Tuesday, 28 August, Day 49 AT v2.0, -a well deserved 0
miles, Dolly Copp Camp Grounds, Gorham NH. By Crocadilly - The bobcat story....
After a leisurely morning and recalling of the adventures we had all had the
two days previously and a lengthy discussion if what to do next we decided to
do a zero day. We were all spent from the fifteen mile hike before and the
weather wasn't looking brilliant for today. Furthermore we were about to climb
some very treacherous mountains and nobody relished the thought of doing them
in the wet! So a down day it was! You may be wondering how we all got split up
yesterday as there was so many of us staying at the lake of the clouds hut. We
all hike at different rates and Scott and I got a later start having to stay
back and do work for stay. We also hike a fair bit slower than everybody else
too. Today was a fairly quiet day - the campsite is lovely and reminds me of
the ones I used to holiday in when I was a child with my parents. Brought back
lots of warm and happy memories camping as a family! We did some laundry (no
shower though!!) and I had an amble round a thrift and antique shop which was
next door! We had the obligatory burger king where we bumped into old smoke, Sox
another german and a bunch of other hikers. We are camping with gumby,
tailbone, rampage and mango and riff ralf. Our camp spot is right on the bank
of a river and a lovely grassy area with a fire pit and BBQ and toilets not too
far away and water so a perfect spot to hide ourselves away and enjoy the peace
and quiet! We have been told by some other guests who have been coming here 16
years that this is the best spot in the campsite!! In the evening we had some
beers and cooked at the campsite. So a very chilled day and yes it did rain so
glad we had the day off! Seeing as this is a shorter post I can relay a story
from last night. There is a chap on the trail who is putting together a
documentary and so travelling up and down the trail. He came to visit us July
4th weekend so no doubt we will be in there somewhere! His name is Squatch and
he was sat at an adjacent table in MR Pizza last night. He told us of this tale
- he interviewed the guy whose story this is and if you can imagine on the
documentary there will be this guy chatting to Squatch and the footage that he
shot playing in the background on his tv...so this guy is a hiker and runs a
hostel. He is also very much into skulls and will pick up road kill as well as
hunt to add to his skull and hide collection. On this one occasion that this
story centres around he stumbled across a 35lb bobcat which had clearly just
been run over was very much dead but was clean and would make a great addition
to his skull collection. So he heaved the poor animal into his truck - one of
those massive American trucks! And went on his way. He was pleased with his new
addition and snuck a quick look in his rear view mirror to admire his prize.
Only his prize was very pissed off and now stalking back and forth across the
back of his truck. And apparently making an unearthly noise that would frighten
the dead. So not so much dead as previously stunned or unconscious and now very
much the opposite and very angry. I am not sure what one does in a situation
where you have an angry 35lb predatory animal pacing back and forth in the back
of your vehicle. As most people would, I imagine, this guy stopped quite quickly and got out
before filming the ensuing scenes of him trying to get the angry supermoggy out
of the rear door without getting mauled in the process. I don't suppose a can
of whiskers would have subdued this kitty! Well as you can imagine this tale
had us all in stitches! I didn't think I would have the energy to laugh after
our epic day but catching up with everyone again gets the blood moving! And
this story was the tonic I needed hahaha! I had to share it! The fact that
Squatch interviewed the man I believe both he and the feline went their
separate ways amicably!!
Wednesday, 29 August, Papa Wolf's Day 125, Crocadilly's day
50!! :) 8.5 miles, Zeta Pass Stealth Camp. By Crocadilly - I cannot believe how
far we have come! I am so immensely proud of our achievements. After a
wonderful day of rest it is time to get back on the trail again. Papa wolf and
I have decided to break up the next stretch to the next road over two days
having done 15 miles in one day in this terrain (even the book says from this
point on the most you will beable to do is 10-12 miles!) 21 miles is not
feasible for either of us especially as we will be going over the Wildcats!
Rampage and Gumby being the utter nutters that they are got up at 6am this
morning and planned to do the whole 21 miles in one day, as Tall Oaf apparently
had too. They are slack packing and some of our friends before us have done it
and say it is feasible. I gracefully declined attacking this part of the trail
in so little time with a loud Crocadilly snort!! Papa wolf and I got going at a
far more reasonable time (10am) after a leisurely coffee with Riff Ralf and the
ladies. Old Smoke and many of the others are hiking this stretch over the same
time period so it will be fun to hike as a group and bump into lots of friends.
Thirty pack and Apollo still have not reappeared after being sucked into the
vortex that is Hanover! I thoroughly enjoyed todays hike - it was technically
very challenging and we were glad we did not bring the boys. Although we did
see one golden on the trail and Yorkshire terrier - not sure they did exactly
the same paths as us though! It was a windy day but fortunately no rain - it
was cooler with autumn in the air and fluffy clouds again. The Whites are
incredibly challenging - we actually climbed up some proper cliff faces that
make up the Wild Cats. Being so small Papa wolf was very worried that a gust of
wind might whip me off the cliff and carry me away. This was the first time I
have climbed terrain like this with a heavy pack and it was incredibly hard but
so much fun! I love proper climbing although do not think I will take it up as
a new hobby any time soon. Again we had breath taking views. We kept catching
up with Old Smoke, Log and an older couple called Manula and Tree Trunk who
weirdly live only 20 or so miles from us in NY! Lovely couple! We got to the top
of Wild Cat ski area and had a break just as Riff Ralf was leaving. It had been
so windy the gondola taking visitors up to the mountain had been shut all
morning and we arrived at the top just as it had been reopened and spat out a
load of people! We got talking to a couple who were interested in the trail so
had a slightly longer lunch break than intended! The terrain after the Wild
Cats got a bit easier and we were back down into trees and softer paths for a
bit. We caught up with Old Smoke and the gang having another break at the top
of another mountain and sat down for a bit. They were planning on camping a
little bit further on. So we all got going again and we ended up behind being
slower! We came across them a little while later where they were setting up
camp in the trees - an awesome spot but not enough room for us so we decided to
carry on. We summited our last mountain of the day - Carter Dome just before
the sun was setting and took some great photos. The views again were
outstanding and I felt on top of the world. We briefly contemplated camping
here but knowing the winds were going to get stronger we decided to go down
into the valley below called Zeta pass. It was quite a rocky difficult descent
and I was glad we were doing it tonight and not faced with it first thing
tomorrow morning! We passed a north bounder coming south - I now wished we had
asked him what he was doing going south as at this point he thought he was
going north! The inability of the AMC to correctly and helpfully post
information and blazes meant he had taken a blue blaze in a different direction
got down into the pass and realizing his mistake had tried to reroute himself
onto the AT - which he had…only in the wrong direction - he was not happy the
next day when we saw him again! Fortunately we narrowly avoided this mistake!
We got back down into the trees and the pass and started to look for a suitable
place to camp where we stumbled upon Sox who was sitting by a very welcoming
fire. We joined her and had a lovely evening chatting and getting warm by the
fire. We had a quick dinner and because it was so cold (I was in all my winter
gear for the evening) we snuggled down into the tent.
Thursday, 30 August, Day 51 AT v2.0, 12.6 miles, Dolly Copp
Camp Grounds, Gorham NH. By Crocadilly - Sox was long gone by the time we got
up. We enjoyed the peace and quiet of being alone and chatting and having
coffee. Old Smoke, Log, Manula and Tree Trunk all passed us as we were enjoying
our morning coffee and a fire and Riff Ralf wasn’t too far behind. We packed up
camp and shortly after everyone had passed us were on our way. I much prefer
getting up and going early - I feel better doing more miles first thing. Today
marks us finishing the Whites. Again parts of it were quite tricky. I was
really enjoying it but Papa Wolf was having a somewhat less enjoyable hiking
day. I got into a great rhythm and was back to hiking fast after feeling so
weak following being ill. We caught up with everyone else having breaks along
the way. I like this style of hiking a lot! One break was taken basking in the
sun on rocks on top of a Mount Mariah - I felt like a lizard soaking up the sun
and closed my eyes. I could have spent hours up here napping but we had to get
moving! I managed to catch up and keep up with all the others although I did
fall once! It felt great! Eventually the path took us down into the trail that
would lead us to the road and town where we staying. We actually made it down
quicker than expected and a lovely couple of ladies who we had seen several
times in the previous couple of days gave us a lift to Mr Pizza with Riff Ralf…the
same awesome place we all ate after the descent from Mt Washington…you can
never have too much of a good thing. J
When we got there we were excited to see
Perch and Otto and then Apollo and Thirty Pack - it was so good to see them! We
found out that Rampage and Gumby had successfully completed their monster 21
mile day the day before and were super tired but had managed to continue
onwards today! It was so great to catch up with everyone and I had a great hug
with Apollo - he is the hug meister! Finally had a fabulous dinner which
satiated my appetite - Steak and fried chicken, salad and mashed potatoes. Beer
and ice cream. Having not showered for about ten days we all smelt really bad
and this was the first time that I felt really self conscious about my
stench. I now know what people smelt
like in the middle ages... The answer is like dead animals, farms and something
rotting and mouldy!!! Our server really did not want to get any where near us
and didn’t clear our plates and was overheard saying to others about how bad we
smelt. (How embarrassing!!) Tailbone and Mango joined us for dinner after their
own fabulous walk and we all eventually went back to the campsite and set up
our tents again.
Yet another great view.
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