Whiteface fail(-ish)

Even though it's been hot and humid out, I really wanted to get a good hike in - I took Thursday and Friday off because I needed a nice long weekend. Today was the better weather day, so it was my hiking day! I debated what to hike with Washington, Tom/Field/Willey, Moosilauke and Whiteface all in the mix. In the end, I decided I wanted to go for the ledges, and the slightly shorter elevation and distance. Unfortunately, there were a few fails.

First, I headed out the door, feeling like it was too easy and I was forgetting something. About half way there, I realized that I forgot my hiking boots! I spent a little while trying to decide what to do - hike in my Chacos (bad idea), go home (waste of a good hiking day), go to the North Conway REI and buy new ones (my old hiking boots are getting worn down anyhow). Bingo! Of course, it added almost two hours to my drive up because I had to go 40 minutes past the mountain, try on all these shoes, listen to the chatty salesman (an look at a picture of his son - what??), pee, and then drive back to the trailhead. Buy the time I got there, it was almost noon - pretty late to start a 4000 footer, but it's a shorter one, and it's still getting dark late.

I headed out at 12:08 and had a lovely start to the hike. It's one of those hikes where you have a steady but gentle uphill for the first mile, then a more rigorous slope for another mile-ish. And then you pretty much go straight up the mountain. I took the blueberry ledge trail, which I loved at the bottom - slabby and wild blueberries that were in bloom. I had a few for snack. Someone had spent a lot of time on trail work, because the steep uphill had a lot of really nice stairs. I started out strong, but then, after about 45 minutes, started to fade on the uphill. Since I started later, I hadn't really timed eating right, and I was starving! I stopped and ate some Pringles - not the most nutritious, but lots of salt and calories. By this time I was sweating like a pig! My shirt was totally soaked, my shorts were wet, when I took my backpack off, the straps were wet! It was so gross. I was drinking water like crazy, and still thirsty. 

After my Pringles break, I continued. According to my Fitbit, I went up for about 3 hours. I did the fun climbing bits. But, I was so tired and hot! At one point I sat down and realized that my legs were wet and shaking. Yikes! I thought I was almost at the top, so I pressed on further, but then realized that the top was still a little ways, and that I had to sit down and eat. Fortunately there was a lovely viewpoint - I sat and had some water and slowly at a half a cheese sandwich on challah and a half a power bar. Even that didn't feel delicious, and I decided that this was my peek. A few minutes later a family that passed me said it was only like 20 minutes to the top, but I decided that at the rate I was going that would be at least a half hour up, and then I would have to go down as well. So, I made the decision to turn back. No fun, but also I didn't want to end up with a migraine.

The way down was so much quicker and easier. Eating gave me new energy, of course, but also I was able to use my ninja parkour on the way down. Having all the nice steps helped - the steepest parts were actually quite quick. I took a couple stops on the way down to admire the view and to eat an apple, but still it took 2 and a half hours total down, probably a little more than 2 hours walking. And, it was totally fun!

When I got back to my car I changed back into my Chacos and walked into a stream that I saw at the start of the hike to try to get my feet to de-swell a little. The shoes that I bought are trail runners - they are so light! I'm not sure they are enough padding though. I'm going to try them in the Fells and see how they work there - I really don't need boots there, but something more than sneakers would be nice. I tried on this other pair of boots that I didn't wind up getting because they had such thick soles, I felt like I was on platforms and wondered why they would do that. But then I realized that it would be good padding for the knees... I can bring the shoes back for up to a year, so I will give them another test with insoles.

So, not a perfect success, but way better than a day at the "office!"