As usual, Sassy fired the first shot this morning. When she returned from target practice, she stopped by the bear box and dropped our food bags outside of our tent. I had enough left over water from yesterday that I was able to make a gourmet breakfast allowing Bunny to sleep in whilst I did all the work. After breakfast, I had to get enough water for us to hike with today (as Bear can attest, a trail husband’s work is never done).
We were camped next to Slippy and talked to him through breakfast. The last thing I did before leaving camp was to go get and filter water at the spring. The placement of the spring was in a secluded corner of a couple of boulders. I checked over my left shoulder and saw that it was clear. Last night was kind of rough on me—I couldn’t let loose because of our close proximity to everyone (yes, I CAN be considerate I, just often choose not to be). I let go of all the built up pressure from last night. When I got my water and relief, I emerged from the spring to find someone standing around the corner smiling. I can only hope that he was a sobo.
I headed back to the platform and threw my pack on. As usual, Bunny wasn’t quite ready, so I tried to prod her a bit to pick up the pace. In her rush, as in her non-rush, as with her normal pace, she didn’t perform her one required morning task—turn on the tracker. Slippy was standing beside me when I gave her what has become our daily, morning speech: “Did you turn on the tracker?” “I forgot.” “One task, Bunny. You have one task. Turn on the tracker. I don’t have quite enough to do to get ready. Lean over and I’ll start the tracker.”
As promised when Bear and Sassy started hiking with us, we climbed to a fogged in Mt Liberty. We all agreed to skip the side trail to the summit since visibility was less than 20’. The same was true for Little Haystack, Lincoln, & Lafayette. Occasionally, we will get to a summit with a view, but generally not a highly anticipated summit or ridge. Sassy claimed to have never had a view after a big climb when it was just her and Bear. I’m trying to decide who is the bad luck magnet: Bear, Sassy, or Bunny since our record almost matches theirs.
Franconia Ridge and in particular, Mt. Lafayette, is Peter’s (our friend that lives in Portland, ME whom we met on the West Highland Way in Scotland) favorite spot in the Whites. Hoping for some views, we decided to stop for lunch behind wall to allow time for the peak to clear. It kind of worked. The clouds started breaking up after about an hour, but we didn’t have all day. We got a few glimpses below through the clouds, but we still had a few miles to make the first possible campsite (camping is not allowed on Franconia Ridge).
On the way down the shoulder of Lafayette, we were treated to some spectacular views. The majesty of the moment inspired Bear to try out his directorial abilities. As with most nerds (I include myself in this category), he has been heavily inspired by Peter Jackson. He wanted a simple reenactment of the moment when Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn (no, I didn’t have to look up their names…nerd!) are running over a mountain pass looking for Merry and Pippin. They pause for just a moment to take in the beauty of the vista before continuing to run. Bear used this example of what he wanted on, get this, two women. I think I can safely say Bear and I married higher than our nerd status—neither one had any idea what he was talking about.
Sassy tried to go first and started breaking up laughing. Bunny wasn’t any better. Only I nailed it as Legolas. Bear was growing frustrated after two takes and decided he wasn’t going to get the shot he wanted. Peter Jackson, he is not. Sadly, in the playbacks, I also discovered that as much as he isn’t Peter Jackson, I am more not Orlando Bloom. There’s not going to be a residual revenue stream here, so we’ll just have to keep hiking.
Coming off of Lafayette Mountain, we experienced rising winds, but were quickly sheltered from them by Garfield Mountain. Climbing back to the peak of Garfield, we were buffeted by even higher winds. Ever since my “dog in the wind experience” in the back of the pickup truck in VT, everyone has wanted to experience the feeling of pure freedom that I, and every other dog, feels by putting its face in the wind. On top of Garfield, we all got our wish (except for Bunny who was unwilling to drop her pack for the joy of the moment).
Garfield Ridge Campsite was on the far side of the mountain and a steep climb down to the side trail. After that, it was a long walk in past stream. The caretaker finally decided on a platform for us to set our tents on. Once the tents were up, we had to trek back to the water. Bunny went with me to get water because I had wanted to stop on the way in, but she didn’t want to take the time. In Bunny math, 0.8 miles additional walking without packs is preferable to a 10 minute delay. (0.8 miles/10 minutes=4.8 miles/hour to break even—our best pace is 2.5 miles/hour…this was a bad decision proven mathematically but my wife still doesn’t believe me—have I mentioned nerd?).
While we were finishing up our supper, Slippy showed up and set up on the platform next to us. I’m getting the feeling that he is getting burned out and have my doubts about him finishing the AT as a thru-hiker. We’ve seen a few questionable reappearances and disappearances over the last couple of weeks. Nonetheless, Slippy is always joking and friendly, but he talks of California with more than a hint of anticipation. Not everyone is hygienically cut out to be a thru-hiker. I’m surprised at how well my ex-cheerleader wife has picked up, and uses several phrases like: “we just showered four days ago, let’s keep hiking” “I don’t have that many stains on my clothes and I’m tired, let’s skip the laundry” and “I’ll spork you in the throat if you ever repeat that” (maybe the hygiene change is getting to her mentality).
EFG