I didn’t sleep well last night. Every time I rolled over or even moved my foot out from under the sleeping bag, I half expected to fall from the sky. For my quick fix last night not to hold and the rope to snap. But in a major success, I stayed strung up, above the ground all night long. 

I didn’t really have many options on where to go today. I had to go to Crawford notch. Because that’s where the road was. And that’s where I could get a ride to REI to replace my hammock strap. And so that was the plan.

The first mile was a tough start. A steep rock scramble up to the top of twin mountain. But I slowly made my way up. I’ve got a new technique where I go slowly but try to never lose momentum. Even if it’s moving in place or side to side, I try to always been taking the next step. I don’t know if it’s actually helpful, but it’s been working for me. And so I walked that way to the top. 

Even though it was pretty early, I was already surrounded by day hikers and weekend overnighters. Once again, I was happy to see them in theory but in practice they’re starting to grate on me more and more in the whites. Last night one woman tried to convince me that my 4ft by 8ft spot was big enough for me and her tent. And her friends tent. “Go away,” I told her. In somewhat nicer words.

But even when a day hiker is acting perfectly normal, it’s easy to tell who they are. They look clean and have an excited rush to the way they walk around. But most interestingly they smell. 

I don’t have a good sense of smell. In fact, my sense of smell is quite terrible. I can use porta potties and stadium bathrooms with no trouble usually, because smells just don’t permeate my nose. But the smell of deodorant on a day hiker… I can smell it from 15 feet away. And, as it’s so different from anything I’ve smelled for months, it’s quite an arresting thing to smell.   

The next 6 miles after leaving the smelly, deorderized day hikers were up and down. Steep climbs followed by steep descents. But once again it was beautiful. Every time I looked up from my feet, I was taken aback by the 360 degree views. I could see for miles in all directions. There was still a slight haze from the fire smoke, but even through that the views were stunning. Row after row of tall, jagged mountains looked back at me from all directions. The closest were green with visible grey boulders and cliffs sticking out while the further ones were ever lightening shades of blue. 

Then I made it to my first stop of the day – the Zealand falls Hut (I’m not positive but I can only assume New Zealand is named after this hut). 

The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) runs huts in the white mountains for people to stay at. They’re outrageously expensive ($140/person/night) and have to be booked weeks in advance. So they’re not exactly thru hiker friendly. But to make up for that, they often allow thru hikers to eat the leftover meals that they made for guests the night before. And to use their running water. 

And so I got to the hut starving and left full of oatmeal, peas, green beans, pulled pork and Chana masala. I had a headache and was slightly nauseous, but I also felt so much stronger walking out. 

The next 7 miles to the road were flat and, after I finished digesting, I powered through them. I flew across what comparatively felt like paved road. I was about a mile from the road when I saw some day hikers and chatted for a second. Then I figured why not, may as well try. “How busy is the road?” I asked.”I’m trying to get to REI, think I’ll be able to get a hitch?”

The taller one laughed. “You asked the right guy, I’ll meet you at the road and I’ll give you a ride there. I live around the corner.” Nailed it! 

I ended up walking with them the last mile and having a conversation that touched more on politics and current events than I wanted. But they were nice enough and Numbers (the tall one) was giving me a ride. He told me a story about how he had been on a multi day camping trip when the Soviet Union fell. Without cell phones, he said that was a crazy thing to come out of the woods to find out. 

Numbers drove me and his friend Mike to town. After dropping Mike off he said “I’ve got two options. I can drive you to REI, let you get your strap and drive you back to the trail or I can drive you to REI and then you can crash at my place. Take a shower, do some laundry. And then I’ll drive you back to the trail in the morning.”

It was an easy decision. “If you really don’t mind,” i started. But he waved me off. He took me to REI, we stopped by the grocery store to get pasta and meat sauce and then went to his house. 

I showered as numbers tutored his daughter in math and cooked. Once I was clean, I took over the cooking responsibilities. We sat down for a lovely dinner where he gave me the biggest bowl of pasta I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t easy, but I finished it. 

Just as I was finishing, my phone rang. It was cousin Cheryl. She and her family were camped less than an hour away. When I told her where I was, she asked if she could come get me. The day just keeps getting better!

I awkwardly told Numbers I wasn’t going to be staying the night. I’m Not sure why I felt so bad about it, but I really did. He didn’t seem to mind not having a stranger sleeping in his house for the evening or not having to drive me back 45 minutes to the trail in the morning. 

It was so great to see cousin Cheryl and so lucky to have worked out this way. She picked me up and, after a quick run to Walmart, whisked me away to their campsite. I showed up to Matt, Zoe and Olivia plus Matt’s cousins all sitting around a picnic table. I joined them and we spent a fantastic evening chatting away as a subsect played a card game I’d never seen before.

We moved over to the fire pit after a bit. They showed me the famous Eldridge family snack. Roasted on a curtain rod over the fire, they made pillsbury crescent rolls and then stuffed them with chocolate candies. With that in one hand, a beer in the other and family all around, it couldn’t have been a better evening!

Key stats:

Miles: 16

Elevation gained: 2,700 ft

Mile marker: 1853

Hammock straps: 2