Troll's 2010 AT Journal

03 September 2010, Crawford Notch
I slept good last night. I was able to sleep through the mouse noises going on over my head. It sounded like they were trying to chew through the wall.

I woke up not feeling good. My stomach is weasy and I feel very flush in the face. I am finding it hard to even move. I don't know whether it is a bug or something else. The way I feel now I will be lucky to make it the eight miles to the road crossing. I know I will not make it to Mizpah Hut. I can now see why people quite in the Whites. If there is ever a time I felt like quitting it is now and it is running through my head constantly right now. I do not want to go on right now.

Well, I did hike on but did not want to. Chef, Puma, Forest, Timon were still at the hut waiting to get breakfast for their work for stay when we left.

On the way down from Zealand Falls Hut I lost my balance and landed on my right hiking pole and bent it at 90 degree angle. I was very ticked off. I probably said every four letter word there was, that was how upset I was. I knew if I tried to straighten it that it would snap off but I had nothing to lose so I tried and sure enough it snapped off. I had to hike most of the remainder of the day with one hiking pole. Hopper let me use one her poles on the down hills so that I could save my knee. I knew there was no way I could do any more of the Whites without getting my hiking pole fixed.

SK’Rabbit, DB and Lefty came up behind us about one mile before Ethan Pond Shelter and we let them pass. At that point I told Hopper to go on without me because I was not going to get past route 302. She had to make it to Mizpah Hut for the night because she had reservations. If she stuck with me she would not make it. We said our goodbyes and she moved on without me. I was not happy that she left me feeling as sick as I was but she spent the money on the hut so I understood. I walked about a half a mile by myself in misery. Then as I rounded a corner Hopper was standing there. I asked what she was doing and she said waiting for me. I told she better get moving or she would not make it to the hut, she said don't worry about the hut because she was not going to leave me behind the way I was feeling. Her saying this really shocked me because in the past she would not have thought twice about leaving me. I am wondering if she really did it because she was concerned about me or if she had doubts about doing a 14 mile day to get to Mizpah Hut.

We stopped into Ethan Pond Shelter for a break and for me to lie down for a while. When we arrived SK’Rabbit, DB and Lefty were there eating lunch. They moved on and then Gaint rolled in and ate and left. I lied down for a bit there before I ate.

After eating and lying down for a bit I felt a little better. When we got to Crawford Notch we decided because I still was not feeling good to hitch to the AMC Highland Center to see if we could get in for the night or head back to Lincoln to see if could get my broken hiking pole fixed. When we got to the Highland Center the shuttles were no longer running for the day to where we wanted to go. One of the volunteers named Brian overheard us and offered to give us a ride but said it would be a little bit because he had to finish his work there. This gave us time to get something to eat. When we got to Lincoln I went to the outfitters and they replaced the broken piece of my hiking pole.