Early Bird
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Pemi Loop, Friday July 6, 2012 Part 1
After organizing a babysitter, my husband Gig aka The Anti-Zen and I headed up to Lincoln to the Hancock Campground Thursday night. We set our alarms, watches and phones for 3:30 AM and slept in the back of his Honda Element which was actually kinda comfy and easier that setting up and breaking down a tent. If I'd fallen asleep first I'd have had a better night sleep, but I have trouble sleeping to loud breathing, (*cough* snoring *cough*). So 3:30 AM came quickly. In 5 minutes we were gone and at Lincoln Woods.
Once there, we got dressed to hike: t-shirt, shorts, trail runners. We had rain or wind jackets strapped to our Camelbacks and extra socks inside. I wore gaiters and Gig slathered his feet in Vaseline. For breakfast, a midnight snack or something in between, we ate bananas and whole wheat bagels. I spread peanut butter on mine. We drank some water, I more than Gig. I also mixed myself a 20oz bottle of orange Tang and chugged that, then chased a GU with 12 more ounces of water. Gig is using this as training for the JFK 50 ultra in November which is mostly on trails, so we were planning to go somewhat fast and light. I wasn't sure how much water to carry. My Camel held 50 oz of water and I had a 20 oz bottle of Gatorade. That morning I made a judgment call not to bring another water bottle because it wasn't particularly hot. Gig had a 2 liter Camel. We had some powdered Gatorade, 4 more servings, and planned to drink that at the hut.
After some quick trips to the bathrooms we set off on the Wilderness Trail. It was 4:10 AM. In about 5 minutes the birds began their first songs of the day. Hermit thrush led the symphony. Only I had a headlamp. While it was getting light enough to see the trail, it wasn't light enough to see all the details, ditches, and railroad ties. We started to jog, but Gig didn't want to trip and get injured this early in the day, so we fast walked with our hiking poles to the Osseo Trail junction, arriving at 4:30. Quick enough.
The Osseo trail was pretty steady and we made good time. After the ladders the trail is level and great for jogging. I heard the Bicknell's Thrush calling in this area. We talked about when we thought we'd see the first other hikers, probably around Lincoln we decided. We also talked about our mental strategies. Any long endurance event is 90% mental. I recalled how tired I felt when I backpacked 22 miles in one day last summer on Vermont's Long Trail. It was my second day out. I had a pack full of food, 3+ liters of water, and hadn't gotten those hiking legs yet. I kept telling myself this was not going to get as hard as the end of that day. This pemi loop was 31.5 miles, but I was discounting the last 4.7, which is flat and we planned to run. So that was a 26 mile hike actually and I was just carrying a Camelback, plus a water bottle waist pack, not a full pack. (I know those numbers don't 100% add up, but that's how I explained it to myself for accomplishment purposes.) Mentally Gig knew he would finish as well. We reached Flume at 6:20. What a morning view in the undercast! Breathtaking, but not letting the focus be lost we barely stopped. Gig got out my first snack, a Honey Stinger bar and I got one out for him, Walker shortbread cookies. Shortly I had another GU and heard some more Bicknell's. In the saddle of Flume and Liberty I did stop for a second when I saw a Bicknell's at the edge of the trail. It flew off and as quickly so did we.
I didn't write down the splits between every peak and trail junction, but recall some. I had written a pace chart for estimated arrival times at each peak and junction based on what someone else had done in 13 hours. (I forget who posted that I copied.) If we reached each spot within 45 minutes of their time, we would be done in our goal of 14 hours. Secretly I wanted to be down faster than that, but was trying to be reasonable for our first pemi loop. I know we reached Liberty at 6:50 and Lafayette by 8:30.There were parts where Gig just wanted to walk fast, but I reminded him that he was training for the JFK 50 and picked up the pace. We ran the runnable flat parts of the ridge. Gig said he felt like Kilian Jornet. We took one 5 minute break (I timed it anxiously and eager to keep moving) on Lincoln while Gig changed a sweaty sock and put more Vaseline on his foot. We didn't see anyone on the ridge. It was amazing having it all to ourselves at the break of day, in silence before the heat hit. Gig had started to sweat, but I don't sweat that much. He says he had been sweating up the Osseo Trail.
"In the dark?" I questioned.
"Sure. I was sweating pretty early."
I contemplated sweating without the sun hitting me. This filled up a half hour of my thoughts. How my mind wanders on long hikes like this.
It was somewhere along the woods after Franconia Ridge that we first saw another hiker. Someone had tented and was just waking up. We'd already hiked over 10 miles. We felt great. I pretended I was just waking up and starting my hike too. Now we had to just hike less than 20 miles, shorter than that tough hike I did last summer and the last 5 miles didn't count, in my mind. Easy. I knew I'd make it no problem.
In hindsight, I think this section between the ridge and Garfield was the one I'd read had plenty of PUDs. But I thought they were going to be between Garfield and the hut, so I was doing it thinking it wasn't that bad, worse was yet to come. I was also reminiscing about my AT thru-hike, the only other time I'd hiked through this section in this way. That year, I stayed the night at the hut and hiked S. Twin in the morning so I was reminding myself that once we did S. Twin we'd be done with 1/2 the miles (that was around Garfield) and half the elevation, the rest I told myself would be a cake walk, then a downhill, then a run. I'm still not sure where those PUDs where. They didn't stick out to me.
The woods in this area were wet. We'd walked into the clouds and below them now. The rocks slick. Gig who doesn't usually hike with poles was glad he had them. We moved carefully and stopped for Bicknell's sightings more than twice. We even took pictures of the little bird. They were everywhere it seemed, from Osseo through the Bonds, singing and calling. I lost count of how often we heard them. This is my favorite bird. I felt so lucky.
We reached Garfield still ahead of our projected pace, but starting to fall behind a little. Where we'd hiked together through the ridge, I was slightly ahead in this section. Reaching Garfield ahead of Gig, I chatted with some folks who'd hiked over after spending the night at the hut while I waited a minute or two for Gig to reach the top. He said all the ups were hard for him by now. "Anytime I was going up and the sun was shining it was hard," he said.
After Garfield the trail passes Liberty Springs. At one point the trail ran down a mini waterfall. This part was very slow going. Gig dunked his head in the water to cool off. We started seeing more and more people. AT hikers who'd started in Harper's Ferry, Southbounders. Good times and quick conversations. Temps were in the high 70's. There were little to no winds, no chance of rain or thunder, a perfect hiking day. We never needed our rain jackets or wind breakers. Though it seemed far off, we had seen the hut in the distance and were encouraged. During the slow steady up, I dropped Gig again. When I didn't see him, I would wait and call his name. He was always within earshot. I was the pace setter and he appreciated that. However, somewhere in this stretch, probably 1.3 miles from the hut he ran out of water, but didn't think it was a big deal with the hut so close. He says he had been drinking enough, but at the same time rationing to the hut. We hiked together from there for a while, but shortly my Camelback slurped also, meaning I was getting close to the end of my 50 oz. I still hadn't touched my 20 oz of Gatorade so I broke that out and shared it. Once we reached the .6 miles to the hut mark. I drank almost all the rest and hurried on. Not seeing Gig for a minute or so, I called. He answered. I left him the rest of my bottle on the trail instead of waiting. I still felt great and wanted to go fast. We met up again at the little junction before the hut, but I'd waited a few minutes for him again.
My plan was to hit the hut, refill our water, drink a lot and carry on- not waste much time. I wasn't hungry. I'd been eating GU and energy bars at regular intervals. By now I'd had three bars, one Snickers, and 3-4 GU's and felt great. It was 11:40, 45 minutes behind schedule. Besides one croo member, there were three other hikers at the hut: 2 asleep on the table benches and one outside. One guy woke up, and we talked. They were also doing a pemi loop, but had started the previous evening at 7 PM and gone straight through; this was their first rest. He woke his friend and told him in an incredulous way that we had started 9 hours after them and were doing the same thing. We wished them luck and tried to motivate them into finishing in 24 hours. We spent 20-25 minutes at the hut. Gig changed his sock, ate a little, filled up his Camel, and drank a Gatorade, 20 oz. I drank two bottles of Gatorade, 40 oz. He said later he'd wished he'd could've spent more time there resting. I rushed him on.
After organizing a babysitter, my husband Gig aka The Anti-Zen and I headed up to Lincoln to the Hancock Campground Thursday night. We set our alarms, watches and phones for 3:30 AM and slept in the back of his Honda Element which was actually kinda comfy and easier that setting up and breaking down a tent. If I'd fallen asleep first I'd have had a better night sleep, but I have trouble sleeping to loud breathing, (*cough* snoring *cough*). So 3:30 AM came quickly. In 5 minutes we were gone and at Lincoln Woods.
Once there, we got dressed to hike: t-shirt, shorts, trail runners. We had rain or wind jackets strapped to our Camelbacks and extra socks inside. I wore gaiters and Gig slathered his feet in Vaseline. For breakfast, a midnight snack or something in between, we ate bananas and whole wheat bagels. I spread peanut butter on mine. We drank some water, I more than Gig. I also mixed myself a 20oz bottle of orange Tang and chugged that, then chased a GU with 12 more ounces of water. Gig is using this as training for the JFK 50 ultra in November which is mostly on trails, so we were planning to go somewhat fast and light. I wasn't sure how much water to carry. My Camel held 50 oz of water and I had a 20 oz bottle of Gatorade. That morning I made a judgment call not to bring another water bottle because it wasn't particularly hot. Gig had a 2 liter Camel. We had some powdered Gatorade, 4 more servings, and planned to drink that at the hut.
After some quick trips to the bathrooms we set off on the Wilderness Trail. It was 4:10 AM. In about 5 minutes the birds began their first songs of the day. Hermit thrush led the symphony. Only I had a headlamp. While it was getting light enough to see the trail, it wasn't light enough to see all the details, ditches, and railroad ties. We started to jog, but Gig didn't want to trip and get injured this early in the day, so we fast walked with our hiking poles to the Osseo Trail junction, arriving at 4:30. Quick enough.
The Osseo trail was pretty steady and we made good time. After the ladders the trail is level and great for jogging. I heard the Bicknell's Thrush calling in this area. We talked about when we thought we'd see the first other hikers, probably around Lincoln we decided. We also talked about our mental strategies. Any long endurance event is 90% mental. I recalled how tired I felt when I backpacked 22 miles in one day last summer on Vermont's Long Trail. It was my second day out. I had a pack full of food, 3+ liters of water, and hadn't gotten those hiking legs yet. I kept telling myself this was not going to get as hard as the end of that day. This pemi loop was 31.5 miles, but I was discounting the last 4.7, which is flat and we planned to run. So that was a 26 mile hike actually and I was just carrying a Camelback, plus a water bottle waist pack, not a full pack. (I know those numbers don't 100% add up, but that's how I explained it to myself for accomplishment purposes.) Mentally Gig knew he would finish as well. We reached Flume at 6:20. What a morning view in the undercast! Breathtaking, but not letting the focus be lost we barely stopped. Gig got out my first snack, a Honey Stinger bar and I got one out for him, Walker shortbread cookies. Shortly I had another GU and heard some more Bicknell's. In the saddle of Flume and Liberty I did stop for a second when I saw a Bicknell's at the edge of the trail. It flew off and as quickly so did we.
I didn't write down the splits between every peak and trail junction, but recall some. I had written a pace chart for estimated arrival times at each peak and junction based on what someone else had done in 13 hours. (I forget who posted that I copied.) If we reached each spot within 45 minutes of their time, we would be done in our goal of 14 hours. Secretly I wanted to be down faster than that, but was trying to be reasonable for our first pemi loop. I know we reached Liberty at 6:50 and Lafayette by 8:30.There were parts where Gig just wanted to walk fast, but I reminded him that he was training for the JFK 50 and picked up the pace. We ran the runnable flat parts of the ridge. Gig said he felt like Kilian Jornet. We took one 5 minute break (I timed it anxiously and eager to keep moving) on Lincoln while Gig changed a sweaty sock and put more Vaseline on his foot. We didn't see anyone on the ridge. It was amazing having it all to ourselves at the break of day, in silence before the heat hit. Gig had started to sweat, but I don't sweat that much. He says he had been sweating up the Osseo Trail.
"In the dark?" I questioned.
"Sure. I was sweating pretty early."
I contemplated sweating without the sun hitting me. This filled up a half hour of my thoughts. How my mind wanders on long hikes like this.
It was somewhere along the woods after Franconia Ridge that we first saw another hiker. Someone had tented and was just waking up. We'd already hiked over 10 miles. We felt great. I pretended I was just waking up and starting my hike too. Now we had to just hike less than 20 miles, shorter than that tough hike I did last summer and the last 5 miles didn't count, in my mind. Easy. I knew I'd make it no problem.
In hindsight, I think this section between the ridge and Garfield was the one I'd read had plenty of PUDs. But I thought they were going to be between Garfield and the hut, so I was doing it thinking it wasn't that bad, worse was yet to come. I was also reminiscing about my AT thru-hike, the only other time I'd hiked through this section in this way. That year, I stayed the night at the hut and hiked S. Twin in the morning so I was reminding myself that once we did S. Twin we'd be done with 1/2 the miles (that was around Garfield) and half the elevation, the rest I told myself would be a cake walk, then a downhill, then a run. I'm still not sure where those PUDs where. They didn't stick out to me.
The woods in this area were wet. We'd walked into the clouds and below them now. The rocks slick. Gig who doesn't usually hike with poles was glad he had them. We moved carefully and stopped for Bicknell's sightings more than twice. We even took pictures of the little bird. They were everywhere it seemed, from Osseo through the Bonds, singing and calling. I lost count of how often we heard them. This is my favorite bird. I felt so lucky.
We reached Garfield still ahead of our projected pace, but starting to fall behind a little. Where we'd hiked together through the ridge, I was slightly ahead in this section. Reaching Garfield ahead of Gig, I chatted with some folks who'd hiked over after spending the night at the hut while I waited a minute or two for Gig to reach the top. He said all the ups were hard for him by now. "Anytime I was going up and the sun was shining it was hard," he said.
After Garfield the trail passes Liberty Springs. At one point the trail ran down a mini waterfall. This part was very slow going. Gig dunked his head in the water to cool off. We started seeing more and more people. AT hikers who'd started in Harper's Ferry, Southbounders. Good times and quick conversations. Temps were in the high 70's. There were little to no winds, no chance of rain or thunder, a perfect hiking day. We never needed our rain jackets or wind breakers. Though it seemed far off, we had seen the hut in the distance and were encouraged. During the slow steady up, I dropped Gig again. When I didn't see him, I would wait and call his name. He was always within earshot. I was the pace setter and he appreciated that. However, somewhere in this stretch, probably 1.3 miles from the hut he ran out of water, but didn't think it was a big deal with the hut so close. He says he had been drinking enough, but at the same time rationing to the hut. We hiked together from there for a while, but shortly my Camelback slurped also, meaning I was getting close to the end of my 50 oz. I still hadn't touched my 20 oz of Gatorade so I broke that out and shared it. Once we reached the .6 miles to the hut mark. I drank almost all the rest and hurried on. Not seeing Gig for a minute or so, I called. He answered. I left him the rest of my bottle on the trail instead of waiting. I still felt great and wanted to go fast. We met up again at the little junction before the hut, but I'd waited a few minutes for him again.
My plan was to hit the hut, refill our water, drink a lot and carry on- not waste much time. I wasn't hungry. I'd been eating GU and energy bars at regular intervals. By now I'd had three bars, one Snickers, and 3-4 GU's and felt great. It was 11:40, 45 minutes behind schedule. Besides one croo member, there were three other hikers at the hut: 2 asleep on the table benches and one outside. One guy woke up, and we talked. They were also doing a pemi loop, but had started the previous evening at 7 PM and gone straight through; this was their first rest. He woke his friend and told him in an incredulous way that we had started 9 hours after them and were doing the same thing. We wished them luck and tried to motivate them into finishing in 24 hours. We spent 20-25 minutes at the hut. Gig changed his sock, ate a little, filled up his Camel, and drank a Gatorade, 20 oz. I drank two bottles of Gatorade, 40 oz. He said later he'd wished he'd could've spent more time there resting. I rushed him on.
Yikes ! Glad everything is working out well. I feel like I know Gig better than I need to now, but...
