June 17
End: East Branch Lean-to
Miles: 31.6
Total: 3977.1
We didn’t get up super early, but we got moving before we really felt lazy. Viking and Iceman led the way as I followed closely behind. Pretty soon we arrived at the foot of Barren Mountain, and Viking took off on an incredibly consistent and horribly fast ascent.
The previous day, Iceman had mentioned that there was no one else on the trail as fast as Viking when it came to climbing hills. I had taken this to mean that Viking was a good hiker and could handle most mountains at a consistent pace. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he might climb a mountain so swiftly that I wouldn’t be able to keep up, but now I was struggling to keep Viking and Iceman (who kept up with Viking for the most part) in sight.
Eventually I had to take a short break to retrieve and eat a Nature Valley bar. I had been downing them on the go but couldn’t use that strategy when going up a hill. I reached the top of Barren Mountain and hurried on, wanting to catch back up with the other guys. Eventually I came across Viking, who had taken a quick break as well, and finally we found Iceman talking to a southbound hiker.
We continued on and powered through the rest of the mountains in the Chairback range. After climbing Barren Mountain so quickly, nothing slowed us down too much. It took awhile, but we finally descended and started in on a relatively low and flat section before our next huge task: White Cap Mountain.
For some reason we had decided to do thirty or more miles on a day including both the Chairback range and White Cap. This might not seem an overwhelming pair of challenges, but considering the very easy terrain coming after all of this, it was pretty tough.
The ascent was very steep and quite long. Iceman decided to take his time, but I wanted to try and keep up with Viking. I bounded ahead and stayed right behind him the whole time, until I had to stop and take a break. I had pushed myself hard and had matched Viking step for step, but the steep ascent just continued on and on, and I needed to eat a bar, drink some water, and maybe even breathe if I felt like spoiling myself.
After that I reached the first peak quite quickly. I had only another hundred yards to climb when I had stopped. Of course, I could not have known that. I hurried on and eventually caught up with Viking. The stretch we were doing consisted of several peaks, each with its own ascent and painful descent, ending with White Cap.
We did them all, and then I stopped to read a few emails. I soon lost service (surprise!) and descended more to join Viking. Iceman was not far behind, and we all gladly got down off of the mountain, passing up the first shelter with plans on going even farther.
When we arrived at our destination, we were very pleased to find the shelter empty, but progressively less pleased as we discovered bold shelter mice, and a muskrat swimming in our water source, the already unpromising East Branch of some river which we would have to ford the next morning. I gladly sentenced myself to a quick dinner and then bedtime after a long day.
