Mountains of Pain, Part 2

This post is the second in a three part series describing my most recent backpacking trip to the White Mountains. If you want to read the first part to better understand the roots of my misery, follow this link. The last part should be out next week, and I’ll link to it as soon as it’s live.

I slept fitfully through the night, and was finally woken by light shining through the shelter opening. The rain had run itself out sometime in the night, and where before I had only seen cloudy darkness, a stunningly beautiful mountainous vista now lay open before me. It’s one of the things I love about backpacking, waking up to views like that. It went some way towards making up for the misery of the night before.

As I lay there, bundled in two sleeping bags and appreciating the view, I considered the day ahead. The first section of trail was climb back up to the trail and to the summit of Mt. Guyot, but I’d have my snow shoes ready this time. With the aching in my muscles and tendons much improved from the night before, I felt like I’d be able to make it. And if it beat the crap out of me more than I wanted, I only had six miles to hike for the whole day, so I had plenty of time to rest, take it easy, and still make it to camp before dark. I was feeling cautiously optimistic about my prospects.

With mildly renewed optimism I began to prepare my things. The optimism began to fade as soon as I tried to get dressed. Since my hiking clothes had been fairly damp, I had decided not to risk wetting my sleeping bag by putting them in it with me. I knew what was probably going to happen, but I still wasn’t thrilled when faced with the reality of my shirt and pants frozen rock solid. If I was going to be able to put them on, I’d need to soften them up a bit, and the only way to do that was to put them inside the sleeping bag with me. Hopefully there wouldn’t be too much moisture transfer. So I shoved them in with me, and got to experience the joy of sitting with ice cubes in my lap while I went on with my morning. At least I was able to get some mild amusement from the solid “THUNK” they made when I smacked them against the wooden floor.

The rest of my preparations were less problematic. I learned a while ago that even in temperatures where my blood glucose meter was theoretically too cold to function, if I just use it inside of my coat, or in this case my sleeping bag, it would be warm enough to work. Doing this, I was able to get a good blood sugar reading to calibrate my continuous glucose monitor. Once I was mostly packed and had my breakfast pop tarts ready, my clothes were thawed enough to put on. I strongly recommend never doing that if you can avoid it. Ready to go, I put on my snow shoes and began to climb.

The hike back to the trail was brutal. It would have been difficult enough without the snow, but even with my snowshoes I was sinking six to twelve inches in with almost every step. On top of that, my thick gloves had also frozen overnight, so rather than keep me warm, they were sapping the heat from my hands to a painful degree. Fortunately it warm enough that my thinner, Smartwool gloves were sufficient to keep warm after I removed the large ones. Sadly, there was no easy solution to my already burning muscles. I was already exhausted by 10:00 when I finished the quarter mile hike to the trail. I was going to be a rough day.

The next 2.5 miles may have been the hardest of the whole trip. I trudged through snow often past my ankles up the 300 feet over half a mile to the top of Mt. Guyot, stopping every few minutes to give my leaden legs a few moments of much needed rest. And that wasn’t the end of it, because rather than drop down after Mt. Guyot, the trail only climbed higher towards the summit of South Twin Mountain, two miles further and 500 feet higher still. The path was mostly forested, but passing through one windswept section near the top of Mt. Guyot, I got my first view good view of the landscape from the trail. The mountains stood all around me, and across the basin the exposed, snow-covered expanse of Franconia Ridge warned of future pains. I wasn’t certain at the time that the trail would take me over those peaks, but given the propensity of New England’s Trails to go straight up the tops of mountains, I though the odds were in favor of it. I was not looking forward to it.

The trudging continued for almost two hours through snow and trees. It hurt. A few birds came out to cheer me forward with their songs. Finally though, just after noon, I reached the peak of South Twin and was greeted by another spectacular view. I think I could even make out Mount Washington capped by clouds and 15 miles distant. Even better than the view though, reaching the top of South Twin meant the remainder of the day was almost entirely downhill. And the trail was finally packed out again so I could trade my weighty snowshoes for my much lighter microspikes.

The trail down from South Twin was steep and slow going, not quite the bliss I had hoped for in the descent. But after reaching Galehead Hut half a mile after the peak, the trail decided it could be kind for the remainder of the day. It kept to flats and downhills, and I was happy to give up on many more panoramic views if it meant no more climbing. I met even the smallest of upward incline with great dread. I enjoyed a sketchy but fun climb hand and foot up a bit of trail that was basically just a rocky ice-fall, and I passed a few day hikers, but apart from that the remainder of the day was rather uneventful.

When I finally reached the spur trail to the Garfield shelter at around 15:00, I was utterly exhausted. The back of my right knee hurt. The hip flexor on the left side of my groin hurt. I felt like I could barely move. And I still had a short climb left up to the shelter. As rough as as the whole day had been though, it still managed to end on a high note. Just before the shelter, a short snow-covered stair led up to a bench. With only a few steps left to camp, I decided to drop off my backpack before investigating. Once I was free from that weight bearing down on me, I walked back to the enjoy the view. From that bench I could see everything I had hiked though since the morning. Without the prospect of further hiking for the day, I was able to slow down and enjoy picking out the various mountains I’d visited. I would have liked to stay longer, but after a minute or two I was getting cold and my stomach was calling to me.

Back at camp I bundled up, got in my sleeping bags, and got started on dinner. I’d been too exhausted to eat properly during the hike, and now that I was stopped, I was starving. When the potatoes and ramen were ready, I had no problem at all finishing them. I could have eaten more.

Once dinner was finished I had some time to think, and I was getting a little worried. I’d been pushing myself really hard all day, and I’d barely been able to move faster than 1 mph. I hurt. A lot. And somehow, I needed to hike twice as far, with 3 times as much elevation gain, tomorrow. I was not entirely confident that could do it, but I also didn’t have much of a choice. The only other option was to set up my tent in the snow at the Liberty Springs Tentsite about halfway back, but I wanted to avoid doing that if I could, and I needed to be back home by Tuesday morning for work. If worst came to worst I could miss my meeting and do it, but it was very much a last resort.

Given the mountains and pain stacked against me, I did every I could to set myself up for success. The only way I was going to make that many miles was if I was moving really slow. Excruciatingly slow. And not pushing myself at all. Planned for a little less than 1 mph, the remaining miles would take me about 13 hours. With only 9 hours of daylight I’d definitely be spending some time in the dark, and I learned on the first day that I did not want to be above tree line at that point. Mt. Flume, the last peak of the day, was 8 miles from my current location, I’d need to leave early if I wanted to be down from it before sunset. To that end, I chose to save some time in the morning and sleep in my hiking clothes. It helped that things were much dryer than the previous day, and I also didn’t want to have to suffer through cold clothes again the next morning.

It was so early that I wasn’t quite ready to sleep yet. Despite being unable to charge it, my phone was still doing pretty well on battery, so I relaxed and listened to my audiobook for about an hour and a half. Eventually though, the sun set, and needing as much rest as I could get, I began trying to sleep a little after 17:00.

Hike Details

• Distance: 5.6 miles
• Date: December 12, 2021
• Route: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/map/map-january-20-2022-12-33-am-5737034