August 19: One of the services offered by the White Mountain Hostel, in addition to its shuttles and pristine floors, is the opportunity to slack pack from Pinkham Notch to Gorham. It's nice, because carrying a full pack up Wildcat Mountain is a rather daunting task. The downside? It's a 21 mile day. In light of how exhausted we felt after battling Mt. Madison the day before, I was rather intimidated by the thought of 21 miles.
Barbarossa was staying at the hostel and had done the 21 miles the day before. He suggested either a full zero before doing the 21 miles or doing a super short day and then a long day. Wildcat Mountain has a gondola that operated through the summer. We could climb Wildcat and take the gondola down and the next day do the rest of the hike from the gondola to Gorham. The downside to this? It breaks down into a 3 mile day and then an 18 mile day. Not exactly an even split. But what the heck. We were tired. We decided to do 3 miles.
In the morning, we joined the others staying at the hostel for a delicious breakfast- quiche, muffins, and hash browns. I actually could not finish the breakfast! Talk about tailoring the meal to hikers. Plus, it was nice to eat at a big table with a bunch of other people like civilized human beings.
Barbarossa was staying at the hostel and had done the 21 miles the day before. He suggested either a full zero before doing the 21 miles or doing a super short day and then a long day. Wildcat Mountain has a gondola that operated through the summer. We could climb Wildcat and take the gondola down and the next day do the rest of the hike from the gondola to Gorham. The downside to this? It breaks down into a 3 mile day and then an 18 mile day. Not exactly an even split. But what the heck. We were tired. We decided to do 3 miles.
In the morning, we joined the others staying at the hostel for a delicious breakfast- quiche, muffins, and hash browns. I actually could not finish the breakfast! Talk about tailoring the meal to hikers. Plus, it was nice to eat at a big table with a bunch of other people like civilized human beings.
We got the shuttle to Pinkham Notch and then started on the approach to Wildcat. As per usual, it was a rocky, root-y walk with some climbing up and over downed trees and squeezing around rocks. Then we reached the climb. Trekking poles were essentially useless, as it was hand over hand, pulling up, rock scrambling. We tucked the poles in the pack and started climbing. It felt weird to be using my upper body just as much (or more) than my lower body. But it was fun. I'm not so sure it would have been as much fun had I full pack on! And the good thing was, we had no need to rush. We were only doing 3 miles! So we stopped and looked at the views, took some rests, more or less just enjoyed the day. When we reached the gondola, we went up to a wooden platform to look at he view, as Barbarossa had suggested. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we had no need to push ourselves. We had clearly made the right choice.
(Looking back at Mount Washington from Wildcat)
Then we got on the gondola and rode down. It took a while to get a ride back to town from Wildcat, but we eventually got a ride from a local couple who were entertaining some out of town guests. Their guests had just learned about the concept of thru-hiking and were excited at the prospect of meeting 2 real live thru-hikers. We spent the ride to town fielding questions and trying to prove that we weren't certifiably insane for doing it! They ended up dropping us off at Subway, always good for lunch with their $5 foot long subs. We had huge lunches at Subway and caught the hostel shuttle as it was returning from a resupply run.
And then...an afternoon off! We napped, journaled, read. We cleaned our gear and organized our resupply from yesterday. Then we ordered dinner from a local restaurant that delivered and watched a movie. Got to bed early, as we had an early day tomorrow to bang out 18 miles!
Then we got on the gondola and rode down. It took a while to get a ride back to town from Wildcat, but we eventually got a ride from a local couple who were entertaining some out of town guests. Their guests had just learned about the concept of thru-hiking and were excited at the prospect of meeting 2 real live thru-hikers. We spent the ride to town fielding questions and trying to prove that we weren't certifiably insane for doing it! They ended up dropping us off at Subway, always good for lunch with their $5 foot long subs. We had huge lunches at Subway and caught the hostel shuttle as it was returning from a resupply run.
And then...an afternoon off! We napped, journaled, read. We cleaned our gear and organized our resupply from yesterday. Then we ordered dinner from a local restaurant that delivered and watched a movie. Got to bed early, as we had an early day tomorrow to bang out 18 miles!
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