Day 151-Today I Had Plenty of Smarts

Aug 16-18.9 miles-Dirt Rd to Three Mile Rd

Whew, today was a long one! I wanted to do the long option today so I will have a short day tomorrow. It was tiring, but I survived it. 

I had two mountains (one with two summits, so almost more like three mountains), and another little beast of a climb for today. Because I wanted to do the big day, Jane and I left the hostel at 6:00. I also had a little extra road walk because of the locked gate. I was on the trail by 6:50. 

Trailhead. 

I pretty much immediately started climbing. I decided to see how far I could go in the first hour. Turns out, I did 2 1/2 miles...uphill! Along the way, I saw Crunchy coming down. I haven’t seen him since...Tennessee? Almost didn’t recognize him!

I got to the summit of Smarts Mountain at 8:30! That was 4.3 miles. It was pretty windy and foggy, so I only went partway up the fire tower. 

Couldn’t see much. 

The descent down Smarts was much steeper. I was beginning to think it would never end!

There were things like these rebar steps

And, walking on rock slabs

I was still going down, but that is the summit of Smarts. 

Going down lovely rock slabs. They really make your feet hurt!

I passed a number of people who were going up. I saw Rafiki, and then I saw Polar Bear. I couldn’t believe how much weight Polar Bear has lost! He was pretty big when he started. Now he’s skinny! He’s pretty happy about it. 

I finally got to the bottom of Smarts. A guy I had passed had left 2 cases of bottled water at the trailhead. I sucked down a bottle in a flash. Then I continued on. I thought I’d be starting up Moose Mountain, but noooo. First I had to go up this little beast to the Holt Ledges. At least the view was nice. 

You might be able to tell by the trees on the left, that it was pretty windy. 

Those clouds would eventually drop a bit of rain. 

I came down from the ledges, then started up Moose Mountain...well, the north summit. The climb wasn’t really that bad, but I was getting tired. Fortunately, between the two summits, North and South Peaks, I didn’t go all the way down. At the top of South Summit, I was 2 miles from my destination for the day. I called for the shuttle to pick me up at 5:30. That gave me plenty of time. 

The view from South Summit. 

When I got to the road, I noticed a couple of camp chairs, and three bottles of water. I downed a bottle of water, sat myself in a chair, and waited for my ride. 

So, while it was a really long day, I did it. Now I’ll have a short day tomorrow! Yay!