go hike a mountain

May 24, 2008

I awoke at about 5am just before the alarm on my cell phone would have gone off. It was relatively bright out and I was able to quickly get the stove going to make some oatmeal for breakfast. Jesse remained in his sleeping bag a few minutes longer, but soon started to pack everything up.

We got dressed and finished eating and left our campsite at 6:15am. We double-checked to make sure it looked as if we had never been there.

The first few miles of our hike were through the Burlingame area which included a number of swamps we had to pass through. Some wooden walkways had been installed to make it possible to cross them.

We paused just a few times to adjust our gear, but didn’t stop for any long breaks just yet. We passed a deer stand no longer in use.

And shortly after we came upon a covered bridge with benches.

Our first real break was at 9am near a giant rock outcropping that had some evidence of rock climbing. We stayed here about 15 minutes to eat snacks.

Jesse didn’t get much sleep from fighting with the bugs all night. I think you can really see that in this photo.

Jesse found me an additional snack in the grass near the trail. I’m not sure what kind of snake it was, but it was navy blue with a yellow belly. There was a section of its stomach that was missing, looking almost like its last meal crawled back out of its stomach and through its skin.

We came upon a really buggy pond.

The trail soon took us out to a section of paved roads that was 1.5 miles long. We found some shade to take a break at and after traveling just 6 or so miles that morning, we were already starting to feel the weight of the packs on our backs and the soreness of our feet.

The roads led us to a giant cornfield with a dirt road running through it. There were a few abandoned buildings in the area which were used to mark the directions because there were no trees or rocks to paint blazes onto.

There was also no shade for this mile-long stretch through the fields, so we were grateful when the trail turned back into the woods. An old farm vehicle blocked one of the paths.

The tires were covered in woolies.

We had to leave the forest again to walk on a 4-mile stretch of paved roads through the town of Richmond. The maps we were following make note of a Mobil gas station along the way and we were really looking forward to being able to stop and refill our water reservoirs and maybe pick up a candy bar or two. Nothing on the map said whether the gas station was still in service. When we arrived there was a big “For Rent” sign in the window. We were a little disappointed, but at least we didn’t have to go out of our way to find it.

When we hit the center of town at a major road-crossing, we looked around for other stores but didn’t see anything. We asked a family selling plants in the town hall parking lot if they could think of a place nearby and the gentleman pointed in the opposite direction from where we were headed and told us about a plaza with a restaurant about a quarter of a mile down the road. We thanked them and walked that way and were delighted to find a little pizza place. We both had sandwiches and freshened up as much as we could in the bathroom.

The remaining 2 miles on roads was tough to finish, but we finally made it back into the woods. This little tugboat replica was in a pond we passed just before entering the Arcadia Management area.

I had felt myself slowing down on the roads but being in the forest again gave me a renewed energy that helped me pick up the pace again. Jesse and I found a small creek where we splashed our faces with water to cool off.

At around 4pm, we both realized we weren’t going to make it to our next planned campsite and would have to find some level ground before leaving the forest again where the trail intersected Rte. 165. Deciding where to sleep when you pass through 1.5 miles of boulder fields isn’t easy.

After leaving the boulders there was a stretch of forest that was a little bit buggy, but had a few open and flat areas where we could put down our sleeping bags. For the last 2 hours of our hike, we were both exhausted and trying to focus on getting as far as ours legs and feet would carry us because there would be a lot of ground we’d have to make up the next day. We walked approximately 25 miles this day and stopped at 6pm, about 7 miles short of our goal. We both had aching shoulders and feet and Jesse’s knees were a bit sore.

I made dinner (dehydrated pre-packaged food that was not so tasty) while Jesse adjusted our sleeping arrangement. We quickly washed the dishes and crawled into our sleeping bags at about 7pm. Although I woke up a few times throughout the night to shift, I pretty much slept through to 5am the next morning. I couldn’t believe how tired I was.