Monday, August 17 8:51 pm 15.9 mi
AT 1602.3 Seth Warner Shelter → 1618.2 Porcupine Lookout “stealth” site
Weather: Cool overnight, cool morning – had to hike fast to warm up!
Trail Conditions: Rocks, roots, mud – sounds like Vermont! Lots of hikers on trail today
My Condition: Loving the cooler weather, and loving Vermont!
Hikers met: NOBOs Boomerang and Hippie/Haywood, SOBOs Teen Wolf and ???
Came across a motorcycle parked in the middle of nowhere on the trail. Pretty cool signs of beaver activity today! Did a slow motion split today coming down the winding switchbacks before the steep descent. My foot decided it was over this whole weight bearing thing and just crumpled right underneath me. Sometimes that’ll happen – knees, ankles, feet just deciding NOPE mid-stride. Probably a pretty sure sign of fatigue, real fatigue, setting in. Hippie is thru hiking with his dog Haywood. Great view from our campsite overlooking the distant peaks and wind turbines – should be a great sunrise view. The trail family is all currently listening, or re-listening, to the Serial podcast.
Post Trail Analysis
I nail my description of the deep fatigue setting in. I had never experienced it before, and I’ve never experienced it since – the sensation of a body part simply giving out on me. I feel like at this point, I’d sprain an ankle almost daily, but my body had become so resilient that 10-15 seconds after the incident the ankle would be perfectly back to normal with no long-term lingering side effects. It’s hard to describe the feeling of being totally broken down, yet simultaneously tougher than you’ve ever been. It wasn’t just happening with our feet – tough and leathery yet tender and bruised – it was also happening with our souls, with our minds, and in our hearts. I wrote that we were camping at a “stealth” site because there was nothing stealthy about our site tonight. There we were, right smack dab next to the trail! Tonight I would again need to make some rather intensive field repairs to my tent, this time sewing and taping the other side's peak seam.
Comments