It is hard to believe that Turtle and Navigator are nearly 30% finished with their journey. Today is day 13 of 45! From all reports experiences from past years have given them the fortitude to push forward with a good attitude. In past years they have dealt with weather from extreme heat and humidity to scary storms which made them take shelter under of all things a huge tree. Once again rain and the aftermath have made hiking a challenge. By day eight of the hike they had only had three non-rain days. It’s hard to say that the non-rain days were dry since the dryer days were sandwiched between the rain days. Yesterday they started hiking in the White Mounts. The Hiker’s Companion states, “Extra caution should be exercised while above the treeline, due to rapidly changing weather and the lack of protection from it.” Ahhhh . . . they guys called from Mt. Moosilauke in the early afternoon yesterday. Apparently Ben was doing the “I’m cold dance” while talking to me and Dale, who rarely complains about being cold, had to cut the call short because his hands were so cold. The temperatures in closest city were reportedly 65 degrees. Dale said it was much colder than that, he guessed in the low 40s with strong winds. It was downright frigid since they had worked up a pretty good sweat hiking mostly uphill all day.
On Saturday Ben and Dale were hiking through Hanover, NH. Home of Dartmouth College, the ivy league town New England down . . . a place that was postcard perfect. They said that the hiked from the shelter three mile, three miles through the town of Hanover and then out of town before lunch. I asked if they stopped while in Hanover to take a break and get something to eat. “Well, it was kind of early when we got there so we didn’t stop . . . plus we were wet, looked like a couple of homeless refugees and we are kinda stinky.” They said that they didn’t pass any fast food restaurants and they didn’t think they would fit in with the ivy leaguers and linen tablecloths. Maybe not, but why not . . . if I was cold and wet I think I would have stopped someplace just because!
The blog would not be complete without the FOOT REPORT. Ben seems to be fairing pretty well. He only comments are that the rain has made it difficult to keep his feet dry. When asked if his feet were pruney, he said that they were worse than that. Dale on the other hand made a major breakthrough . . . he felt a hotspot on one of his feet so he got Moleskin on it right away. Why is that a breakthrough? In past years he would forge ahead, waiting to treat the hotspots until they stopped at the end of the day. By dinner time the hotspots had typically become blisters. Anyway, Dale’s only issue is the combination of the wet feet and cool temperatures have started to create chapped skin on his feet. He promised that he would try to figure out a way to treat the feet.
The FALL SCORECARD – Dale is the apparent winner. Over the weekend Dale reported that one part of the trail was pretty steep. He started climbing then slid down on his hands and feet. He had no choice but to give it another shot. Once again, he started climbing and slid back down. Luckily the third time was a charm. Ben has not reported any falls, so does it count as a fall if nobody sees you do it? Who knows! Ben has always been pretty steady on his feet!
The guys have only crossed paths with a few through hikers and some section hikers/day hikers/weekend hikers. Unfortunately there have not been many colorful stories yet or puppy dog tales to share. Most of the through hikers that have already reach NH are fast hikers. They blow past Ben and Dale like they are strolling down a city sidewalk. The weekend hikers have a different kind of mindset. The weekend hikers are a little “wilder” not settling down using hiker’s etiquette. Yes, there is hiker’s etiquette and that means settling down at an appropriately early time so that everyone gets a good nights sleep. Thankfully there have only been a few instances when fellow hikers didn’t settle down so all is well on that front.
To sum it all up . . . they are doing well and have made it through some very arduous days, including one 20.4 day. They are in good spirits. All is well.
Days out: 13
Miles completed: 156.20
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