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Thursday, September 6, 2012

28-30 Aug - The Wildcats


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.
 one of the ledges we had to walk...hyes it was that skinny and the trees hide the long drop. Bit crazy really.
 The photo does not do the angle justice, or show what awaits you if you slide down of the edge. :)
 A beautiful mountain lake
 Still packing heavy...he never learns.
 On top of Carter Dome...we love this photo. :)
 another view...just 1.4 to Zeta Pass

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.
 A neat walk way laid out by the trail clubs to cover wet area...very fun
 Crocadilly the gorgeous hiker chick. :)
Yet another great view.
 

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