Saturday August 13.
Last weekend was the first weekend all summer that we didn’t get a hike in! We were in Keene so that I could work the Cheshire fair for scentsy. And although it was fun we were super bummed to not get a hike in, especially since it would be the only weekend in the entire summer that we didn’t hike! But that’s life and at least I got the 13th off. So we had two hikes, Waumbek that was supposed to be shorter and then Cabot that would be a little longer. Book time was 7 hours for Cabot and 5 hours for Waumbek. We were hoping to do Cabot in 4 hours and Waumbek in 2 ½. Ah little did we know.
So we tried to wake up at 6 am to just get the hikes over with and have the evening to relax. It was one of those mornings where it was so hard to get up and we fought with it all morning. But eventually we were up, fed and on our way. Cabot was going to be the longer of the two so we went there first, starting at the Berlin Fish Hatchery and taking the Bunnell notch trail. It was a fairly flat hike for the first mile and then it still wasn’t much climbing for the next 2 miles. At the 3 mile junction we were to take the Kilkenny ridge trail to the summit of Cabot. I knew we would have another trail junction in .3 miles and then have the last 2.4 miles to climb. Well for some reason Tony and I didn’t pay much attention to the sign and we went left, when we were supposed to veer right. I even thought to myself that it was weird we went left because I thought on the map we went right. But I didn’t question it because it had been a rough morning already. It was just one of those days where we both were so tired and exhausted from the week. We both had worked 50 hours, been super stressed about our life of finding a place to live for Dartmouth which was two weeks away, booking airline tickets, I had 5 hour drive to look at an apartment and countless other things. So the last thing I really felt like doing was hiking and I was definitely out of it.
Well I should have seen the other sign that we were on the wrong trail when it was just so overgrown. You definitely knew you were on a trail but for the entire time we had plants and trees just rubbing against us. There were tons of cobwebs, including this one that Tony walked through to feel the web on his face. He went to wipe it off and when he did this huge spider ended up on his hand. I’d never really seen Tony freak out from a bug but he was waving his hand around and a little creeped out by the big spider. I was not happy either because there were probably ones on me and I didn’t even know it. Well after 1.9 miles we came to a junction and were so excited because we thought it was about the time we’d be getting to the summit. I had thought it was weird that we never met the second junction at .3 miles but again I didn’t question it. We pulled the map out and discovered our horrible mistake. We’d just hiked 1.9 miles in the wrong direction on my least favorite trail. We laughed a little at our stupidity and we both agreed that at least it happened on a shorter hike but man it was annoying that it did happen on the day we were just so exhausted and over hiking.
Some hikes we start out not feeling it but eventually you get warmed up and enjoy it. Well this entire day was not enjoyable. So then we hiked the 1.9 miles back to the first junction only to discover that the sign clearly states the right way. We had just added 3.8 miles and 90 minutes to this hike, oh my. Well the last 2.7 miles to Cabot sucked too. It was such a grinder! Nothing so steep you had to use your hands but that made it worse because you could just keep going the entire time with nothing to slow you down but your fatigue. I couldn’t believe the amount of sweat that rolled off my face, it was disgusting. We eventually made it to the summit and we both just sat there not wanting to move. We started a little game of throwing rocks at targets just because we were trying to make it seem okay that we weren’t hurrying up. At this point Tony and I both were thinking how we didn’t want to hike Waumbek. We still had the hike back to the car from Cabot, then it would be a 45 minute drive to the trailhead and we were low on food so we would have to resupply. Yet we really wanted to get it done because we were closer to it than from home and more importantly we really wanted the Pemi loop to be our last hike.
On the long hike back to the car we agreed that we would go get some food, rest for a while and then decide if we were going to do it. It was one of the worst days I’d ever had hiking so I was really not wanting too, but I also knew that we would just man up and do it. We thought Cabot would take us 4 hours and it probably would have but because of our little mishap it ended up taking us 5 hours and 59 minutes. Ugh!
Well there weren’t many food options on our route to Waumbek so we ended up at this Country store and grill in Jefferson eating chicken fingers and a chicken salad sandwich. Although we were very hungry the food was not good at all. We asked the people there if we could fill up our water bottles and they said they didn’t have a sink that we could use…. mmmm ok? But there was this foreign gentleman that mentioned there was a stone wall a few miles down the road that had a spicket with water coming out of it. It was from a spring and all the locals drank out of it. I was a little skeptical but I did remember seeing a lady and little girl by some wall so it must be real. After we ate we headed down there and sure enough there was a spicket with water continuously rolling out of it. And it was yummy water! After we filled ours up when we were leaving a big family rolled up and drank it too, so that made me feel better.
Well the food and the spring water weren’t helping with my overall yucky feeling but we were so close to the trailhead we just couldn’t go home. So we drove right to the parking lot and decided maybe we should take a nap and that would help rejuvenate us? An hour later we woke up and realized if we were going to do this hike we needed to get going right away. It was 5:40 pm when we started and if we finished in 2 hours we’d probably be down before dark, but we had our headlamps in case we weren’t.
So the nap helped but I still felt horrible. I felt so sick and so tired and contemplated turning back multiple times. But I just kept telling myself it would be a short hike and to just do it and not mess up our plans. The first peak we would get to was Starr King and that was 2.7 miles in and this is where all the elevation gain was. After Starr King it was another one mile to Waumbek with a little descent and then another climb up to the peak.
So I have this thing that when I’m really tired while hiking or running I will actually count my steps. It seems silly and boring but it helps keep my mind occupied and off the fact that I’m miserable and exhausted. Just so you know it takes 2400 steps to get to Starr King. So basically I’m saying that I counted all the way to the summit and that’s because I was so exhausted and miserable the entire time I had to do something. It was a frustrating feeling because I didn’t think the hiking we had done and were doing was that hard and I shouldn’t be this tired. But I knew that sometimes you just have an off day, later we realized that we also did hike a lot of mileage that day.
Anyway, so Tony also had us on a schedule were every ten minutes we would stop and rest for 2 and drink some water. I know that I was on the path to dehydration but my stomach felt so icky I couldn’t drink much water, which in turn made me feel worse because I was sweating sooooo much!!
Well we eventually reached Starr King and man did I book it to Waumbek. Like I said it was one mile with some elevation gain but we hiked that one mile stretch in 23 minutes! We arrived at the peak with a total time of 1 hour and 46 minutes. Even though I was exhausted and I would have loved to sit for a while I wanted to take a quick picture and get going, because if anything outweighs my tiredness it was my fear of being in the woods at dark.
Another 20 minutes and we were back at Starr King and ready for the descent. Luckily it wasn’t too gnarly of a trail so we thought maybe we would try to run it and get down hopefully in 50 minutes, which would put the entire hike under 3 hours. It took us 1:23 to get up so it wasn’t that unfeasible but we’d have to be quick. Running NH trails is not like running Idaho trails. It’s soooooo technical and rocky, even on this trail, but we tried our best. We had a few close calls of falling on our face or rolling ankles but we survived. We did have to walk at certain points because it was just too tricky and probably 15 minutes in the darkness started to creep into the woods. We stumbled upon a couple who were camping at the summit and they had a beautiful bloodhound named Lily. The dog was so cute and would talk to us, she even weaved through my legs a few times; I miss having a dog around! The last 20 minutes of the hike it was very dark all around us. You could really only see where the headlamp shined, which was at the ground in front of you. I definitely heard some noises in the woods around us and was getting very creeped out. I do not like being out in those trees at night but I kept trying to stay calm because I knew we would be out of it soon. After 45 minutes we emerged out of the woods to our little car.
I never would have thought that after all the hiking the time I would feel the worst was when I was sitting in the car on the drive home but sure enough I got majorly sick. Tony and I assumed that I was having a big sugar crash from the food we ate throughout the day, and the food we didn’t eat like protein, fruits and veggies. I also think that I had some heat stroke and/or dehydration going on. But either way I was so sick on the 50 minute drive home that I had contemplated having Tony pull over so I could puke at one point. It was bad and I was trying to drink water but it was not going down well. Eventually we made it home and I forced myself to shower which ended up making me feel a little better. Then Tony cooked me some eggs and toast which helped a lot too, what a good husband.
So overall I hate to say it but that was probably the most miserable day of hiking yet. The presi traverse was still a harder endeavor and beat our bodies up more in a physical way, but Cabot and Waumbek was the most I had to grit through, which is not my specialty. We calculated things out though and we did end up hiking 21 miles which is the same as the Presi, although not as much elevation gain or as rocky footing. But I’m glad we got both peaks in and now all we have left is the Pemi loop that we’ll be doing from August 20-22nd. It’s the hardest hike yet with 36 miles, 10,000 feet elevation gain and 12 peaks. But we’ve decided to turn it into a backpacking trip taking 2-3 days so hopefully it won’t be as overwhelming.
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