Day 4 – Pushing the envelope

I stayed overnight camping at Bonk’s rides, and had the quietest night of camping ever. Not a sound all night. I woke up often due to pain, but i also do at home so nothing is different here.

After dropping off my car at Hwy118, Adam left me at Hazens Notch where i left the trail yesterday.

The first order of business was a very long and strenuous climb up Haystack. Nothing like 2 miles upward first thing in the morning.

Climbing in the fog

No worries though since i could take all the time in the world, as today was supposed to be only a 4 mile day to get to Tillotson Camp. Doing the whole stretch would have been too much and would have put me in the same situation as when I did Jay Peak.

The trail up Haystack was not too rugged, but i found that afterwards it became quite difficult. In fact, a quite unremarkable hill looking at FarOut called Tillotson Peak nearly kicked my behind. We are talking about major rock scrambling all the way up, the root-grabbin rock-grippin kind. That really triggered a lot of pain, and as i was struggling descending on the other side, left me to wonder how many “technical climbs” were in store for the rest of the journey.

The camp, at last

I made it to Tillotson camp at 13h00, sat down and found that it was a very pretty site. Was this to be my overnight stay ? I found that waiting from 13h00 till 05h00 next day to be an excessive wait. The sun was out, and so were the no-see-ums. I figured that since i was eating cold food in order to stay ultralight, i was not dependent on a water source for camping. All i needed were two trees. Also, Adam (my shuttle driver) had provided me with good trail Intel, mentionning that after the camp the trail was much better, as Belvidere Mt was a really popular destination for day-hikers.

Fog lifted, first view in days…

I decided to push on, and kept in mind i could stop when i wanted. Once arrived at Belvedere Mt, it was a 3 mile constant descent until Hwy 118. The trail was still very nice compared to what i encountered so far, and let gravity do its work. I finally made it to the parking lot, to my great surprise after a very long day. Trail “quality” seems to be a factor in how much i can do in a day. I really hope that the more South i go, the easier the trail will be, exception noted for Mt Mansfield and CH i guess.

Trail guarded by a fierce creature

Lessons learned

– My legs often feel tired, but never let me down. I sit down on my foam pad every once in a while, and it does the trick;

– Cardio was very good, all that training paid off;

– i can do 10 miles, but could not have walked today. I did because i knew i was finishing my section;

– Your mental state will push you or stop you; and

– The plan of slackpacking for a day or ultralight for 2 days works very well.

Thanks for listening, i will continue after the 4th of July due to personal commitments, and avoiding the crowds on trail during a National Holiday.

Cheers,

Sly the Navigator