Outside Adventure Grant journal entries

July 14, 1998
7:00 p.m. — Our first night in the White Mountains. We drove all morning. Luckily, we packed our packs yesterday, so we got on the 7:00 a.m. ferry out of Vinalhaven. When we first got to Rockland, we went to buy food for our “shake down hike” at Shaws. Dylan, Tristan and I slept most of the way to New Hampshire while Del Smith drove.

When we got to the Wild River Trail we repacked all our gear and packed in the food. Del taught us some Leave No Trace information to use on the hike and how to put our shoes and gaiters on properly. I also found out that I left my boot laces at our office in Vinalhaven after I had waxed my boots.

We looked at the signs and found out that we only have to hike three-and-a-half miles today when we thought we had to go five miles.

7:30 p.m. — We just had dinner. Oh wow, it was delicious! We had Angel Hair pasta with pesto on top and Dylan made bread which was lovely. It is a really beautiful night. We are camped right on the river. When we first got to the campsite, we went swimming. It was pretty cold but felt great after hiking. I can’t wait until tomorrow when we hike to Carter Dome. What fun!

July 15, 1998
8:05 a.m. — “Oh what a beautiful morning. Oh what a beautiful day. I’ve got a beautiful feeling, everything’s going my way!” Another day in the mountains. The sun is shining through the trees, and there is mist on the river. We just had oatmeal with raspberries on top for breakfast. Yum! Del hates oatmeal, but she said it was the best she had all year. I think it is probably the only oatmeal she’s had all year!

Del told us that we can start “leader for the day” so Tristan is the leader today and I am the leader tomorrow. Today we are walking seven miles to the Carter Dome. The only place I hurt from hiking is on my shoulders, from the pack. Del is going to help me adjust my pack today. Dylan is packing the tent, and I am about to go pack up my back pack. I am going to give a LNT (Leave No Trace) class this morning to Del, Tristan and Dylan. Even if Del already knows it. We are trying to learn LNT so we can teach it on Baffin Island. I need to go pack now.

7:00 p.m. — Day two is finally done. We hiked seven miles today, mostly uphill. I thought the downhill would be easier but it wasn’t. Going downhill was really hard on my knees. That was the hardest hike of my life. It is sooo nice to be in camp. We are about to eat pudding. Of course, it is pudding made with dried mile and treated water. But hey, that’s camp food! I am about to fall over dead, I am so tired. Good night! I’ll write more tomorrow.

July 16, 1998
5:30 p.m. — What a great hiking day! Today we walked eight miles in six hours. Tonight we are camped in a beautiful place, right beside the Moriha Brook River. There is a waterfall and a swimming hole with cliffs to jump off. Oh bliss! Today was much easier than yesterday. The trails were worse, but mentally and physically the hike was nicer. It is a lot easier to hike when there aren’t groaning sound effects with every step. We went swimming when we first got to our campsite and we just ate rice and beans for supper.

I was “leader” today. Being leader was pretty fun, but everyone says Tristan was a better leader than I am. Oh well. It is Dylan’s turn tomorrow. Tomorrow we are getting up at 6:00 a.m. and leaving camp by 7:00 to get to the car in time to drive back to Rockland and catch the last boat. We did lots of hiking and I am tired. Maybe I’ll go swimming again before I go to bed. Right now, Dylan is getting ready to swim again. Good night!

Tristan

July 14, 1998
Well, right now I’m sitting outside our tent waiting for some bread to bake for supper. We are something like four miles along the Wild River Trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I wonder how my pet crow Duke is doing back home. He is all alone for three days, but I guess the cats and chickens will keep him company.

When we got into Rockland at 8:15 this morning, the first thing we did was to got to Shaws and shop. We had a list of all we needed that had been painstakingly made yesterday (actually, I think “painfully” would be more correct). It was pretty fun to shop for so many ounces of whatever — all the weights were exact. Once we were all supplied we headed off, with Hope and I in the back repacking everything into zip-lock bags. With the exception of driver Del, we slept most of the way there.

After lunch at the trail entrance, we grabbed our packs and headed off. The Wild River Trail follows an old railroad for awhile, and it is all fairly smooth. We only stopped once, to readjust our pack straps, but when we got to camp no one hesitated to drop their stuff and leap into the river. Cooled and ready to eat, we pitched the tent and fired up the stoves. Spaghetti tonight ...

After supper — Tomorrow’s breakfast is oatmeal, which Del seems to think of as sawdust garnished with rat poison. To sweeten it up a little we decided to pick some raspberries, which we had seen at the beginning of today’s walk. Accordingly, Dylan and I ran four miles back down the river, picked a quart of berries, and jogged rather slowly back. Returning at 9:00 p.m. we considered another dip in the river, but collapsed in bed instead.

July 15, 1998
8:00 a.m. — The raspberry oatmeal was a success. That is, we loved it, and Del held it down. We are doing this “leader for a day” thing that NOLS is really into, and today it’s me. The idea is that we get all the responsibilities and so on, but it sounds pretty cool and all around good. I’ve already come up with some great revisions to shape this expedition scene up, starting with me carrying the m&ms and doing no dishes.

7:00 p.m. — Uhh ... today I hiked the hardest seven miles of my life. We walked up the Black Angel trail and it was quite tough. All of us were swimming in sweat, and once when I checked my pulse it was 160 beats per minute. We reached the top of Mt. Hight, about 3,000 feet above where we started, at 3:00, then descended 400 feet to Zeta Pass. Zeta Pass is the last place we can get water for awhile, so we made camp nearby and cooked supper. Now we are lying around, ready to go tomorrow.

July 16, 1998
“Every day, in every way, it’s getting better and better ...”

I had thought that if I wasn’t crawling today, it would be because I had died in the night! Imagine my surprise when everyone one of us was feeling better than the day before. Mt. Hight was the tallest thing we will come across on this trip, so it’s sort of downhill from here as well. Well, actually, we had about 1,000 feet of elevation gain as we went over the tops of S. Carter, Middle Carter, Mt. Lethe, and N. Carter, but each one was lower than the last. We had planned to stay the night at Imp Shelter, but we were doing so well we had lunch there and went several miles further. We left the A.T. soon after Imp Shelter and immediately stopped seeing people. In fact, we were practically bush whacking down the Moriha Brook valley. It was very beautiful, lots of cascades and pools in the brook, and great trees. We are camped next to an excellent swimming pool now, and we have been diving off the top of a waterfall for at least an hour. Time to play cards with that shark Del!

July 17, 1998
Today we headed off relatively early — 7:00 a.m., so we could get out of the park in time to catch the last boat home. Another swim and we were all ready to go, still fighting fit and feeling fine. We walked out in far shorter time than we had allowed for, so after a few hours driving I was able to catch an earlier boat so as to get the mail before the P.O. closed. More gear ... when everyone else came on the last boat, we went back to Green’s for supper. Del’s birthday, sauna and festivities. Good to see Duke again, I’m sure he missed me.