Pemigewasset Wilderness Day 4

Day 4 was my "easy day."  All I had to do was hike down to my car, drive home, and shower.  I woke up at 6:30 ish (funny how easy that is to do while hiking, and how hard it is on a typical work day) ready for my delicious hut breakfast. There was coffee, hot chocolate, oatmeal, a breakfast bread, eggs and bacon. This group of four women came in late the night before, and this one woman, we'll call her Bacon Girl, took like a quarter of the bacon and eggs, WTF? Who does that at a community table?  By the time it got to me I only got one slice! She later went back and asked for more, and took more! I could tell I was getting a little crabby.

When I went back to my bunk, I also realized that Bacon Girl had hung her sweaty shirt on top of my sweaty skort at night. Ewww. Bacon Girl, total millennial. I had no choice but to wear it, even though it had bacon sweat on it. Though, who was I kidding, after 3 days of hiking, it was pretty disgusting.

I was considering doing Garfield on the way down. Instead of going straight to my car, I would go to Garfield, then down, then have to walk for over a mile on the access road to my car.  I realized, though, that I was pretty much out of food, so I ditched that idea - hiking without food is a bad idea. Also, it was pretty cloudy - it had rained the night before (one of the bachelor party guys left his boots out, he was sad), and I thought there was only about a 50% chance of a view. So, I decided to head right down, and I was so glad I did!

The last 4.6 miles of the hike were the hardest. Maybe it was just knowing that my car, civilization, food, and a shower were waiting. Or, maybe it was that my body was killing me - I had blisters on both my little toes, and the pads of my right foot. The top going down was steep and rocky, I tried to practice trusting my feet and planning one step ahead, but it was hard when I was so tired.  When I finally got to the flatter ground, I was so happy!  It took me a little longer than the last time I descended, but not much longer - about two hours and 45 minutes. But, the rocks were wet, so I think that's reasonable.  I was so happy when I saw my car sitting waiting!  I had a change of clothes in the back, and went in the woods to clean up a little, pee, and change. It was so nice to be in something clean, even if I wasn't!

I drove home and showered and collapsed on the couch. Later I developed a migraine, which was kind of bad, though not horrible. That left me all conflicted, because if I can't hike for 4 days without a migraine, how could I do the entire AT? Having a headache out there would just be awful. Maybe I got dehydrated going down?  I didn't drink that much. Or, maybe it was the cumulative lack of sleep, and my body knowing it was OK now to get sick?

Mistakes I made:

1. Not bringing enough water in my day pack to the Bonds
2. Trying so hard to be light weight that I didn't bring a stove and wound up with an awful dinner and no hot coffee
3. Getting dehydrated or sleep deprived(?) on the last day
4. Too thin socks that left me with blisters - I should have worn sock liners with them

Peaks climbed: 8

Official 4000 footers: 7

New Peaks Bagged: 5

Total distance: 24.6 miles!