Saturday, May 23, 2009

#23 North Kinsman

5/23/09 - I should have known by the way this day started the way it would end.

I was meeting Gwen at the trailhead at 8:30. For some reason, I came really close to running out of gas. I don’t usually do this but I just kept driving, even when the gas light came on. I knew I had at least 20 miles after the light came on so I just kept going. I came close to running out, but I did eventually make it to a gas station, bought some food and met Gwen. The trailhead for Kinsman had been recently relocated so we found the new trailhead (Mt. Kinsman Trail to Kinsman Ridge Trail). As we were packing up, there was a group leaving ahead of us. A father and his 2 sons (I guessed). Two couples came out of the woods and said they couldn’t find the trail and had lost an hour looking for it. They were headed up the road to the old trailhead. We decided to do our best to find it. They said someone told them the marked trail was not the way to go, use the trail to the right of it (this turned out to be the reason they got lost). It looked like the two trails paralled each other. (Left around 9:20) We went the way they sent us and the trail seemed to turn right, over a river and in front a house. I felt it was the wrong way; it was obvious someone was living there and turned around to see if the trail went another way. Gwen stopped and talked to this man who had just pulled up to the house. She told me later he was Bode Miller’s father and that that was the house Bode grew up in. That was cool and all, but I was impatient to get the hike started.
We followed some trees that had ties around them. They quickly disappeared and so did our trail. We figured we must be at least headed in the right direction and decided to see if we could bushwhack our way to the correct trail.

We followed the river that had ran by Bode's house and eventually found a trail.


It ended up not being the right trail but at least it was some kind of trail. We came out on the right trail, Mt. Kinsman Trail and the Dad and 2 sons passed us again. They wondered how we got in front of them. Even though we got lost, we ended up saving some time.

Gwen was leading the way and asked how her pace was. I told her she was going too fast for me. I wasn't feeling well but I was hoping it would go away. I kept thinking "maybe if I eat something, maybe if I drink more, maybe I'm drinking too much". I had to keep stopping. My stomach was upset and I felt like I could throw up and I wanted to. The closer we got to the summit, the worse I felt. I started getting dizzy and shaky and cold. I sat down for a long time and felt a little better. I almost gave up about 3 times. I was trying to phyche myself out to keep going but I also had to think about getting back down and whether I was making the situation worse by continuing on. We decided we would summit the north peak and leave the south for another day. I was so bummed out; the only logical way to do the south peak is to go over north. Gwen was super understanding though.












We summited around 2:00. It was cold and windy.












I felt a lot better on the way down and had plenty of energy to get down. Gwen gave herself a trail name: Moss. I like it and like she said, at least the day wasn't a total loss; she got a trail name.











We got back to the cars at around 5:30. Someone had blocked off the wrong path we followed.


On the drive to the highway, I noticed I had driven by the Cannon Tram and hadn't even noticed it on the way in. I guess I was too freaked out to notice because I was low on gas. I was really disappointed things turned out the way they did and I wouldn't even write this down, but we did technically do a 4,000er.

Went to the Woodstock Inn for dinner, the best part of the day! I met a couple girls in the bathroom who were washing up in the sink. They said they had been backpacking for 4 days.





We will have to come back and do this whole hike again..Ugh.

Monday, May 18, 2009

New Hikes Coming Soon!!

Stay tuned for details!

"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."

-Sir Winston Churchill