

Double Pemi Support Team:
Jason (ferrisjrf) – Team Comedian
Lei (mountaingirl) – Team Workhorse
Mats – Team Moral Support
Rebecca (Juniper) – Team Chef
Gwynna (on Rocks on Top) – Team 911

Everyone, besides Gwynna (who I asked for my off-trail support), came to me and asked if they could help. I never said “Hey, I’m hiking a double Pemi, want to make sure I’m still alive by the end of it?” And that meant a lot to me, for people to volunteer their weekends to help. Once the emails started flying back and forth planning everyone was willing to be flexible and asked what was the best thing for me. Lei and Jason were willing to start hiking in the middle of the night to reach me at points on the Franconia Ridge and Garfield. That would have required waiting for me at 2 or 3 a.m. on summits. I was really moved by the amount of support they offered. Also, people who contributed money to the cause was a serious motivator. I climbed West Bond on Sunday morning for the sole reason that some people were willing to donate money per mountain climbed. And I’m glad I found the energy to do it. Lastly, thanks so much for all the emails, PMs and to mtn ma and mtn pa who had rearranged their hiking plans on Sunday specifically to see if they could catch me to provide much needed Gatorade and snacks. I couldn’t believe it! It was such an energy boost!

What I Carried:

In case people are wondering “What do you bring on a double Pemi attempt?” Here’s what I had in my backpack:
-extra tee-shirt
-fleece vest (ditched halfway)
-long sleeve shirt
-light windbreaker
-bivy tent (thanks Darlene!)
-one water bladder and one nalgene (I would ditch the nalgene at the halfway point)
-a bunch of food
-three pairs of sock liners
-three extra socks
-teva sandals
-small first aid kit

How that all added up to 20lbs is beyond me, but that was my pack. Jason had a light sleeping bag and pad for me. Beyond that, that was my gear. I would later borrow his winter hat and gloves on Sunday morning. I changed into a clean teeshirt and ditched the worn one back at the trailhead halfway.

The Hike:

I drove up with Jason and we met Lei at Garfield Trailhead to spot Jason’s car and started hiking from Lincoln Woods at 9 p.m. We couldn’t have gotten there any sooner since I didn’t get off from work until 5 p.m. So 9 p.m. it was and we donned the headlamps and started trucking up Osseo Trail to Flume. As we approached the summit the moon was setting but the stars were out and bright, including a planet that I decided was Saturn, but could have been Jupiter or Venus. We reached the summit of Flume at midnight after two brief snack breaks. Jason had suggested we stop every hour or two and eat and drink which was a great idea I thought. In the end, our breaks would turn to every three to four hours, but we always placed emphasis on that. One of my big anxieties was being on the Ridge at night. I guess I should say I retained some of my childhood fear of the dark. I was also concerned about the weather and low visibility with headlamps but once we reached the summit of Flume…. then Liberty at 1 a.m. my concern faded. The weather was really good. Hardly any wind and only spotty clouds. Personally, I’d never been on an exposed ridgeline in the middle of the night but the way that night turned out, it was a very comfortable experience. We got on Haystack by 2 a.m. and through to Lafayette around 3:30 a.m. through this sort of mystical environment. Our LED headlamps illuminated the new growth on the spruce and the alpine flowers with this unnatural super blue color. Lafayette appeared before us in the dark and it was very intimidating! You could make out the black shape of the mountain in the dark dark blue of the sky. No terrain visible, just a massive shadow. Lei commented if she was alone she’d probably turn around, and I agreed, it looked scary! Also didn’t help when Jason screamed a blood curling scream out of nowhere to scare the hell out of us. It was hilarious. There were a lot of funny things that happened up there in the middle of the night, including Jason sucking water out of the spruce, Lei telling us she was in the clouds and to look at that U.F.O., and some comments about clowns appearing around the next corner. Each one of those moments kept me motivated and in high spirits. I can’t describe how it all looked, with massive black shadow mountains, bright blue spots of flowers and trees and distant lights of towns directly below us but can say it was something I’ll never forget.

As we descended Lafayette around 4 a.m., a red sliver of light began to appear in the horizon. My sleep-deprived mind didn’t know what it is until Lei said “Look, the sun rise!” The red got brighter but more of a darker red, if that makes sense. Garfield appeared in the foreground now and the scene was absolutely gorgeous. The actual sunrise happened somewhere between Lafayette and Garfield. We didn’t see it, but when we reached the summit of Garfield around 6 or 7a.m., I can’t remember, it was full on morning. The clouds were low and the mist and fog were hugging the valleys. I was imagining people just waking up and the sun trying to poke through the clouds to begin to burn off all the fog. Garfield is my favorite mountain in the Whites, not sure why, it moves me in a way other mountains don’t. I think I told Lei and Jason this about 5 times. In fact somewhere between Garfield D, C and B before the final summit push Christmas Carols turned into Garfield Carols. Why Jason was singing carols to begin with? Not sure, but I joined in and we made up some pretty funny lyrics to “Mt. Garfield is coming to town.”

When we reached Galehead Hut was when I first started to think we were running too late behind schedule. I thought our push from Garfield to Galehead we’d make up time, like pilots “make up time in the air” after a long 2 hour ground delay on the tarmac. But the reality was, it took us 12 hours to go from Lincoln Woods to Galehead Hut. I know then that it was going be a 20 hour first Pemi Loop. I tried to relax on the bench as Jason tagged Galehead Mtn and Lei went ahead to find Rebecca and Mats who should be waiting at Guyot for us. I did some calculating in head (probably not accurate) but started to think that my second loop’s time, being as tired as I was going to feel was also not going to break 17, 18 hours. That would mean two 20 hour Pemi Loops, worst case, and 40 hours just wasn’t available to me. I was unwilling to be out of the woods after 7 p.m. on Sunday because the safety of my support team out-weighted the success of a double Pemi. I didn’t want them trying to drive home that late on Sunday. Luckily, Jason was back after only 20-25 minutes and that train of thought was derailed and I was back enjoying the company of my friend. I suffered a little up the steep ascent of South Twin as Jason impressed me with his pace. He was talking at times, but I couldn’t comprehend a lot of it.

(continued..)

 

[leaf]

On the summit of South Twin, the time was around 10:30-11 a.m. We ran into Jason Patrikz on his trail run of the Pemi and he told us Mats and Rebecca were on Guyot waiting. I was glad the weather was good for them on the summit and off he went. Jason decided to tag North Twin while I continued on to Guyot. The solo stretch was nice and the rocky trail relented a bit. I took my time over the bog bridges to relieve my sore feet. I arrive at Guyot about 20 minutes behind Lei and saw my crazy Swedish friend coming down to meet me. After a great energizing hug I reached Guyot and Rebecca was there with some amazing warm food. What a brunch! I enjoyed a veggie egg omelete and oatmeal with bananas. It was really awesome of her to carry up all that food and prepare it up there! I’m sure she carried the most weight in her pack out of all of us. Rebecca started from Zealand and Mats had started with Jason Patrikz from Lincoln Woods early on Saturday morning.

With some warm food, Lei and I continued on and Mats joined us all the way back down to Lincoln Woods, where he started out a few hours ago. I thought he was nuts for doing that, but I was grateful to have his company. It would turn out to be vital on the way back up to the Bonds. I actually scared myself when I understood his excitement to hike the Bonds up and down four times in two days.. what does that say about me? The addition of Rebecca’s cooking got me to Bondcliff in a little under two hours from Guyot. Jason would emerge on Guyot about 10 minutes after we left for Lincoln Woods. From there Rebecca and Jason hung out on Guyot, Jason went to tag Zealand and they both had a great leisurely time hiking the Bonds together waiting for my return to Guyot. I was happy with my pace as my exhaustion started to really set in. I even managed to jog some of the decent. I was 100% sure I saw the bridge at Lincoln Woods two times before we were there. I thought a rock was a grey Persian Cat and a log was a Golden Retriever dog. There was also some blowdowns that looked like an old broken down white Charter bus. And I can’t tell you how many trail signs I saw along the way that magically disappeared.

Off of BondCliff and before the Wilderness trail we ran into mtn ma and mtn pa with their neighbors! They told me they chose this hike to see if they would run into me and had brought Gatorade and snacks for me. It took me about three minutes to comprehend that. I was really appreciative of that. It meant a lot and was very energizing! I downed half the Gatorade and was excited to see some animal crackers in my newly aquired snackbag. Some super good hugs and off they went to Bondcliff and off we went to Lincoln Woods. I’d run into mtn ma back at the trailhead later and then mtn pa on Lincoln Woods trail again. It was very good mentally for me. And I’m sure Mats needed it too. I have to say that everyone, not just me, put in some seriously long hours and miles and I’m really impressed by everyone. Can’t stress that enough.

After 19 hours of hiking I was at Mats car. I thought this would be a tough moment mentally, but I was so determined to get back out there and try for another loop being at the car wasn’t an issue for me. I had no thoughts of “Wow, I wish I could just sleep here” or “I can’t believe I have to go back.” So there was no thought of bailing in my mind even though I wondered how I was going to continue walking with my exhausted feet. Mats provided me with some more food and an ice bath for my feet. The ice bath was probably the most painful part of the whole trip but turned out to be a good relief. Sticking my swollen tired feet in zero degree water hurts like hell. I had been changing socks the entire hike to keep my feet fresh and I decided to put on my teva sandals with new socks for the return loop for some much needed relief. I wore my sandals all the way up to Guyot. So far the blisters weren’t as bad as I thought they’d be. Lei hopped in her car and told me I was crazy before she motored off. Thank you Lei for hiking the first loop with me! That was amazing of you to do.

 

[leaf]

After an hour or so if a much needed break. Mats and I were off to go back to the Bonds and that stupid 5 mile stretch of flat. Here’s where the Trip Report is going to become more of what I was thinking and how I was feeling rather then what physically happened. That’s what the rest of the hike became. The 5 mile stretch back was a lot better than I had imagined. I was amused by Mats throwing out numbers every ten minutes. I knew what our pace was, how many miles we had to go, how long it would take to the next landmark and our elevation gain (even on the Lincoln Woods trail ). We chatted the entire way. I probably told him way too much about my personal life I’m sure! I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember we made impressively good time back to the Bondcliff Trail. At this point I had been awake for 36 hours straight and been hiking for about 21 hours straight. What I wanted to do was push through to Garfield and sleep there. But as the hours rolled on, it become clear that I’d only make it to Guyot before I would collapse. What I also wanted was to only sleep for two hours and keep going, but it would become clear that I would need at least 4 hours, and after that I’m not sure how I’d climb back up Garfield or Lafayette in my state.

Climbing up Bondcliff for that 8 miles was the obvious toughest part of me. Mentally, I had gotten stuck in a pretty awful place which may have slowed me down even more physically. I didn’t share all my thoughts with Mats because I was trying hard not to keep it in the forefront of my mind, but I’ll share it here. It wouldn’t be a good Trip Report otherwise. I also want to say, I don’t think these things anymore, and it was a result of lack of sleep and physical exhaustion. First it was a mental downer for me to see Jason Patrikz again as he emerged out of the woods at Lincoln Trailhead in a time of 10 hours and some odd minutes. I tried my best to congratulate him, because it’s a great accomplishment but I couldn’t muster up positive energy for it. I couldn’t help thinking why the hell do I think I can do a double Pemi in 48 hours when there’s so many more stronger hikers that are obviously more capable. Jason can run around in 10 hours, and after clocking serious mileage, Mats is flying up Bondcliff and I’m struggling to keep up. I was thinking of a dozen more hikers I know that could be hiking much faster than I could at that moment. I thought about people a lot more fit and maybe even more mentally prepared. I was comparing myself to others, which I never do. I doubted my start time, our pace on Franconia Ridge the night before, and my planned sleep times and resting times. I thought these things the entire way back to Guyot. I couldn’t help it. When Mats would say “Wicked awesome! We are already at 3,000 feet elevation!” The only thought I was able to muster up was “Christ, we still have 1,000+ more feet to go?” It was tough, but we made it to the summit of Bondcliff around 10 p.m. (This is my pace, Mats followed me on the steep sections – he was very patient) and to got to where Rebecca and Jason were camped at the Guyot overflow spot around 11:30 p.m. Going up Mt. Bond, I couldn’t believe I was able to balance myself on all the rocks, and Mats gave me some props for doing it in my sandals. Thanks for the encouragement. He suggested I eat and drink but at that point, no amount of food or water was going to keep me awake. I’m not a doctor, but I felt like my body started to shut down and my digestive system would not have been ready for the entry of food into its system. The thought of eating made me want to vomit. But Mt. Bond’s summit finally came and so did Guyot.

Back at Guyot campsite, I knew I couldn’t stand anymore. I needed sleep, and unfortunately, I needed more than 3 hours. At that point, I was awake for 40 straight hours and been hiking for 26-27 hours continuously. I didn’t say much and I couldn’t remember what I said or if I ate before I slept (I had to ask Rebecca the next morning). I crawled into the Seedhouse on Jasons sleeping pad and bag. He got out the minute he saw me and offered his spot to me. I might not have thanked him for that, Thanks Jason. I do remember hearing Mats say “Well, it was slow going uphill.” He must have thought I was asleep. I got really pissed off when I heard that and said back “Well, what the hell do you expect!?” The night was fitfull for me. This was the first time I slept out in the woods without extra clothes and without my own sleeping bag or pad. I purposely didn’t bring these items but it actually ended up making a difference. Without my own gear, I was uncomfortable mentally. Well, physically the ground was also extremely hard. I also had to sleep in my hiking clothes which was uncomfortable. But I had given up these luxuries to go lighter. It rained sometime during the hours and Rebecca got out to put the fly on. I was too tired to help or to thank her for that. I wouldn’t of had the energy to do it and would have been soaked. Thanks Rebecca. Overall, I think I got somewhere between 4 ½ and 5 hours. When I would wake up, my body was so sore it hurt to shift around. There was no comfortable place and I was very cold with just a 40 degree bag. During the night, Rebecca shared some of her sleeping bag with me which was awesome.

Then the morning came. I was upset and disappointed. My goal was to make this hike as much of a “continuous” hike as possible. Here it was, people getting up eating and cooking like it was an overnight backpack. Ended up Jason’s friends from NY, Dave and Gillian, that I met going down Bondcliff were there and camped out too which was cool. At the time though, I was upset. I wanted to pack up and start going immediately. I felt like I’ve cheated by my 5 hours of sleep and relaxing at camp. (Again, these are all thoughts I had at the time, which I don’t feel anymore). The plan at this point was to bail out at Zealand. I wasn’t going to make any final plans until after we hiked up West Bond. Jason wanted to head up and I wanted to climb up it quick to see how my legs were feeling. Everyone thought it was best to try and eat all the food so we didn’t have to carry it down. I grew extremely impatient as we hung around camp. Then Rebecca, despite my refusal to eat three times handed me some pasta she just cooked for us. I was now really glad to have it and it was delicious. Truthfully, I needed to eat and relax and in reality, I couldn’t have made it up Mt. Garfield and if I could have, the weather on Sunday morning was not ideal. I’ve had enough experience (as a lot of you have probably) on Franconia Ridge to know that the conditions on Sunday morning up there were too much for my body to handle. The winds on South Twin that morning were about 30 with some 50 mph gusts. Visibility was low and it was raining and cold. It would have been impossible for me to hike in that given my energy levels. But I was still in a bad state of mind and disappointed. What seemed like eternity for me, we all got up and Jason, Mats, Dave and Gillian headed up West Bond while Rebecca cleaned camp. My body was feeling decent and I was planning out what I was going to do for the reminder of the day. No views on West Bond but I was beginning to break out of my bad mood.

Back at Guyot, we all made our decisions on how we’d hike out. Mats, being a lunatic, was going to hike back out to Lincoln Woods to complete his double/quadruple bonds traverse. Rebecca and Jason and his friends were going out via Zealand and tag Mt. Hale, a new peak for Rebecca. I thought long about what I wanted to do. I was originally going to join everyone out to Zealand but I was thinking what was best for my donators. Most of my donators have never been to the White Mountains. They knew the Pemi Loop because I described it to them. I decided to would make more sense if I continued on the Pemi. They’d be able to visualize and understand my Trip Report better if I did that, and they were donating for the Pemi Loop. So I decided to hike to Galehead and bail out Gale River Trail. Even if I had the energy, the weather was too bad for me to hike Franconia Ridge and since Galehead was the halfway mark, hiking a “Pemi Loop and a Half” felt good to me.

 

[leaf]

I was the first to head out, and I gave Jason a 3:30 p.m. time to pick me up at Gale River Trailhead. My last solo 6, 7 miles or so were good mentally. I felt alright I couldn’t do the double Pemi and I think the weather contributed to that. It was something out of my control that prevented it. Not my lack of energy. Time was also an issue. I got impatient at camp because I thought I could make it to Garfield and I didn’t want to run out of time. We didn’t get going until 10 am, but in reality, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t hike up Garfield. Exhaustion set in again for me out Gale River, as if those 5 hours of fitful sleep didn’t even happen. But I enjoyed the last stretch, even despite the cold and constant raining. I text messaged a few people at Galehead Hut and they provided me with motivational words. In fact, I had been updating a few people via text messaging as much as I could the entire way and it was great to get supportive messages back. I was grateful. Can’t say that enough. I was happy with my pace, as I made to Galehead Hut from Guyot in only 2 hours and change.

I ended up out of the woods at 2:30, ahead of schedule and waited for Jason and company to pick me up. The wind was blowing wildly even at that elevation which kept interfering with my nap on the bench. So overall, I did what I could in the amount of time I had. I don’t doubt my decision to start Friday night, it was the best way to do it, and all of those negative thoughts I had along the way had disappeared. I tried to explain a little of it to everyone back at the trailhead and apologized for my bad mood at camp, but everyone was telling me not to worry about it and were very understanding. They also understood why I wanted to finish on the Pemi. That’s where I started, it just made sense to finish it that way. To Jason Patrikz, sorry if I seemed uncongratulatory, again, my thoughts I had at the Lincoln Woods trailhead weren’t my true feelings. I think you did a great job running it in the time you did.

So overall and approximate (I don’t care to be exact) here are my stats:

Hours spent in the woods including hiking, sleeping, resting: 41 hours
Hours spent continuously hiking before sleep: 27 hours
Hours spent sleeping: 4.5 to 5 hours
Total mileage: 50 miles
Total mountains climbed (including “unofficial”): 15 mountains

Ok, whew, I’m tired

 

[mookie]

Radical!

 

[MadRiver]

I guess there really are Superheros. Way to go!

 

[gooly]

Dang! Now that's impressive! Nice job!

 

[BIGEarl]

Leaf,

Amazing! Congratulations for your accomplishment.

Thanks for the report and really digging into the details. I hope there are no lasting consequences from the ordeal you dragged yourself through.

Hopefully, the next time we pass on the trail neither of us will be as focused as we must have been on Saturday afternoon.

Earl

 

[Darl58]

super job!!

Amazing! Thanks for the text messages...I wish I could of been there for part of the hike and support but you knew I was thinking of ya and would of been there if needed!

I never doubted your capabilities to do this hike and still don't...the weather can play a major part in the hiking and mental spirit.

You hiked a great hike for a great cause! I like your decision to stay on the Pemi!

Have no regrets, only satisfaction for what you accomplished!


Can't wait to sit over some brews and hear more about the hike!

 

[bobandgeri]

Great effort! What an experience you had. Just the thought of hiking the Bonds after already being out there for 19 hours is staggering. Your quite a woman! Congrats on your accomplishment.

 

[MichaelJ]

Holy hiking! Wow, that's amazing. Great job, and get some rest tonight!

 

[BobC]

Amazing. No need to justify why you "only" did a loop-and-a-half. If I had done half of what you did I would have been Incredible-Hulk-style grumpy.

 

[mtnpa]

Anyone who hiked Saturday probably did a fair amount of sweating. I started with 3 liters of water. Did an up and back to Bondcliff. Water was nearly gone by the last spring on Bondcliff trail. Filled up there with another three liters. By the time I finished hiking I had consumed 5 liters of water. I was also treated to a Rasberry iced tea atop Bondcliff by a mysterious backcountry bartender (thanks Jim!) and a refreshing 12oz frosty at Lincoln Woods. (Thanks Hikerbob!)

Courtney, that would be an amazing feat under any conditions. You dealt with time constraints, rain, heat, humidity and less time than you needed to set up proper logistics. Great job

 

[Mats Roing]

Something I really like about Leaf is that even when she is pushing herself to the max and being utterly exhausted she is still very pleasant to be around.

An image etched in my mind is Sunday morning when Leaf is coming out of the tent and sits down on a log and goes into deep contemplation....she's put so much into this hike and you can see she's trying to figure out how to go from here.....I could almost see Yoda next to her giving her advice....

 

[una_dogger]

Great job, Court!

I can certainly attest firsthand to your fortitude and stamina --- having dragged you on so many long hikes in the Daks -- without a whimper of complaint, even when your knees were giving out and your toes looked like hamburger! I am very proud of you for having set out to accomplish this -- you are a winner in my book!

 

[Undershaft]

Wow! That's some serious hiking. You took on a massive challenge and came away with a major accomplishment. Congrats!

 

[giggy]

Nice job courtney

Sounds like ya had fun

 

[Gillian]

Wow - awesome job Courtney - what an accomplishment!! Thanks for sharing your story and with such honesty.
I think I can say with some certainty that many of us can relate to the hallucinations on the Lincoln Woods Trail....!! does it ever end?!!

 

[cbcbd]

Leaf, whoa!@!! You are something hardcore there, chica! Let me know if you're ever over these parts and I can lend myself to have my a** kicked!

 

[Mats Roing]

If I'd returned to a nice soft seat at Lincoln Woods after a full loop on no sleep, I would've stayed...

I made her sit in the trunk.....