Notes
I didn’t give this hike much thought ahead of time, and was blissfully unaware of how hard it was going to be even if it wasn’t a warm day and had enough food and water. I knew it was going to be hard but had no idea what I was in for. Early start to the day and out the door at 4:05am after very little sleep the night before, and on the Lincoln Woods Trailhead by 6:32am. The first 4 or 5 were very uneventful before getting to some technical parts and completed the 6 miles in about 75 minutes. When the terrain would get steeper, or rocky and rooty, Doug would be way up ahead. That was theme for the majority of this trip. The first climb to Bond Cliff was pretty cool. I’ve never been at the top of ridge like that and the expansive views were really like nothing I’ve ever experience. We keep moving forward and notice pretty early that there are several down trees, making the trail impassable, so we’d either have to go up and over, or walk around. Never really hard but this happened dozens of times throughout the day. At about the 2.5 hour mark I knew I was in for a long day. I was already really tired, a little light headed, and started to wonder what I got myself into. If it wasn’t for Doug’s Instagram post I’d have no recollection of the sequence of climbs but knew there were 8 that ranged for 4k-5k feet. What makes the hike hard is the fact that you have to pay attention at all times or else you are going down. The constant need to check your foot placement was never ending and that became a mental grind. The other thing was the downhill hiking. About 6 hours in, I realize how much pounding I was taking, how hard it was, and the fact that I would wish for a climb to come quickly to ease the pounding on my legs. I was suffering by 10am and it took a while to get use the feeling but I eventually did. Spent lots of time alone while Doug went ahead, where he would eventually stop and wait for me. Some of the climbs were literally just scaling rocks for long periods of time. Not hiking, climbing rocks on your hands and feet. That was really fucking hard. When we arrived at a hut (I think it was Garfield), it was shut down so we did not get any water which was a bummer. The good news was that there was a running stream where we could collect water and that was where the rock climbing was at its worst. When we got to the stream lots of people were filling up and I was so thirsty that I took the chance of pounding water without any treatment. Pretty big risk but I thought it would have been worse without it. We filled our bottles and again on our way. The worst part of the day was Lafayette where it was steep, long, and seemed like each peak was teasing you. You’d think, ok I’m almost there. You’d get to the top and see another peak. This happened 4 or 5 times. I was really struggling and after this happened several times, and I was toast. I think may have been around mile 22 and this is the point where Doug said this was rated the 2nd hardest hike in North America by Backpacker Magazine. #1 on the list is Mount Hood. What the fuck? Within 30 minutes of this point Doug informs me that he is really hurting and that he is texting Pam to let her know we may need rescue. Uh oh. This almost sobers me up and make me realize that I better get my shit together. We agree that we need to ask for water for the next set of hikers we see and see a group sitting on a ridge about .25 miles away. By the time we get there a group of young guys, considering where to camp for the night literally rescue us. They had too much water and offered us as much as needed. That was a huge boost. Throughout the day I had the chance to experience the physical ups and downs of an ultra for the first time. As low as I would get, I would inevitably come back stronger after food or water. Also, during this period of time before water on Garfield, I experienced the worst cotton mouth I’ve ever had. The only good news was that despite feeling so shitty, I was peeing every once and a whole which seemed like a good sign. After this little boost we make our way to Lincoln which is another 5k footer. While we are feeling better but know we have a lot left and that we’ll run out of water soon. When we get to the peak, we bump into 2 women about our age sitting down and awaiting the sun set. These women are super fit, very attractive, and tell us that they are on the Search and Rescue team. Wow. We tell them of our day, our issues with food and water, and they immediately start offering us food. I take some chocolate cookies and gummy bears, and Doug takes a Hershey bar. Another huge boost for us. Literally saved by these 2 trail angels. One of them mentions her grandchildren, and I’m glad I didn’t say out loud what I was thinking. She was the hottest grandmother I’ve ever seen. Before we leave our trail angels, they let us take water from their bladders. “We’ll, not my actual bladder….but you know what I mean”. Another big boost and we are ready to go. 6 miles to go. As we get to Liberty, we bump into some guys camping and again tell them our story. They offer no help at all, but tell us of a spring up ahead that is .3 miles off the trail. We decide that’s too risky and will take an extra 15-20 minutes as we are running out of daylight. The last climb was Flume and the sunset was something I’ve never before on the east coast. Pretty amazing. 5 miles to go. The descent from here was never ending. Lots of man-made stairs, rocks, roots, and a general nightmare to get down. The sun has set, and we are using our headlamps. My light is faint but works for a while before dying. No Doug has the only headlamp, and for the rest of the way I lead with his headlamp lighting the way. This section just keeps going and we were both worrying about getting to the final trail where the road would be flat, and we could it without a headlamp if we needed to. We finally get to the last leg of the trip, and I am really smoked. Very thirsty, hungry, my feet are killing me. Doug gets this crazy boost and is walking really fast and starts talking again. We finally get to the car, change, crank the AC, and pound as much water was can. This was by far, the hardest thing I’ve ever done and likely won’t ever do it again.