Yesterday was not meant to be a day off but when I woke up, I knew it was going to happen. My joints ached, my head hurt and I was exhausted – somehow more tired than when I had gone to bed. So I walked downstairs, told them I would stay another night and tried to go back to sleep. 

I was half tempted to do that again this morning, but I knew that while 1 day off was the smart idea, a second one would be just delaying my return to the trail for no reason. So I got up, chugged a liter of chocolate milk, downed a double chocolate muffin and got a ride back to the trail. 

I struggled to start. It was a mile walk back to the trail head from the parking lot I got dropped off at. It was all paved with barely an incline but I couldn’t seem to move. My feet stuck to the ground like I was walking through honey (which as I write this, does sound delicious). When I finally got on the trail and started my climb up to Franconia ridge, it didn’t get much better. 

I took a break to get water and a few thru hikers passed by. Perfect, I thought to myself. Now I had a goal. I had rabbits to chase. I was going to beat those hikers to the top. 

I gave the last group about a 10 minute head start then donned my pack and began to head up. It was steep. I had to go up about 3,000 ft in roughly 2.5 very rocky miles. But I settled into a groove and serpentined my way up. I reeled in the first group of hikers, then the next, then the last. Once again, the competition was all I needed. I flew up to the top. 

When I got up to the top, I saw a few packs dropped on the ground. They were clearly left there by people who had gone to get water at a steam just off the trail. This is a normal thing to do. (You get used to leaving your things laying around because, who’s going to steal your stuff. if they steal it on top of a mountain, they have to carry it!) What was less normal was the sign above their packs. “Bears have been stealing unattended packs frequently this season…” and next to it was a sign that said there had been no bear “incidents” in 8 days. I decided to move on. 

The next few miles were along the famous Franconia ridge. It’s known to be one of the most scenic sections of the Appalachian trail. And even with the clouds and the smoke from the forest fires, it didn’t dissapoint. It was beautiful. If anything, it may have been better to have been not a perfect day or I may never have stopped taking photos and I’d still be on the ridge now. 

While beautiful, it was hard walking. The ridge is fully above the tree line and exposed and takes you up little haystack mountain (any mountain named “little” while being over 4k ft seems wrong), Mt Lincoln and Mt Lafayette. I passed day hikers of all flavors coming in both directions. It was the busiest part of the trail I’ve seen so far and, while I wanted to be annoyed by these non serious hikers in my way, I wasn’t. It was great to see so many people out there enjoying nature! 

When I finally made it to Lafayette, I was trying to figure out where to sit to enjoy my packed out sandwich when a man said “I’ve got trail magic.” I couldn’t comprehend. We were over 5,000 feet in the air and there wasn’t a parking lot in sight. I just stared at him. He laughed awkwardly and said it again. Then he offered me coffee, cookies, brownies and an apple. 

This was by far the least expected trail magic ever which made it probably my favorite ever. I chatted with Plow (the trial angel) for a while. He is from 2 hours away and hiked the trail in 2017. He has no desire to do anything like the AT again, he said, but loves seeing the faces like mine when he does trail magic like this. 

As we spoke, he shooed away more than one day hiker who tried to come over to “steal” some of the trail magic. But then he welcomed two more hikers (Zen Bee and Mountain Boomer). They had started in Georgia in April and walked up to Harper’s ferry when they realized they weren’t going to finish in time. So they had flown to Maine, climbed Katahdin and were now walking SoBo. It was a lovely, if not completely unexpected, break. 

The rest of the day took me further into the Presedential Mountain range as I climbed up Garfield. It was a fairly technically ascent but nothing too crazy. The climb down, however, was something different. It was a steep boulder field that just so happened to have a stream running through it. Essentially, we were repelling down a water fall. Except without the ropes. 

I was exhausted as I got to the end of my day (6pm!!) and chose to camp far from others. I found a site set up for a single person and began to settle in for a quiet, relaxing night. 

But that’s when it happened. I reached into my hammock straps bag and only one strap came out. I dumped out that bag and then my entire pack. But the other strap was no where. The most important thing. The thing that suspends me in mid air, was gone. 

I cursed and freaked out. Then I freaked out and cursed some more. But eventually I realized I didn’t have it and I’d have to figure something out. I grabbed the paracord I use to hang my food bag at night and then the extra guyline, the very thin cord that I can use to tie up my tarp. I Jerry rigged a strap that SHOULD hold me through the night. 

In a lucky stroke, I’m only a days hike away from a hitch to a town with an REI. If I was going to do something so stupid like leave my most important strap behind, this did seem like the ideal place to do it. 

Key stats:

Miles: 13

Elevation gained: 6100 ft

Mile marker: 1838

MVP: Plow