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Day 160-The Last Post of My AT Three 20s Hike

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Aug 25th As I’m sitting here in Conway, NH, waiting for my bus to Boston, I thought I’d write this last post. Maybe make it a retrospective of sorts. I also wanted to take a moment and thank some of the people that made parts of this hike really enjoyable.  161 days ago I walked into the hostel at Dahlonega and saw a guy sitting in the chair. Of course, that was Doug, later to be named by me, Sure Foot. Little did I know I would spend the next 160 days with this guy! I firmly believe that if it weren’t for Sure Foot, my hike would have ended long ago. We made a good team, him and I. He had the hiking experience, and I...well...I had good ears! We made each other laugh, and we kept each other going, even when we both had decided to quit in North Carolina when the whole COVID mess made it hard to see how we could proceed. I will always be grateful for his knowledge, experience, and most of all, friendship. Sure Foot, I miss you already! At one point, I wrote about our “Curse of the Third
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Day 159-My Exit Plan is Set...Mostly

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Aug 24- no more AT miles-Crawford Notch Campground to the AMC Highland Center Sure Foot and I packed up this morning at Crawford Notch Campground, and made our way to the road. It took about 20 or 30 minutes of sticking out our thumbs before a nice young man named Noah stopped and gave us a ride the 7 miles to the AMC Highland Center. The Highland Center is like hiking central for the White Mountains. It is run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. It is kind of spendy, but it includes breakfast and dinner. Pre-COVID, they served buffet style. Now they seat everyone at individual tables, and they bring you a menu. You basically say what you don’t want, and they bring you everything else! They also gave us a “welcome” bag of disposable masks and a big bottle of hand sanitizer.  We were able to get a reservation here in a 4 bunk room. The  whole room is ours as they only put people together that have been together. We are in the Mt. Field room. We have a view to “The Elephant”.  The mountain
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Day 158-Safety First

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Aug 23-zero at Crawford Notch Campground It’s strange to write this post when the last three posts have not been uploaded yet, but here goes... Sure Foot and I had a long, tearful (on both our parts) discussion about whether it was safe for me to continue hiking, in light of the fact that Mt. Washington is very difficult and dangerous, especially with knees that are refusing to cooperate. Not only is Sure Foot concerned about me ruining my knees completely, but I am concerned about putting Sure Foot in danger trying to help me. I know he would do anything to help me down the mountain, but that might cause him harm too. I can’t do that. So, we decided the safest thing to do is for me to end my hike here. I know it seems like I’m so close to the end, and relatively speaking, that is true. But, the miles to come are much more dangerous and challenging than the previous 1800 miles.  Complicating matters with my knees, is also my depth perception issues. Before, when I could trust my knees,
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Day 157-A Much Better Day, But Still Long

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Aug 22- 11.9 (plus 1 mile from Guyot) miles-Guyot Campsite to Crawford Notch Campground- AT mile-1847.6 Today was another long day, but it was way better than yesterday. The terrain wasn’t as scary difficult, there were not any long steep climbs (although there was a long downhill), and there was a long section of mostly flat dirt path.  I headed out before Sure Foot, as usual. It was a mile back to the AT from the Guyot campsite, then an easy climb up Mt. Guyot itself. Yesterday’s little climb was called Guyot Spur.  As I was hiking down Guyot, I met a guy going southbound. His name was Turtle. He said he was hiking with two other guys, Upstream, and Nat Geo. When he mentioned Upstream, I asked if Upstream had a brother named Robert (Frosty). Frosty had told me his brother was thru-hiking , and that his name was Upstream. Sure enough, it was him! Upstream and Nat Geo were a bit behind Turtle. I kept asking hikers their trail name as they went by. Finally, Upstream came by. I told him
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Day 156-Another Terrifying Day in the White Mountains

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Aug 21-5.5 miles + 1 mile to the shelter-Garfield a campsite to Guyot Campsite-AT mile 1835.7 Today was a downright awful day, saved only by Sure Foot. You might notice we only did 5.5 miles (plus a mile to the campsite).  It started out with a nasty continuation of the descent from Garfield Mtn. At one point, I could not figure out how to get down a rock slab without dying, so I took my cord and tied it to my pack. I ran the cord through my trekking pole straps because who knows where they would have ended up if I tossed them down. Then I lowered it down the rock. It worked pretty good. The next time I couldn’t get down with my pack on, I lowered it again to where Sure Foot was, then he took it the rest of the way down.  On this part, there was also a stream running down.  Sure Foot taking my pack.  It took an hour to go .3 miles. We had planned a 14.9 mile day. Knowing there was more terrifying descending, I didn’t see how we could do 14.9 miles. By this time (which was still morning
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Day 155-Franconia Ridge...in Pictures

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Aug 20-10.3 trail miles-Franconia Notch to Garfield Campsite-AT Mile 1830.2 As of today, we’ve been on the AT for 5 months...5 very long months.  Lorri drove us back to the Flume Visitor Center parking lot this morning.  It was so much fun having my full pack back...not! Slackpacking was way more nice!  Today we started Franconia Ridge. We went up and over 4 mountains (and went up to .3 from the summit of another one). It was a very difficult day...but beautiful. Here’s some photos. The mountains were, in order, Little Haystack, Lincoln, Lafayette (the biggest one), and Garfield. We didn’t go all the way to the top of Liberty.  We were on the other side day before yesterday.  Little Haystack That’s the Kinsmans across the way.  In the background to the left is Liberty.  It was quite windy and chilly. When we were protected from the wind, it was pretty nice. Here’s a few more photos.  Now that’s a drop off! Lafayette in the distance Following the white blazes up Flat Will and LB at the
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