17 miles to salvation!

7:30am @ Zeland Falls Hut (work for stay)

Feeling exhausted & insecure today. Mt.Washington is 45deg at the top. 45 mph winds. Rain expected. I.....don't know if I can handle it.
Do I have the right cloths?! Can I bring enough food? Will my knees hold up?
The exhaustion level is high right now also. They kept us up late for the work for stay. I was tooo tired to eat much. Woke up hungry during the night. Pretty dehydrated now too.
Not looking forward to heading into town for food today. Frustrating. As icing on the cake, besides the hemorrhoids(did I mention I got hemorrhoids?), I woke with an ingrown hair & a very fat lip which is very becoming.
Just wanted to complain. There is another thru hiker here who is strong & confident which makes me feel embarrassed. Why can't I be strong and confident?!?
I am waiting for the guests to finish breakfast so we can eat and sweep the hut.

10:30am.
Damned hut.
Only got like 4 hours sleep. Breakfast (pancakes & eggs) must have been made with milk. I feel terrible. Gonna sit here on this rock till I feel better.

Ugg!


1-4pm. 7mile road walk to a $$$ inconvenience store. NH Why would no one pick me up?!


6:30pm
Sitting on a cliff overlooking the Crawford Notch. Eating dinner while the sun sets over the facing mountain. A perfect breeze pulls the remaining sweat from my body after the climb. I have a perfect stealth campsite. Clear weather predicted for the Mt.Washington accent.
This is hands down the nicest evening on the trail to date.
It is so nice right at this moment. The troubles of the day are not not to be mentioned lest the moment be ruined.

Good end of day!

The hiker climbed over the mountain...

6:30pm @ the Zealand Falls Hut

The past few days have been packed. Made it to North Woodstock. Got my fancy new camp shoes. Had an amazing two nights at the Notch Hostel. Justin and Sasha were incredible hosts.

Climbed over a couple more White Mountains the last two days. Weather has been perfect. So that was a lucky treat.

Bad news. Resupply for the rest of the Whites is a hot mess. A slow SOBO said she completed them in six days....but I don't see how. Also, apparently, Monday & Tuesday are bad weather. Just when Mt.Washington summit is on my path. Not sure what to do exactly. I will try and get to the Lake of the Clouds Hut by end of day Monday and maybe take a zero there if the weather does not improve. Super scary to be up there in bad weather.

There is also the possibility that I am over complicating this whole thing.

Tonight I am doing a work for say at the Zealand Falls Hut. Will mean getting into town later tomorrow for my small food top up....ug. It's late. I am tired. It will all work out I am sure.

Chipping away at it.

@ the Eliza Brook Shelter

So many things can happen in a few days! Stayed at the insane Hiker's Welcome Hostel after Moose MTN. Watched 3 movies, got a ride 30mi & back forth to a fancy grocery store from the most interesting woman in the world. She was like the old lady flashback montage from Titanic. Then I hiked over Mnt.Moosilauke. My first of the white mountains! Very exciting.

Stayed in a shelter last night with two great folks. Deja & the devilishly hansom (and charming) Saint. He had great eyes.
Then I successfully made it down the mountain without causing more damage to my knees. That was a big deal! Then I climbed all over Kingsman Notch in the pouring rain. Cleared up in the afternoon so we could get to the shelter and eat in peace.

Today was my hardest day on the trail physically. I really want to go further & faster. I will not though. My knees are making steady (if not extremely slow) progress, and I must respect how much more time it will take to undo the damage I did.

Also, hiking in the rain is bananas.

Healing slowly.

7:22pm
Stealth camping at the view on Mist Mountain.
mile 400.9

Had dinner with a view. First time stealth camping. Am simply too tired to go the last 3+ miles to the hostel. Will get up early & hit it.

Hung my bear bag in record time today. 12min from thought to back at my tent. Good hang too, Nice and far away from my camp. Maybe 200ft.

My knees hurt a little by the end of today, but overall these past 4 days have been a resounding success. With my fixed posture (which resolved 90% of the pain), combined with simply walking slower/carefully has worked out great. I scaled and descended two mountains already in the last 4 days. Countless smaller ones. I'm considering taking a nearo tomorrow be attempting Mount Moooselake. My knees hurt so bad before I worried it would send me off the trail.

This slow but constant recovery has been a massive confidence boost. It is a god send to walk with out pain.

A blanket of stars.

7pm @ the Trapper John Shelter

Last night I cowboy camped under a blanket of stars atop Moose Mountain. One of the greatest nights of my life.

Two days hiking alone. Loving the ability to go at my own pace again. No anxiety.

Yesterday afternoon I discovered that changing my posture and wearing my pack differently reduced the knee pain by about 80->90%. Huge confidence boost. Feel their might be room for them to possibly start healing.....but I am still taking it very easy.

Everybody is talking only of the Whites now.

A seasoned hiker convinced us shelter people to hang our bear bags. After going through the trouble....the thought occurred to me.....she was probably fucking with us.
Oh well. I discovered a new technique for hanging tonight, so it was a net win overall.

Was hoping for an early start tomorrow....we will see how it goes.