First I want to say thank you to all of the people that sent me such amazing packages! When I arrived in Lincoln I picked up 4 packages filled with amazing supplies. It seriously felt like Christmas. There is a picture below of the group divvying up the supplies. We are all going to eat very well this week!
Second I want to apologize for the rambling post below. I have so many random thoughts that I wanted to share but barely a thread to hang them on.
Few things are talked about on the trail as much as the White Mountains. The White Mountains are often touted as the most difficult and scenic sections of the trail. Almost every NOBO (Northbound through-hiker) we encountered said “You can’t take a dog into the Whites.” Or they told us to watch out for a specifically hard section. Our group found the Whites to be an extension of the mountains in Maine with slightly easier trails. Maine was a good training ground for what we have encountered in the New Hampshire. Yesterday we almost split up a 17 mile section because we heard that it took some experienced NOBOs over 12 hours to complete and we were getting a late start. We decided to go after-all and found quickly discovered that we had a much easier day in front of us than anticipated.
It is remarkable to note the vast difference in what people describe as their experience and what I actually experience. I think it is a good pointer to how we experience the trail from moment to moment. There is simultaneously a complaining voice, a happy voice and a myriad of other emotions that exist in my head all in the same moment. I have realized that I can choose to focus on any one of those emotions and make it part of my primary consciousness. Even better still, I can simply choose not to take on any of those superficial states. I have discovered that the same is true when listening to other hikers likes, dislikes, pet-peeves, wants, and complaints. My experience is much richer when I choose not to give much credence to the mental feedback of hikers but instead just take all stories for their face value. Stories are just that, they are made up in the mind and passed on to convey some drama. The trail, as in life, is drama free. The drama arises when we attach mental labeling and allow feedback from our emotional and physical bodies to dictate our level of contentedness.
Weather is another great example of superficial predictions that we often give too much credence to. On the night before I summited Katahdin, the start of the AT for SOBOs, the weather was supposed to be rainy with a chance of thunderstorms the following day. Decided to prepare and if the weather was good, go for it. Of course I woke up and it was sunny and clear. I had amazing weather for the whole day. Along the same lines, I often hear people say “The weather is going to be terrible!” This is a very intriguing statement. The weather in it of itself is neither bad nor good. It just is. Additionally, I think it will be a long time before the weather report for high mountains regions has a high degree of accuracy. Today, it is good information to have, but even better is to learn how to read the signs and just go look outside.
I am grateful sometimes to hear people make assertions that are obviously false. They remind me not to trust my own mental assertions and to question my unconscious assumptions. The Whites were a great teacher because it is such a big place in the mind of the AT hikers and so it has a lot of mental noise surrounding it.
Well now that I have discounted stories, let me tell you a little about our story. We are currently in Lincoln, NH. We are taking a zero because of heavy rain and potential thunderstorms. We are staying in a donation based hostel known as Chet’s. We are basically sleeping in someone’s garage. Ironically, sleeping in this creepy garage seems like a dream come true. Again, it is so funny how your frame of reference changes your experience.
The highlight of the Whites so far has been the Presidential Range. We had a beautiful day on Mt. Madison, followed by crazy weather the following day Mt. Washington. On Washington, the 2nd highest peak on the AT, there was a rain storm with 70 mile an hour winds. When we got to the top it was very hard to find the lodge and we stumbled around in the fog till we found it. I took Mabel inside because I was worried about her getting hypothermia. I just told a lodge worker that she was a trained service dog. She definitely acts the part. She was very well behaved and we had a great time lounging around while the storm got even more intense.
When we left it was at its apex and we moved as quickly as we could to get off the summit and down the 1.4 miles to the Lake of the Clouds AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) hut. It was a really cool experience to be on the summit in intense weather. Below is a video to give you an idea of what it is like when there are high winds.
The Lake of the Clouds hut is one of a series of huts in the White Mountains run by the AMC. The AMC places campsites and huts along the trail as a way of preserving the Wilderness Protection Area by isolating the camping traffic to specific protection areas. The way it is set up though, can lead one to believe that it is sort of a gimmick to charge $140 per night to sleep in a bunk on top of one of the White Mountains. I will say however, the staff that we met were very friendly and enthusiastic. For through hikers, they sometimes offer work for stay, which we did try at Lake of the Clouds hut. They also will give through hikers leftover food if its available and they offer a warm place to sit down when winds and moisture are high. The staff put on a skit before each meal and we all died laughing. I am pretty sure that they weren’t asked to do it, they were just amazing like that. That being said, we preferred to stealth camp in between huts and campsites because it is more in line with the type of experience I am looking for on the trail.
A day before Franklin we found a stealth site not far from the Galehead Hut just before Mt. Lafayette and Mt. Lincoln. Much to the amazement of the people around me I pitched my hobo tent below a fallen tree where the roots almost formed a lean-to. I felt like the roots would offer protection from the wind on the ridge line. The temperatures dropped to near freezing temperatures with wind but Mabel and I slept well and had great weather the following day on the Franconia Ridge. The ridge was the grand finally of the Whites on the AT and were truly beautiful and I enjoyed them very much.
I mentioned I slept well but I may be worth noting that I have gotten used to waking up 9 times during the night by Mabel. Below is a diagram of my nightly sleeping pattern with her.
If you would like to read more stories about our adventures that I skip, you can also follow my friends on the trail. I put them in the order I met them:
Shuffle (brittanistanga.com)
Google (pending…)
Sherpa (atadventures.tumblr.com)
Cool Blue (coolblueblazing.wordpress.com)
Our next stop is Hanover, NH. If you would like to send anything to myself or Mabel via USPS, below is the address:
James Puckett
C/O General Delivery
Hanover NH 03755
Please hold for AT Hiker
ETA 8/14/2013
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